{"id":1218,"date":"2013-09-05T17:24:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-05T17:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/09\/syria-explained-how-it-became-a-religious-war.html"},"modified":"2013-09-05T17:24:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-05T17:24:00","slug":"syria-explained-how-it-became-a-religious-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/09\/syria-explained-how-it-became-a-religious-war.html","title":{"rendered":"Syria Explained: How It Became a Religious War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
How did Syria go from an internal uprising to a wider clash drawing funding and fighters from across the region?\u00a0<\/span>In a word, Middle East experts say, religion.\u00a0<\/span>Shiite Muslims from Lebanon, Iraq and Iran have flooded into Syria to defend sacred sites and President Bashar al-Assad\u2019s embattled regime. Sunni Muslims, some affiliated with al Qaeda, have rushed in to join rebels, most of whom are Sunni.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Both sides use religious rhetoric as a rallying cry, calling each other \u201cinfidels\u201d and \u201cSatan\u2019s army.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThat is why it has become so muddy,\u201d said professor Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. \u201cThe theological question has returned to the center.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>That\u2019s not to say that the warring parties are fighting over, say, the definition of God.<\/span><\/div>\n
But the United Nations, in a series of reports, has warned with mounting urgency that the battle lines in Syria are being drawn along sectarian \u2013 that is, religious \u2013 lines. Both sides fear that whoever wins power will obliterate the loser.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThe conflict has become increasingly sectarian, with the conduct of the parties becoming significantly more radicalized and militarized,\u201d the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>UN said earlier this year<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n
And that\u2019s a really bad thing, foreign policy experts say.<\/span><\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How did Syria go from an internal uprising to a wider clash drawing funding and fighters from across the region?\u00a0In a word, Middle East experts say, religion.\u00a0Shiite Muslims from Lebanon, Iraq and Iran have flooded into Syria to defend sacred sites and President Bashar al-Assad\u2019s embattled regime. Sunni Muslims, some affiliated with al Qaeda, have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSyria Explained: How It Became a Religious War<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How did Syria go from an internal uprising to a wider clash drawing funding and fighters from across the region? In a word, Middle East experts say,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/09\/syria-explained-how-it-became-a-religious-war.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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