Syria, Oh Syria

Ramadan has gone; our habits and behaviour are reverting to form, and life continues. Our spiritual and ritual fix is over and we in the west, enjoy the comforts. Don't kid yourself - you are comfortable, our brothers in the east are under the boot.

We have a responsibility, not only to be outraged at attacks on Islam (the vile film made in the US), but also to be outraged at the attack and killing of Muslims. And that moral outrage cannot be diminished by the complexity of the situation.

After all, it’s not Americans or Jews killing Muslims in Syria, it’s a civil war. Hold on, it's not just a civil war, it's a sectarian war - a dominant Shia community killing Sunnis, but, isn't it the other way round in Bahrain...and back again in Iraq, which was under Saddam, visa versa... And the Americans, they hate Assad, my enemy's enemy? Oh, don't forget the devious machinations of Israel, who would rather have Assad in power (better the devil you know), but also have a strategic objective of isolating Iran. If these guys are supporting the rebels, we must oppose them, right? How many children have died while we make these calculations?

"A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." So said Churchill about Russia. The Russians, of course, have their base in Syria, and militarily supply to the Assad regime, and yet Muslims in the west are reluctant for their governments to arm the rebels.

And the west are reluctant to support the fractious rebels, (who are they?) for fear of funding Al Qaeda, (for Al Qaeda read: anyone who prays, is married, has a beard and eats falafel - doesn’t have to be an Arabic speaker).

And all the while, the chaos in Libya and Iraq stands testimony to the uncertainty that the Arab spring brings. Albeit, it seems the chaos is more a situation created by the Gaddaffi regime, which systematically replaced all civil and military institutions with a cult of the leader. The cult fell and the country has become barely manageable. Give me an unmanageable situation over a God-complexed tyrant any day.

The situation is messy, but the morality of the situation isn't. Assad is killing his own people. Assad is not governing by a consensus and the rebels need our support.

Anyone who tries to conflate the geo-political ramifications of supporting the rebels needs to explain how the Assad regime managed for so long without silence and our acquiescence.

May Allah protect them from Assad, and us from a moral corruption, that a thousand Ramadans cannot fix.