Politic?

This is a blog dedicated to a personal interpretation of political news of the day. I attempt to be as knowledgeable as possible before commenting and committing my thoughts to a day's communication.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Winning Stomachs and Minds

"We counted the population of every street to assess the need for the area. We provide 23,593 bags of bread every two days for this area. This is just in one district. We are calculating the population in other districts and doing the same there.
"In shops the cost is now 125 Syrian pounds ($1.77) for one pack. Here we sell it at 50 Syrian pounds ($.71) for two bags. We distribute some for free for those who cannot pay."
Abu Yayha, Jabhat al-Nusra

In Aleppo's suburbs where the Syrian Free Army has sway, the rebels had commandeered the grain supply. They embarked on a useful-to-them scheme of their own, to permit only so much grain to be used daily for bread-making.  Shortening the supply resulted in higher demand and higher prices, benefiting them hugely through this corruption victimizing already-challenged-by-hunger civilians who wait for hours daily in long bread lines in front of bakeries.

This situation where the rebels hoarded the grain required for bread-baking has not endeared them to the locals who grumbled with disgust and anger over the entitled arrogance of the rebels, interfering and interrupting their lives in this most fundamental of ways, restricting the amount of bread they were able to bring home to their families, while disrupting lives for everyone with the battles they brought to the areas they control.

The secular, pro-democracy rebel group commanders complain that funding formerly received from foreign governments has been diminished over the fears of the presence of radical Islamists.  The Islamists, on the other hand, are well funded themselves, through established global jihadist networks, where crimes like the smuggling of prohibited drugs, tobacco and weapons in places as remote as Canada and Mexico, Afghanistan and Iran, benefit them financially.

The obvious privation of the Syrian civilians due to the growing scarcity of food and primarily their staple, bread, has become an issue that the Islamist group has noted and begun to address. While under the rebels the grain stores were controlled and the supply of flour dried up, causing the locals to accuse the Free Syrian Army rebels of raiding the stores and stealing the grain for profit, Jabhat al-Nusra stepped in.

"I am from Jabhat al-Nusra. All the managers of all the bakeries are. This makes sure that nobody steals", said the manager of one bakery where barrows of dough are heaved to a conveyor belt, chopping it into rounds, pushing the dough into a giant oven. The steaming baked bread is then packed into bags.

Grassroots support is being built by the Islamist group among the populace, frantic to feed themselves in a wartime scene of scarcity and deprivation. "We have enough bread to help all the liberated areas. We have put aside enough grain to last eight months in Aleppo. We have enough to feed all of Syria for one year", boasted the senior al-Nusra commander.

Who also denied their reputation as extremists. "There is a wrong image in the West that Jabhat al-Nusra is Scarface. Jabhat al-Nusra is human and we don't hate anyone. We don't hate Christians. We are not al-Qaeda. Just because some of our members share in its ideas, it doesn't mean we are part of the group."

No, not al-Qaeda. Perhaps closer to Hamas, to Hezbollah, and to the Muslim Brotherhood.  All of whom made excellent public-relations use of caring for the downtrodden, the ill, the hungry, to gain their trust, and with that, their support. This is what has gained all of these Islamist-ideological groups their popular support among the people. The long tradition of gaining trust through resisting corruption and giving charity.

Jabhat al-Nusra plans for "people to be come dependent on them ... when they take over an area, the first thing they do is go towards where there are factories or production mills. They become the point of distribution for bread and other basic food stuffs", explained the Washington Institute for Near East Policy's Aaron Zelin.
"Another benefit was a curbing of corruption. In Muslim Brotherhood enterprises there was virtually no corruption. Medical centers and charities managed by the Brotherhood were reliable and trustworthy. If non-Muslim Kenyans converted, they, too, could benefit from these facilities, and in the slums many Kenyans began converting to Islam." 
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Labels: , , , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

() Follow @rheytah Tweet