RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF THE SYRIAN CRISIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Keywords:
the Syrian civil war, propaganda, YouTube, Alawis, NusayrisAbstract
The Syrian civil war stands apart as a huge tragedy amid the consequences of the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011 that radically changed the Middle East and North Africa. The country lost over 400,000 civilian lives, a dreadful number for the contemporary world, over 5.6 million became refuges, 6.6 million—internal migrants, and chemical weapons used against non-combatants and other atrocities are the very real details of a real picture of the war.
Inspired by the Arab Spring, which sent shockwaves through the Middle East and North Africa the Syrians joined the process with the slogan “The People Want to Overthrow the Regime.” Unrest developed into an armed struggle that has been going on for many years now. The authors have posed themselves with the task of analyzing certain religious aspects of information war unfolding in the context of the Syrian crisis. It is manifested, in particular, on the You- Tube video-sharing platform. Enemies of the regime are using religion as the central point of anti-Assad propaganda; terrorist groups (Al-Qa‘eda, ISIS and others) are doing the same. This makes it highly expedient to analyze the approaches of those who use religious propaganda and the role of YouTube in the process. It is equally important to analyze the role of the Shi‘a-Alawi interpretation of Syrian developments.
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