Zaiton Magazine

Issue 1

Hussain Amara

After thousands of years of switching from one socio-economical formation to another and from one governing body to the next, alongside thousands of lives lost in sectarian, ethnical, tribal, and class conflicts, humanity has finally reached, following all the sufferings and after the first industrial boom, to a semblance of social cohesion that shifts violent conflicts into peaceful political ones based on the fact that, in the first place they all are human beings capable of coexisting together within a specific geographical spot (i.e. the State) and putting all this state’s components right in front of their historical responsibilities of working hand in hand to achieve their mutual needs, regardless of their different social or political constituents.

This partnership, expressed by a social contract in the form of a constitution, holds within its pages a number of articles that emphasize and protect diversity and also ensure full equality between all members of the society.

This is how Civil States are; thus we realize that civility of State is not an option but rather a necessity to establish our peaceful conflicts over political grounds so that everybody gets the opportunity to work for serving their compatriots using all our collective social energy and hence raise our country to the league of advanced nations.

In our Arab-Islamic societies, Civil State was misunderstood, perhaps intentionally. As some would put the Civil State in contradiction with religion, for the purpose of serving the parasitic bourgeoisie and feudal classes, even though civility and religion are two completely distinct and unrelated concepts.

The first is meant to characterize the society with all its diversity, and to reflect this diversity on paper in the form of constitutional articles that protect and activate it.

While the second is concerned with a particular ideology, that when applied to the State we would find ourselves facing a totalitarian government that contradicts with the concept of a civil state and with the notions of our modern era.

Moreover, a Civil State is not a triumph of one religion over the other nor it’s a triumph of a social component over one another; it is a State from everyone to everyone.

Then there is another faction that distorted the concept of Civil State and these are the despotic regimes that have reigned in the Arab world out of which the oppressive dictatorial Assad family regime is.

The fascist Assad regime was deceitfully presenting itself as a Civil State only to market its image to the outside, whilst in the inside it abbreviated entire Syria in the person of the “inspired leader” just to make it turn into a first class totalitarian state lagging behind in all fields of human civilization. This happened to the extent that those who, in the mid-twentieth century, were aspiring for their homelands to resemble Syria are today way ahead of us because they managed to utilize each and every potential in their societies.

But now the fig leaf that used to cover up the sins of the Syrian regime has finally dropped and the wolf hiding behind revealed its fangs ripping through the body of the Syrian society. However, this did not confine to the killings but also exceeded it to tampering with the foundation of Syria’s social fabric and attempting to drag the people into its sectarian trench. It’s sad that some of these people are ready to be dragged into such a horrible battle which could facilitate our transition from one form of despotism to another yet of a different color. For that reason we stress on the high necessity of a Civil State in order to avoid recreating the same dictatorship regime with a different style.

So what is a Civil State?

The Civil State mounts on three key pivots:

1. Foundation
2. Pillar
3. Means

 – Citizenship is the foundation of every Civil State. All citizens are equal in rights and responsibilities, regardless of their sectarian, religious, ethnic or gender diversity.

The right to freedom of opinion and expression, to conduct religious rituals, the right to demonstrate, organize discussion forums and form political parties and civil organizations is guaranteed for all. Everybody has the right of personal, social and financial security as well as the necessity of providing employment opportunities, free public education and health services to all.
That means the government is obliged to provide social security, health insurance and equivalent free education for all, as well as securing the ethnic, cultural and local administrative rights of minorities within the context of a united Syria: land and people.

– The pillar of this State is the collection of all the effective elected institutions and the need to activate collective and institutional work as a requirement for breaking free from individualism and autocracy. This does not contradict with individual creativity and the need to promote, support and enrich ingenuity, along with activating the role of women and youths to constantly pump new energy into our society and utilize all the potential of our people.

– The means of attaining all that are by having elections at all levels, starting from inferior positions and all the way up to the parliament.

By that we put Syria on the right track and make it a vital stone in the body of human civilization by utilizing the efforts of all its citizens. Otherwise it will fall into an abyss, and that we are all going to regret.

To be continued…