At the heart of everything unfolding in Syria today lies a deeper, more existential crisis. The fall of the Assad regime has exposed a long-standing void: the absence of a shared, inclusive, and coherent sense of what it means to be Syrian. This crisis is not new, nor is it entirely of our own making. For over half a century, and even before, the people of Syria have been denied any real opportunity to define themselves outside the frameworks imposed upon them. Under the Assad regime,...

Yusuf Labbad, a young man from the Qaboun neighborhood in Damascus, has died while being held in a detention center affiliated with Syria’s Ministry of Interior. His death came just days after returning from Germany to Syria, and shortly after being detained near the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Both official and family sources have confirmed the incident. According to relatives, Labbad was taken into custody following a verbal altercation with members of the General Security. Not long...

On April 21st 2025, Iraqi Shi’a radud (chanter) Khader Abbas released an 18-minute latmiyya (elegiac chant) on YouTube titled: “The Army of the Umayyads Has Returned.” Performed before a large crowd, he mourned the condition of Sayyida Zaynab’s shrine in Damascus, which he described as being desecrated and abandoned following the collapse of the Assad regime. Abbas declared: "Zaynab is guarded by Shimr now”, referring to Shimr ibn Dhil-Jawshan, a commander in the Umayyad army who, in Shiite...