The Syrian Crisis

Chapter five traces the rise, transformation and decline of an Islamist movement during the Syrian crisis. It begins in March 2011 with the start of a popular uprising against the regime of Bashar al-Assad and ends in 2020 when the front lines of its civil war stabilised. In the first part, it observes how activists used Islam to render public services, collective violence, justice and governance distinct. In the second part, it traces conflicts that pitted the Syrian Islamic Council, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, Ahrar al-Sham, the Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria against each other. It argues that Islam as a stake drew these organisations and their members together into an Islamist movement. The last section narrates how, towards 2020, foreign powers increasingly defined the dynamics of the Syrian crisis, leaving less space for local agents to enact distinct practices, resulting in the movement’s decline. In short, the chapter investigates the evolution of an Islamist movement by analysing the struggles around constructing its distinct practices during the Syrian crisis.