‘Syria in state of economic, military, beliefs war’

President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday that the essence of thought is religion as it enters all aspects of life, in mentality, behavior, and passion, in the past, present, and also in the future, so it is enough to ruin this thought in order to ruin societies, SANA reported.

 “This has been taking place since nearly a century or more, and overall, after a hundred of years, enemies of those societies have achieved large successes in this domain… and the religion which has been descended to be as a tool for the development of societies, instead, it has been used to be as a tool to ruin those societies… here I want to assimilate the situation and the world in which we live as a large ocean… huge waves that strike in all directions… strike security through terrorism… strike economy through the siege,” President al-Assad added during an expanded meeting held by the Ministry of Endowments for scholars at al-Othman mosque in Damascus.

He added that what defines the capability of societies to face the destructive storms are the factors of stability and fortifying them from mental infiltrations.

The President underlined that the measurement of the society’s adherence to religion will be through measuring the morals of society and the behavior of its citizens.

The president went on to say that let us start with our responsibility, normally, when those offenses happen, to offend our beliefs and symbols, the first natural response to any assault or offense is a decisive condemnation and decisive stance.

“Why any changes have never made… why those offenses continue… because we only express outrage… we express outrage, but we don’t confront, and there is a big difference between anger and confrontation,” President al-Assad said.

He affirmed that “We are in a state of war… this war might be economic, or it could be military, and it would be in thought which goes towards beliefs, but if we want to confront, we have to be like a solider in his post, the soldier must take the right position, direction and method in order to win the war.

“Anger would achieve nothing, we have to confront, how and where to start the confrontation… the confrontation starts by knowing the real enemy and its whereabouts… the fact is that the first enemy doesn’t come from outside which means that whatever they have offended or plotted, they can’t,” President al-Assad said.

He added that the danger always comes from inside, the danger comes from extremism, backwardness, and the inability to have a correct and right mentality.

“As for terrorism, I didn’t talk about it and didn’t say that terrorism constitutes danger because terrorism is a mere result, not a reason,” President al-Assad said.

The President affirmed that terrorism is not an Islamic product, the Western society has stirred terrorism in the region, and the most important point is that part of terrorism, which strikes there in Europe, has no relation to the terrorism existed in our region, they have brought in the Wahabbi mentality in turn for the petro-dollar, in turn for money and they are paying the price now.

“So, confrontation starts from knowing the danger and it also starts from knowing the points of weakness… defining the identity of the real enemy… this is the problem,” President al-Assad said.

The President added that modern liberalism now resembles the talk about democratic marketing regarding America.

“They use democracy in order to dominate peoples and they use human rights in order to wage wars… they have used the modern liberalism which has begun to develop since nearly five decades in a gradual and malicious manner like cancer,” President al-Assad said.

The President added that the Liberalism method is to reject the beliefs as it demands from Man not to belong to any religion or belief, its method is to turn the individual reference from collectiveness- as the natural cause for all humanity- into individuality.

“So, a large part of the attack on the religious institution comes from outside… and we have to see the war on Syria and the war on the religious institution in a deeper context… this war is not separated, it is not the newborn of the last 10 years and this what we all have to understand,” President al-Assad said.

As for self-evident concepts, the President added that there are a lot of self-evident points which represent values, traditions, and thoughts on which any society is built, so it is very important to strengthen those concepts as our societies lose them, the beliefs are self-evident points and so the national symbols and belonging, traditions and also the family.

“If they wanted to realize the political collapse, they have to realize the social collapse… and here comes the role of religion… religion without a right society has no real meaning,” the President said.

He added that at the same time, it is not possible to talk about a right application for religion without a right interpretation that expresses the challenges of this stage, it is the starting point to a right understanding and also combating extremism through the right application for religion, the understanding, application and combating extremism.

As for Arabism, President al-Assad said that the role of Arabism is central and it is in the core of this culture, which means we can’t imagine the Islamic religion without the central role of the Arabs and this is a normal impact of the language and the culture.

“We all know that the war which used the religious idioms in Syria has begun before the military war, they hoped that the sectarian status will push people to carry the weapon and go to fighting, but when they have failed, they decided to go towards terrorism,” President al-Assad said.

“Those who attack the religious institution, based on suspicion, not on evil-mind, they don’t know the role of this institution in preventing sedition and division.. they don’t know its role in preventing sectarianism, extremism and in the purification of the regions which were liberated from the remnants of the takfiri mentality… they don’t know that it has accomplished a modern interpretation that suits with the challenges of this stage,” the President said.