Syria's insurgency beyond Good Guys and Bad Guys

[The Magistrate]

19. A Couple of Small Points, Sir

Fighting tends to harden people, to weld them tight to an enabling and motivating belief. It is hardly a surprise men on the line with guns in hand express a firm commitment to Islam, in all things and for all seasons.

Small 'd' democrats are pretty thin on the ground in many places; I cannot recall off-hand if Syria has ever had an election that would pass Better Government Association standards, but strongly suspect if I dragged books down I would find it has not. To its adherents, Islam does present itself as a unitary system, in which distinction between religion and state is meaningless. Most Moslems would answer if asked that they want an Islamic state, but there would be almost as many visions of exactly what that might entail as there were Moslems asked.