Navigation – Plan du site

AccueilAppels à contribution et actualitésAppels en coursSyria: Religion in Revolution, Wa...

Syria: Religion in Revolution, War, Displacement, and Transition

A thematic issue led by Thomas Pierret et Anna Poujeau

Summary

The role of religion in the Syrian conflict has mainly been studied in the many publications on armed Islamist (particularly Jihadi) groups (Heller, 2016; Lund, 2016; Lister, 2017; Pierret, 2017; Zelin, 2022; Hamming, 2023; Center for Justice & Accountability, 2023 et 2025; Haenni et Drevon, 2025), as well as in numerous pieces on the sectarian dimension of the war (Satik, 2013; Phillips, 2015; Stolleis, 2015; Leenders, 2016; Pinto, 2017; Belhadj et Ruiz de Elvira, 2018; Hinnebusch, 2019; Mazur, 2021). The latter body of works proposed a useful corrective to the ethno-primordialist notion that the war was a mere resurgence of ‘ancient hatreds’. It rather emphasized the fact that the ‘sectarianization’ of the conflict resulted from complex interactions between existing social and political structures, on the one hand, and the warring parties’ strategies of mobilization, on the other hand. Sectarianization is an important part of the context we aim to explore in this special issue, but it does not constitute the focus of our reflection. Rather, we seek contributions on religion per se, in the sense that we invite contributors from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds to focus on religious beliefs and practices in their own right, rather than as mere variables or manifestations of other kinds of social processes (e.g., political, economic). In that respect, we follow up on works such as those that have explored the use of religious slogans and the notion of martyrdom in the revolutionary uprising of 2011 (Boëx, 2018; Aubin-Boltanski, 2022; Al-Khalili, 2023: 167-186). However, this call for proposals is more specifically concerned with the religious transformations that have occurred as a result of the revolt, war, mass displacement of the Syrian population, and eventual overthrow of Bashar al-Assad by Ahmad al-Shara’s rebel coalition. Such transformations shall be examined from three main perspectives, although we remain open to other relevant approaches.

Themes

1. Redefining doctrines and practices

Sectarian polarization had a homogenizing effect on Syria’s religious communities, whose members were often forced to align with the dominant political stance among their coreligionists (besides the literature on sectarianization, see, for the Alawites, Ghanem, 2021). Failure to do so entailed swift punishment or marginalization, as was the case for the nuns of the convent of Saint Thecla in Maaloula (Poujeau, 2021). What is less well known, however, was the specifically religious impact of that process. Early in the war, analysts observed that the military dominance of Salafi and Salafi-Jihadi armed groups gave those brands of Islam a hegemonic status among Sunni communities living in rebel-held areas, a trend that culminated with the establishment of ISIS’ quasi-state in the eastern half of the country (International Crisis Group, 2012; Lund, 2013; Pierret, 2017). We know little, however, about the consequences of that hegemony on grassroots beliefs and practices, and about its legacy in regions where Jihadi governance was uprooted, like in formerly ISIS-held territories, or was forced to moderate, like in Idlib under the control of Hay’a Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). In the latter case, evidence shows that non-Salafi doctrines remained deeply entrenched among local communities, even forcing HTS to play down (though not to abandon) its ambitions to spread its own brand of Islam (Drevon and Haenni, 2021). Likewise, a 2022 opinion poll conducted among Syrians at home and in the diaspora showed that support for existing (pro and anti-regime) religious bodies was consistently low, but that the least unpopular of them was the Sufi-dominated, Istanbul-based Syrian Islamic Council (The Day After, 2022). This partly explains HTS’ selective embrace of Sufi-leaning ulama after its takeover of Damascus in 2024, and the appointment of the Syrian Islamic Council’s chairman Sheikh Usama al-Rifa’i as Grand Mufti (Pierret, 2025). As a result, managing already apparent tensions between Sufi and Salafi constituencies is likely to constitute one of the main challenges facing the new regime in matters of religious policies. In Arab regions that were once controlled by ISIS, the Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) has also fostered the reassertion of Sufi leaders and brotherhoods (Pierret and Alrefaai, 2021). However, the extent of the following they managed to retain, or reconstitute, remains obscure.

One knows even less about corresponding dynamics among other religious communities. Before the war, it was widely assumed that the level of religious observance among Alawites and Druzes was low in comparison with Sunnis and Christians. Supposing that this assumption was correct, to what extent did the situation change during the conflict? Did religious fervour increase among these groups, and how did this revival affect their positions towards mainstream (Sunni and Twelver Shia) Islamic traditions? Another issue that needs in-depth exploration is the religious dimension of conversions to Shiism, a phenomenon that has been predominantly observed in regions of Syria that fell under the direct control of paramilitary groups aligned with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (e.g., parts of the Lebanese border area, the Deir ez-Zor province, and the southern countryside of Aleppo) (Awad, 2019; Baker, 2023). Beyond the recruitment of formerly Sunni tribesmen into these paramilitary groups, what was the real extent and depth of Shiite outreach among these communities?

2. Questioning faith, challenging religious norms?

If the first axis of reflection concerns the intensification of religious observance and dynamics of confrontation between competing religious doctrines, this second axis focuses rather on the process of of distantiation from/contestation of religious beliefs and norms. Recent opinion polls suggest that religiosity has increased again in most Arab countries after a momentaneous drop in the late 2010s (Robbins, 2023). In Syria and elsewhere, the latter trend had been echoed by anecdotal observations and a sense of alarm among some men of religion (Pierret and Alrefaai, 2021; Elsässer, 2025). Common explanations for this phenomenon included the trauma caused by the atrocities (and ultimate failure) of Jihadi groups, and the fact that because of their expatriation, particularly in Europe, some Syrians have moved to a social environment in which religious norms are less constraining. Serious research is sorely lacking to make sense of this ebb and flow of religiosity, and of its underlying factors. Moreover, religious skepticism remains worthy of being studied even if it remains marginal among Syrian communities, as illustrated by a stimulating reflection on unbelief in pre-revolutionary Egypt (Schielke, 2012). Besides outright atheism and abandonment of religious observance, we also seek contributions on other kinds of challenges to established religious norms, such as pragmatic lifestyle adaptation, anticlericalism and liberal interpretations of the Scriptures like those that gained traction in Syria (and elsewhere) in the mid-2010s, partly in reaction against ISIS atrocities (Pierret, 2024).

3. The reconfigurations of religious authority

As a result of the conflict, Syrian religious leaders and groups have been faced with both opportunities to assert their authority, and challenges from political actors and religious newcomers. In the realm of official Islamic institutions, enormous change has taken place. The Assad regime’s religious bureaucracy was extensively reconfigured, most notably through the abolition of the Grand Muftiship in 2021 (Aldoughli, 2022; Khatib, 2023; Pierret, 2024). New bodies and regulations were established in other parts of the country, most durably in HTS-held Idlib, the Turkish-controlled northern border areas, and DAANES (Pierret and Alrefaai, 2021). These institutions emerged either as a result of top-down policies on the part of the respective powers that be, or due to bottom-up efforts among Muslim scholars—who were themselves divided between pre-existing networks and new figures propped up by armed groups, the so-called shar’is (Cole, 2014; Heller, 2014). Likewise, among the Druzes, new contenders for religious authority emerged among the armed groups that were established for purpose of self-defense (e.g., the Men of Dignity), while Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, one of Syria’s three topmost Druze religious scholars (sheikh al-‘aql) made a bid for supremacy over his peers by championing the Suwayda protests (2023-2024) then by adopting an uncompromising stance towards Ahmad al-Shara’s new regime (Ezzi, 2025). By contrast, the self-organisation of Alawite scholars was drastically hampered by the Assad regime, whose fall conversely paved the way for the emergence of several Alawite religious bodies (Ghanem, 2025).

In the meantime, the conflict reinforced the transnational dimension of religious authority among the different communities, either by fostering cross-border sectarian solidarities (Smyth, 2015; Pierret, 2017; Ghanem 2021), or through the worldwide dispersion of Syrian religious leaders and communities. Recent publications show, for instance, that dreams (shared via instant messaging applications) have played a crucial role in the recreation of Alepine Sufi communities across the diaspora (Pinto, 2024), and that faith leaders have located themselves at the intersection between donors and implementers of aid among refugee communities and inside Syria (Carpi, 2023; Farooqi, 2025). Wartime circumstances have also created new opportunities, on both sides of the frontlines and in the diaspora, for religious charities of all denominations (Ruiz de Elvira, 2019; Akdedian, 2021) and Sunni missionary movements such as Salafi NGOs, the female-only Qubaysiyyat, the Tabligh, and the anti-Salafi, Lebanon-based Ahbash (Pierret, 2018; Aubin-Boltanski, 2023).

Submission Timeline

Proposals must be submitted by October 1, 2025. They should include a text of 4,000 characters maximum and a short biographical note. Proposals should be sent to Thomas PIERRET thomas.PIERRET@univ-amu.fr and Anna POUJEAU anna.poujeau@cnrs.fr.

Authors will be contacted by the end of the following month. Articles, written in French or English, must be submitted no later than March 1, 2026 and not exceed 50,000 characters. Detailed information regarding formatting guidelines and the editorial process can be found at https://journals.openedition.org/remmm/3004.

The call for contributions is also written in French.

Bibliographie

AKDEDIAN, Harout, 2021, « Stifling the Public Domain in Syria: Religion & State from Neo-Liberalism to State Atrophy », in AL-AZMEH et al. (eds.), Striking From the Margins: State, Religion and Devolution of Authority, London, Saqi Books, p. 91-117.

ALDOUGHLI, Rahf, 2022, « Departing ‘Secularism’: Boundary Appropriation and Extension of the Syrian State in the Religious Domain », British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 49, p. 360-385.

AL-KHALILI, Charlotte, 2023, Waiting for the Revolution to End. Syrian Displacement, Time and Dubjectivity, London, UCL Press.

AUBIN-BOLTANSKI, Emma, 2022, « Contester l’omnipotence du leader, conjurer et susciter la peur. . Les usages multiples de la formule Allâhu Akbar », in ANR Shakk (dir.), Lexique vivant de la révolution et de la guerre en Syrie, https://doi.org/10.21428/3633fae9.8d19805d.

——— 2023, « A Mawlid al-Nabī under Close Surveillance Beirut, November 2019 », in AMRI, Nelly, CHIH, Rachida et REICHSMUTH, Stefan (eds.), The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam, Leiden, Brill, p. 456-485.

AWAD, Ziad, 2019, « Iran in Deir ez-Zor: Strategy, Expansion, and Opportunities », Middle East Directions - Research Project Report, 21.

BAKER, Rauf, 2023, « Tehran’s Shiification of Syria. Iran’s Hegemonic Drive », Middle East Quarterly, 30, n. 1.

BELHADJ, Souhail, RUIZ DE ELVIRA, Laura, 2018, « Sectarianism and civil conflict in Syria: reconfigurations of a reluctant issue », in KRAETZSCHMAR, Hendrik and RIVETTI, Paola (eds.), Islamists and the Politics of the Arab Uprisings: Governance, Pluralisation and Contention, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, p. 322-340.

BOËX, Cécile, 2018,» Figures remixées des martyrs de la révolte en Syrie sur YouTube ». Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 181, p. 95-118.

BUNZEL, Cole, 2014, « The Caliphate’s scholar-in-arms », Jihadica, http://www.jihadica.com/the-caliphate’s-scholar-in-arms/.

CARPI, Estella, 2023, « Syrian Refugee Faith Leaders in Lebanon: Navigating the Intersection Between Assistance Provision and “Spiritual Activism” », in ROWLANDS, Anna and FIDDIAN-QASMIYEH, Elena (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Contemporary Migration. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

CENTER FOR JUSTICE & ACCOUNTABILITY, 2023 and 2025, Expert Papers, 1 & 2, https://cja.org/what-we-do/transitional-justice-initiatives/promoting-isil-accountability-for-atrocity-crimes/.

DREVON, Jérôme, HAENNI, Patrick, 2021, « How Global Jihad Relocalises and Where It Leads: The Case of HTS, the Former AQ franchise in Syria », Middle East Directions - Research Project Report, 108.

ELSÄSSER, Sebastian, 2025, « A Wave of Unbelief? Conservative Muslims and the Challenge of Ilḥād in the Post-2013 Arab World », Religions, 16, n. 6, p. 670.

EZZI, Mazen, 2025, « D’un chef religieux à un leader politique : Le rôle de la guerre dans la transformation du pouvoir religieux à Soueida », paper présenté au workshop de l’ANR Shakk Syria : Religion in Revolution, War, and Displacement, Institut français d’études anatoliennes, Istanbul, 5-7 mars.

FAROOQI, Danesh, 2025, « Religious humanitarianism and rebuilding Syrian civil society: Syrian Sufi aid Networks as partners for peacebuilding », paper presented at the ANR Shakk workshop Syria: Religion in Revolution, War, and Displacement, French Institute for Anatolian Studies, Istanbul, 5-7 March.

GHANEM, Aghiad, 2021, Patronage, refuge, ancrage : l’internationalisation des Alaouites (Syrie, Turquie, Liban) face au conflit syrien, thèse de doctorat en Science politique, Institut d’études politiques, Paris.

GHANEM, Aghiad (2025) « Becoming Public: Alawite Shaykhs and the Politics of Anchoring in Latakia, Syria », paper presented at the ANR Shakk workshop Syria: Religion in Revolution, War, and Displacement, French Institute for Anatolian Studies, Istanbul, 5-7 March.

HAMMING, Tore, 2023, Jihadi Politics: The Global Jihadi Civil War, 2014-2019, London, Hurst.

HAENNI, Patrick, DREVON, Jérôme, 2025, Transformed by the People: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s Road to Power in Syria, London, Hurst.

HELLER, Sam, 2014, « Islam’s lawyers in arms », Foreign Policy, https://web.archive.org/web/20181121161122/https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/06/06/islams-lawyers-in-arms/.

HELLER, Sam, 2016, Keeping the Light On in Idlib: Local Governance, Services, and the Competition for Legitimacy among Islamist Armed Groups, New York, The Century Foundation.

HINNEBUSCH, Raymond, 2019, « Sectarianism and Governance in Syria », Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 19, p. 41-66.

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP, 2012, « Tentative Jihad: Syria’s fundamentalist opposition », Middle East & North Africa Report, 131.

KHATIB, Line, 2023, « Autocracy, Iran and Religious Transformation in Syria », Syria Studies, 15.

LEENDERS, Reinoud, 2016, « Master Frames of the Syrian Conflict: Early Violence and Sectarian Response Revisited », POMEPS Studies 20: From Mobilization to Counter-Revolution.

LISTER, Charles, 2017, The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaida, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency, London, Hurst.

LUND, Aron, 2013, Syria’s Salafi Insurgents: The Rise of the Syrian Islamic Front, Stockholm, Swedish Institute of International Affairs.

LUND, Aron, 2016, Into the Tunnels. The Rise and Fall of Syria’s Rebel Enclave in the Eastern Ghouta, New York, The Century Foundation.

MAZUR, Kevin, 2021, Revolution in Syria. Identity, Networks, and Repression, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

PHILLIPS, Christopher, 2015, « Sectarianism and conflict in Syria », Third World Quarterly, 36, n. 2, p. 357-376.

PIERRET, Thomas, 2017, « Syrian Salafis at War: Logics of Fragmentation and Realignment », in CAVATORTA Francesco, MERONE, Fabio (eds), Salafism After the Arab Awakening. Contending with People’s Power, London, Hurst, p. 137-153.

——— 2018, « L’Instance Islamique du Cham : une ‘voie moyenne’ salafiste contre la radicalisation jihadiste », Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions, 181, p. 219-239.

——— 2024, « Minister vs. Mufti. The Struggle Over ‘Moderate Islam’ in Wartime Syria (2011-2021) », Mediterranean Politics.

——— 2025 « Le nouveau pouvoir syrien face au champ religieux, ou les limites d’une stratégie hégémonique », Observatoire international du religieux, n. 53.

PIERRET, Thomas, ALREFAAI, Laila, 2021, « Religious Governance in Syria Amid Territorial Fragmentation », in WEHREY, Frederic (ed.), Islamic Institutions in Arab States. Mapping the Dynamics of Control, Co-option, and Contention, Washington DC, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

PINTO, Paulo, 2017, « The Shattered Nation: The Sectarianization of the Syrian Conflict », in HASHEMI, Nader, POSTEL, Danny (eds) Sectarianization. Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East, London, Hurst.

——— 2024, « Uncertain futures: Memory, performance and temporality among Syrian Sufis », History and Anthropology, p. 1-15.

POUJEAU, Anna, 2021, « L’affaire des moniales de Sainte-Thècle. La communauté chrétienne en Syrie au cœur d’images et de récits concurrents », in BOËX, Cécile, DEVICTOR, Agnès (eds.), Syrie, une nouvelle ère des images. De la révolte au conflit transnational, Paris, CNRS.

ROBBINS, Michael, 2023, « MENA Youth Lead Return to Religion ». Arab Barometer, https://www.arabbarometer.org/2023/03/mena-youth-lead-return-to-religion/.

RUIZ DE ELVIRA, Laura, 2019, « From local revolutionary action to exiled humanitarian work: activism in local social networks and communities’ formation in the Syrian post-2011 context », Social Movement Studies, 18, n. 1, p. 36-55.

SATIK, Nayruz, 2013, « al-hala al-ta’ifiya fi-l-intifada al-Suriya », Omran, 5, n. 2, p. 373-427.

SCHIELKE, Samuli, 2012, « Being a non-believer in a time of Islamic revival: Trajectories of doubt and certainty in contemporary Egypt », International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 44, n. 2, p. 301-320.

STOLLEIS, Friederike (dir.), 2015, Playing the Sectarian Card. Identities and Affiliations of Local Communities in Syria, Beyrouth, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

THE DAY AFTER, 2022, Syrian Religiosity Patterns and Civil and Political Matters, https://tda-sy.org/wp-content/uploads/syrian-religiosity-en-web.pdf.

ZELIN, Aaron, 2022, The Age of Political Jihadism. A Study of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Haut de page
Search OpenEdition Search

You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search