Al-Karama Square ( Dignity Square ) in Jaramana
JARAMANA, Syria – Druze residents near Syria’s capital are resisting a demand by the Islamist-led government to hand in their light weapons, saying authorities have yet to address fears of new attacks by extremist Sunni Muslim militants after days of sectarian violence.
Clashes last week pitted Islamist militants against armed Druze residents of the town of Jaramana, southeast of the capital Damascus, later spreading to another district near the capital and then south to the predominantly Druze province of Sweida.
Syrian security forces stand together, following deadly clashes between Sunni fighters against armed Druze residents, at the entrance of Jaramana, Syria May 5, 2025. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar
Such violence threatens the new government’s control of Syria, where armed gangs are attacking religious minorities and Israel is stepping up its military intervention under the banner of protecting the Druze community.
Syrian authorities have negotiated deals to allow Druze fighters to protect their own areas as enlisted members of Syria’s security forces, but this week asked that all weapons held by residents of these areas be turned in to the state.
“We told them, as soon as there is a state capable of regulating its forces, we’ll have no problem handing in our weapons,” said Makram Obeid, a member of the Jaramana committee that is negotiating with the Syrian government.
Obeid said his committee had told government officials it would be better for them to focus on disarming the gangs now harassing minorities.
Obeid said his committee had told government officials it would be better for them to focus on disarming the gangs now harassing minorities.
“It’s our right to be scared, because we saw what happened in other areas,” he told Reuters, an apparent reference to killings in March of hundreds of civilians from the Alawite minority to which former President Bashar al-Assad belongs.
It was the deadliest episode of sectarian violence in years in Syria, where a 14-year war ended last December when rebels toppled Assad, who fled to Russia.
“People want to feel safe. It’s enough to have (more than) 11 years of killing, strikes, and worries,” Obeid said. “And we’re coming to another phase that we thought, with the collapse of the regime, would leave us in a much better place. But until now, we don’t feel reassured.”
Fahad Haydar, a resident of Jaramana, echoed those fears.
“These weapons that are turned against us – that’s what we’re afraid of. If those weapons get handed in, then we’ll hand in ours,” he told Reuters.
SEEKING GUARANTEES
Mowaffaq Abu Shash, a Druze cleric in Jaramana, said the Druze had already compromised enough.
“We take one step, they ask for a second. We take the second step, they ask for a third,” he said. “We ask for a guarantee that what happened on the coast will not happen to us.”
One influential Druze spiritual leader, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hajri, has called for international intervention to protect his community from Syria’s leaders, whom he has branded “terrorists”.
The Druze, an Arab minority sect who practise a religion originally derived from Islam, live in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel has vowed to protect Syria’s Druze militarily if they face threats.
Last week’s violence was ignited by a fake voice recording purportedly cursing the Prophet Mohammad, which Sunni militants suspect was made by a Druze. More than a dozen people were killed in Jaramana before the violence spread west and south.
It also drew in Israel, which carried out a drone strike on what it said were fighters preparing to attack Druze in the town of Sahnaya, west of Jaramana. A Syrian security source told Reuters one member of the security forces was killed in the strike.
As the clashes reached Sweida province, Israel bombed near the presidential palace in Damascus – the clearest sign yet of its hostility towards Syria’s new leaders.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa once headed Al Nusra Front, a branch of al Qaeda before renouncing ties to the group in 2016 and joined ISIS
Historically, the Druze community in Syria played an important role in the formation of the modern state of Syria, and even though they are a minority, they play an important role in the Syrian political scene.
The Druze always played a far more important role in Syrian politics than its comparatively small population would suggest. With a community of little more than 100,000 in 1949 or roughly three percent of the Syrian population, the Druze of Syria’s southwestern mountain of Jabal Al Arab (or Jabal el Druze) constituted a potent force in Syrian politics and played a leading role in the nationalist struggle against the French. Under the military leadership of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, the Druze provided much of the military force behind the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925–27.
In 1945, Amir Hassan al-Atrash, the paramount political leader of the Jabal Druze State, led the Druze military units in a successful revolt against the French, making the Jebel al-Druze the first and only region in Syria to liberate itself from French rule without British assistance. Syria achieved independence from the French in 1946
For much of the 20th century, the Druze were firmly embedded in Syria’s state institutions. Their alignment with the Ba’ath regime was not simply pragmatic, it evolved from a deeper narrative of Arab unity and shared resistance.
The legacy of Sultan Al-Atrash, still shapes the community’s collective identity. His prominence as a national figure of defiance bolstered Druze’s integration into the military and civil service, offering both stability and recognition.
However, that stability began to unravel with the onset of the 2011 uprising. As violence escalated and state authority collapsed.
Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri, leader of the Druze in Syria declared that the Druze no longer trust the leadership of Ahmad al-Sharaa and requested international protection in their areas. The Druze and other minorities reportedly face an existential threat by the extremist Islamist regime
Amid the chaos, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri emerged as a leader of growing influence. Known for his spiritual leadership, al-Hijri, a lawyer offered a voice that resonated across ideological and tribal divides. His sermons, marked by restraint and clarity, helped unify a community that had long avoided confrontation. In the absence of a credible state presence, al-Hijri’s prominence continued to rise quietly but steadily.
Following the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, al-Hijri called for a comprehensive national dialogue under international supervision to establish a transitional government representing all segments of the Syrian society.
Syria’s Druze believe they are more Syrian than any of the communities and want to remain part of a free, unified, non-sectarian Syria.
(Reuters)/ YL