Despotic regimes: seedbeds for Islamists groups

“The real poultry farm that breeds Islamist groups is the despotic, dictatorial regimes. For they were the ones who suffocated the spirit of the people and submerged them with (empty) slogans and with terror, and exacerbated their problems with subordination and plunder. It is them who push these torn and marginalised generations towards utopian solutions and desperate reactions.”

– Saadallah Wannous (renowned Syrian playwright), ‘National culture and historical consciousness’, in ‘Issues and Testimonies’ (in Arabic), 1990.

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