From Al-Nusra Front to Tahrir Al-Sham…a variable speech and a quest of expanding the scope of control…the depend of rhetorical propaganda campaigns and an attempt to produce a new polished appearance

Al-Nusra Front, Al Qaeda in the Levant, Fateh al-Sham Front, and recently Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, they are all names of one organization, followed the same way, and changed with the military, political, local, regional, and international climate, and Al-Nusra with its successive names, became between supporter and rejecters, between popular base defected against it, and another base whose pro-ratio decreased, after its real repeated practices revealed, starting from tightening its grip around the people of its controlled areas, until it turns them forcibly to fight against the local Syrian factions, and with all of these transitory changes, its practical moves were accompanied by rhetorical propaganda that came out in varied forms, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored its extractions, through its ongoing observation of the daily Syrian scene.

Al-Nusra Front (Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham) and the developed propaganda speech 

As a result of the clash against rejecters inside its controlled areas, and not to clash directly against the military factions located in the same areas, Al-Nusra Front (Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham) turned to find a way through which they can increase the number of its fighters, not any fighters, but those who can be brainwashed except from its ideology, through pushing citizens to be recruited voluntary, in which its main backgrounds in the soul of the later are the full satisfaction of this organization, which will open the way to the full allegiance to Al-Nusra Front, and to achieve such goal, Al-Nusra Front turned to form campaigns even by leaflets distributed in its controlled areas, or by focusing sermons in the mosques in the same areas, or through debates, meetings and symposiums held in its controlled areas which have been located recently and greatly in Idlib province in the Syrian North its related areas in the surrounding provinces, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored that Al-Nusra Front made a campaign named as (Anfer), which aimed to recruit the largest number of the fighters within its ranks, in which it concentrated on the boys and young fighters of who are not married, in which Al-Nusra Front turns to use them in special operations which are- as reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights- “spying for Al-Nusra and fighting the other factions and tightening its grip on Idlib province”, despite its explicit declaration that the goal of the campaign and Al-Nusra Front is “fighting the regime and Shiite militiamen”, and the sources added that the goal of the campaign achieves through creating the absolute allegiance in the soul of the volunteers, and reinforcing them through successive statements, in the training, and almost daily speeches, that confirm to them the strength and progress of Al-Nusra, an its ability to repel any attack or operation against it, even by the regime forces and gunmen loyal to them or by the factions operating on the Syrian territory.

Al-Nusra dresses its hidden goals the robe of the religious supplication to achieve the goals of its campaigns

After the campaign of (Anfer) during which tens of young men and boys were recruited, large number of them are of the residents of the Syrian camps, where the campaign carried out, supervised by senior commanders of Al-Nusra Front (Al Qaeda in the Levant), Al-Nusra Front and with its new name “Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham” started a new campaign named as “Jahed Bemlek Ltajhiz Mujahid” that means “militate with your money to prepare a Jihadist fighter”, which is carrying out recently in 2017, and the citizens and the farmers accused Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham of drooling on olive seasons and the funds, which stimulated the resentment of some people who said explicitly that “despite the seizure of spoils, the dismantlement of factories and the robbery of the public utilities, the Front go too far to the private property of citizens”, while other sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the campaign of “Jahed Bemlek Ltajhiz Mujahid”, is a campaign suitable for any time, and it may be carried out many times, in which the campaign aims to collect financial donations, from traders or citizens, in which it pushed some citizens, traders or the owners of funds, to pay regularly, with satisfaction towards this campaign, without asking for the destination where their money goes, while others and as local sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that they turned to pay for benefits, in which Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham provides indirect protection for them, supports them, facilitates their work, and ignores their transgressions, and some criticized Tahrir Al-Sham that it “uses the religious supplication as a means to collect money”, and it depends heavily on propaganda and instigative leaflets, and on the leaflets of the call to join the ranks of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, which are being distributed in markets, crossroads and in public places, which are accompanied by writing on walls and the propagation of the ideology of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham and its instructions, in a way that reaches the public easily, included instigative slogans to join, and others “legitimate” that call for conforming the “Islamic law” and the “chastity and modesty for women”, while some of the leaflets went far to introduce ideas and phrases against the democracy and considered it as an infidel slogan.

The dependence on preachers who have effect on the citizens

Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham had to depend on preachers who have mental effect, and who are able to inflame enthusiasm in the souls of the public and those who listen to these speeches, to enable it to achieve the desired impact of its calls and campaigns, in which it turned to travel around in vehicles provided with loudspeakers, that travel around the cities and the villages within the controlled areas of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, and search for those who Tahrir Al-Sham can achieve its goal them, by depending on preachers and people who have emotional rhetorical effect, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored that new terms, that was rejected previously in its internal and public speech, have been re-entered to the public speech of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, such as “freedom – demonstration – the Syrian Revolution”, and residents and sources said to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that “the religious speech of Al-Nusra Front developed until it became Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, in which it in its latest development speaks about terms which it purposely hid, and this hiding went too far to confront the demonstrations that called for democracy, freedom and equality and glorify the Syrian Revolution, and reached to half-mast the flags of the Syrian Revolution in several places in Idlib province, and other Syrian areas, while it continued its religious supplication depending on religious statements and stories about financial support for the Jihadist fighters, while Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham reached that it nominated it self as a guardian of this Revolution”.

Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham patches it self after the negative impact left by its fighting and its practices towards the opposition parties and those that embrace it

“Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham has patched Sharia men”, that is what was said by reliable sources that are close to Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham and well informed about its speech, and they added that these Sharia men affect greatly on a wide section of the community where Tahrir Al-Sham is located, and their effect goes far to other areas in the Syrian interior, through social media that it depends on, and according these sources, this patching comes as a result of the continuation of affecting on citizens and trying to re-polish its appearance, after Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham involved in clashes against a number of the factions operating Aleppo and Idlib countryside, including the Islamic Movement of Ahrar Al-Sham, Al-Sham Corps, Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement and other factions, as well as a leaked audio recordings of an Egyptian leader “wholegalized fighting against the factions”, through which he called to direct the guns to the heads of the opponents of it and the fighters who fight in its side, and the sources explained that these practices which repeated successively during periods that are not far apart, had negative affect on the citizens which created dissension between them and Tahrir Al-Sham, as well as creating resentment and hatred towards the commanders of Al-Nusra Front (Al Qaeda in the Levant).

The use of mosques and Friday platforms to pass their vision to the general public within the areas where they are located

Those who are close to Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham and well informed about the conduct of its policies speak about that Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham stayed away of the free speech on the mosque platforms in the Friday’s sermons, and the sermons turned into even centralized sermons about the same topic in most of the mosques and which were agreed previously about the idea and the talking points, or they were come formerly prepared and were formed by parties responsible for the Friday sermons in Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, and punishments and accountabilities are imposed on those who reject of  are not conform them, and this was clear uniting the speech about Turkish intervention in Syria in the middle of September 2017, and considering it as an “occupation”, and prompted the preachers to describe the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as an “apostate” and to accuse the Turkish government of infidelity, which provoked some citizens, and expelled the preacher sent by Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, as a reaction against such sermons, and as an expression of the residents of the areas which the preachers of Tahrir Al-Sham were expelled from, about their acceptance of the Turkish intervention, although Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham accompanied later the Turkish military delegations and protected them when they entered the Syrian territory in Idlib and the western countryside of Aleppo, and traveled with them around the outskirts of Afrin, in several occasions in which the delegation entered before and after the Turkish military columns, and being concentrated in Afrin vicinity, while several preachers and commanders in the organizations of who were known that they provoked hostility against the Turkish intervention, were assassinated earlier.

Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham works on glorifying its leader and putting the general thought of its proponents in one context

 Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham seeks to change the concept of their proponents and members, and put it in one context, to make all of them have the same view, in which Tahrir al-Sham claimed that the democracy is the religion of the West and that it is infidelity, and it accused Turkey of “infidelity”, Erdogan of “apostasy” and the Islamic Movement of Ahrar Al-Sham and other factions of being “agents and brigands”, and it also glorifies its commanders headed by its main leader “Abu Mohammad al-Julani”, while the commanders and the members of Al-Nusra are reinforcing their presence, through currying favor with the dignitaries of the villages, the towns and the cities, and with civil society organizations and local councils, to strengthen its relationships, approach the distance, and impose itself as a mediator for resolving societal and factional conflicts, and Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham intends to produce a new appearance of it and its project, and put it within contexts that are not rejected by its members, proponents and those that embrace it, in which it rebuts its domestic, regional and international opponents.

This reality which has been continued in the Syrian North, and which is imposed by Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, still divides the society into opponents and rejecters as well as neutrals, who see that they do not have the ability prevent fait accompli that is imposed inside the country, and each of them is satisfied, rejecter or without an opinion, according to what he is classified by.