[This article by Mohammad Dibo introduces a special series focused on Oral Culture and Identity in Syria. It is the outcome of an ongoing partnership between Syria Untold and openDemocracy's North Africa West Asia]
Countless and complex questions are being raised by the issue of open sectarianism ripping across the Arab Mashreq, maybe even the entire Middle East. We are faced with a tremendous resurgence of religious, sectarian, doctrinal, and ethnic currents that have overwhelmed the political and military landscape not only in Syria but also beyond. Political discourses are now replete with sectarian language and terminologies which had, up until two decades ago, and perhaps even less than that, been considered too retrograde to be posed seriously. They are now presented as an inescapable reality and, as such, many are proposing consociational solutions premised on “hair of the dog” logic.
