Syria needs another miracle

They're still celebrating the miraculous fall of the Assad regime in Damascus and the killing has stopped in Syria, except for parts of the north, east and south.

- Gwynne Dyer

So, what are the odds that the man whose fighters brought down the regime, Ahmed al-Sharaa, can bring peace, prosperity and even democracy to Syria?

Sharaa, until recently known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, is an Islamist who started out in al-Qaeda. He is still listed as a terrorist, which he is not, or at least not any more - but as an Islamist he would normally reject modern forms of Islam that permit abominations like democracy and equal rights for women.

That would not endear him even to Sunni Muslims (70% of Syria's population).

Sharaa is Sunni himself, but most of them would see his Islamist doctrines as extreme. And he really frightens the 30% of Syrians who belong to various religious minorities: Alawites, Ismailis, mainstream Shia Muslims, Christians and Druze.

To make matters worse, one of the Muslim minorities, the Alawites, have run the country for the past 53 years under the Assad family.