SHANLAX International Journal of Arts, Science and Humanities shanlax #SINCE1990 http://www.shanlaxjournals.com 42 The Role of Wahhabi Discourse in the Syrian Uprising Maryam Enjavinezhad Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia Shamala Paramasivam Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7213-9445 Abstract Today, the Middle East is dealing with devastating civil wars and ideological struggles affecting the lives of millions of people in the region. These regional security issues are manifested through an increase in radicalization, fanatism, and intolerance towards social groups who are considered ‘other’ or deviated. The consequences have been deadly violence across the region and worldwide. Radical discourses and Wahhabism ideologies have had the main role in this regard. There is a new wave of ‘Othering’ discourse in the Middle East promoted by some Muslim preachers, which increases the tensions between social groups. This paper analyzes such discourses looking at the case of Syria war as an example to show the way Wahhabism ideologies changed the nature of the Syrian uprising and turned it into an ideological and sectarian war for political interests. This paper provides insights into the impact of leaders’ discourses and ideologies on the masses. Learning the ideologies behind manipulative discourses can help in dealing with complicated conficts, explain the important issues, and manage the problems facing humankind. Keywords: Muslim leaders, Radical discourse, Sectarianism, Wahhabism, Violence, Syrian the uprising and The Middle East Introduction The Syrian confict enters its seventh year with more than 465,000 killed, over a million wounded, and more than 12 million civilians, half the population of the country, displaced. The Syrian civil war is indeed considered as the deadliest confict in the 21st century. The unrest in Syria began in the early spring of 2011 within the context of ‘Arab Spring’ with nationwide protests against Bashar Assad’s government, whose forces responded with violent crackdowns, and gradually, Syria began to slide into a large-scale war. The Syrian war has created profound effects far beyond Syria’s borders. Today, the Middle East is facing serious security issues, and Muslims have become more divided along the ideological lines. The contemporary Syria war is associated with the emergence of radicalism and fanaticism as a result of some preachers’ discourses who advocated hatred and sectarianism. Such discourses construct the identity of ‘enemies of Islam’ for the social groups that are considered inferior or deviant and legitimize violence against them. On the other hand, radical ideologies are associated with ‘Wahhabism’ which has been regarded as the violent manifestation of the religion (Sirriyeh, 1989). Indeed, Wahhabism is not seen as inherently violent on its own but is recognized as a highly conservative interpretation of the religion by most Middle East experts and Muslims alike, which in turn, can and has been channeled into Jihadist ideologies. OPEN ACCESS Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Month: April Year: 2020 P-ISSN: 2321-788X E-ISSN: 2582-0397 Received: 15.02.2020 Accepted: 18.03.2020 Published: 01.04.2020 Citation: Maryam, Enjavinezhad, and Shamala Paramasivam. “The Role of Wahhabi Discourse in the Syrian Uprising.” Shanlax International Journal of Arts, Science and Humanities, vol. 7, no. 4, 2020, pp. 42–53. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34293/ sijash.v7i4.2292 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License