Assad Was a Tyrant, Not An Anti-Imperialist with Moazzam Begg

Join our Membership to get access to exclusive monthly calls: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/member... This episode was filmed on Saturday, before Damascus fell. The Syrian revolution began in 2011 as a grassroots, civil society uprising against one of the most tyrannical rulers in the Muslim World. Bashar al-Assad like his father before him, presided over a state of terror, with disappearances, secret police repression and a punitive state machinery that governed through fear. Assad styled himself as an anti-imperialist when in reality he had colluded with the West in past conflicts and after 9/11 Syria became a favourite place for the Americans to render suspects for horrific torture. Today we have Moazzam Begg who is the senior director of CAGE and author of enemy combatant – a book about his time as a detainee first in Bagram and then in Guantanamo. He also spent time in Syria during the revolution, as part of his investigation into the Assad regimes complicity in the CIA torture programme. Let me remind all viewers that to help us continue to engage critical thought at this time, Please consider becoming a Member: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/member... You can also support The Thinking Muslim through a one-time donation: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/Donate Listen to the audio version of the podcast: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7vXiAjV... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast... Sign up to Muhammad Jalal's newsletter: https://jalalayn.substack.com Purchase our Thinking Muslim mug: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/merch Find us on: Patron.   / thethinkingmuslim   Twitter:   / thinking_muslim   Facebook:   / the-thinking-muslim-podcast-105790781361490   Instagram:   / thinkingmuslimpodcast   Telegram: https://t.me/thinkingmuslim Host:   / jalalayn   Website Archive: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 1:41 – Assad anti-imperialist? 7:07 – Syria’s torture campaign 12:42 – The Left on Syria 16:24 – Why dismiss Syrians? 19:05 – Russia 22:48 – The opposition 27:33 – ISIS vs Opposition 31:59 – Post-Assad Syria 34:36 – Minorities 36:40 – Assad against Israel? 39:17 – Palestinian resistance on Syria 42:48 – Islamic activism 45:26 – Will we be able to visit Syria