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For yearsHTSHTSYour browser does not support the element. Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s new de facto leader, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (), the Sunni jihadist group he commands, besieged Nubl and Zahraa, two Shia towns in the Sunni heartland half an hour north of Aleppo, Syria’s second city. Yet within days of ’s toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December, busloads of Shias flocked back there. The jihadists at the gates searched their luggage with rare politeness. In return, the Shias paid obeisance to their erstwhile foes by draping the town hall in the rebels’ tricolour. “We were all Assad’s oppressed,” explains the local imam.Such scenes are encouraging as observers ponder what kind of Syria Mr Sharaa and his men will forge. If Mr Sharaa revives Islam’s historical role as the defender of the region’s religious mosaic and oversees the return of millions of refugees, Syria could become a model of religious pluralism. But if he gives free rein to radical fighters high on their recent success, he could revive militant jihadism in a region where it has been on the wane, unleashing more instability and war.Since the rebels’ takeover of Damascus, violations such as the torching of a Christmas tree or the slaughter of Alawite judges who had served under Mr Assad have made headlines. But overall Mr Sharaa has been surprisingly keen to accommodate other faiths, including those previously close to his enemies. He has hosted Christian patriarchs and Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Druze in Lebanon, in the old presidential palace. The Alawites on the coast, Mr Assad’s home, retain their arms. Other Sunni militias in the north still run their own municipalities.As in Nubl and Zahraa, minorities across the country have welcomed his outreach. Christians who took down their Christmas decorations as the rebels approached Damascus have decorated the capital’s old city walls with lights and trees. “We respect all customs and traditions,” says a masked jihadist outside a club filled with revellers drinking and dancing to ring in the new year. Punters in the city’s bars have reworked the rebels’ anthem, “Syrians, raise your heads”. “Syrians, raise your glasses,” they sing.But will the peace last? Some hope that the men who flocked south from Idlib, Mr Sharaa’s fief in the north, to celebrate the new year in Damascus will be seduced by the cosmopolitanism of the world’s oldest city. Others recall the return of Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian ayatollah, to Tehran in 1979. He lured Iran’s leftist intellectuals into a false sense of security before imposing his puritanical Islamic Republic. Yet others draw comparisons with Mr Assad, who flirted with a political opening before unleashing his father’s thugs on the emerging cultural salons. Many Syrians are keeping their bags packed in anticipation of a hurried departure. The first boatload of secular Alawites has already washed up in Cyprus, according to an observer there.Mr Sharaa’s record is hardly reassuring. As al-Qaeda’s emir in Syria a decade ago he turfed thousands of Christians out of Idlib, removed the copper crosses from their church doors and grabbed their property. He also closed the city’s bars.Mr Sharaa now says that his rule in Idlib “is not suitable for all Syria”. But the education ministry has ordered the curriculum be brought in line with conservative Islam. Some of the fighters parading around Damascus wear Islamic State patches on their fatigues. Mr Sharaa has yet to appoint any non-Sunnis to senior ranks in his government. His top military and security posts are all occupied by fellow Salafis, who follow a puritanical brand of Sunni Islam. The lower ranks, meanwhile, are drawn from the totalitarian state Mr Assad left behind.A national dialogue Mr Sharaa is convening in January will be an early test. Several groups have said they will boycott it, as their leaders have not been invited. Dissolving Syria’s myriad militias and folding them into a new army without sparking a new civil war will be another challenge. If he can broaden his base and establish a semblance of representative rule, Mr Sharaa may yet build a more inclusive Syria. But the road will be long and rocky.
