By Omar Abdurrahman
HOMS, Syria (North Press) – Homs Governorate is considered a focal point for the conflicting parties in Syria, particularly Iran, since it has its eyes on the governorate and is keen to control it to be able to reach the Mediterranean Sea.
This creates a sense of fear among the residents who have their own concerns regarding a possible change in the area’s identity and potential consequences of Iran’s increased influence in Homs, as Iranian-backed militias and religious missionaries are intensifying efforts to spread the Shia sect.
Syria’s central governorate of Homs is characterized by ethnic and sectarian diversity and its factions lived in peace for years until 2011, when the Syrian conflict began, creating a gap between sects and ethnicities.
Homs has suffered significant destruction, leading its residents to immigrate either to escape the war or due to security concerns, and even deported to northern Syria.
As the city is a target for Iran, it has been working since 2016 to gain control over it, focusing extensively on cultural and intellectual influence and directing its efforts and missionary to spread the Shia sect as a tool to expand Iran’s influence in the region, which it considers more important than military control.
Since Iranian-backed militias effectively control the Syrian Desert, and its Lebanese arm, Hezbollah, is present in the countryside of Damascus and southern Homs, Iran has intensified its activities to infiltrate the eastern, northern, and northwestern countryside of Homs.
Shiite missionaries
Hassan al-Jaber, a resident of the town of Talbiseh in the north of Homs, says that the entry of Shiite missionaries into the town has caused great dissatisfaction among the residents, who completely rejected their presence.
“After several meetings with the town’s prominent figures, they told us we had no choice in the matter, and if there is any objection, we would be pursued by security forces,” al-Jaber says.
He adds that about two months ago when the missions first came, they started to attract the residents, coordinate with schools, and give religious lessons within the schools. They also changed the characteristics of the town by raising images of Shiite symbols and green flags throughout the town and its security and civil institutions and promised the area would witness prosperity if they cooperated with these missions.
Even though Talbiseh is predominantly Sunni and has several centers for teaching the Quran and Sunni jurisprudence, they have all been closed after the entry of Shiite missions aiming to erase the religious identity of the region, according to al-Jaber.
It is worth mentioning that these missions “exploit the poverty of the people and their need for job opportunities promised by these missions in Friday sermons and after every prayer in mosques,” he adds.
Government facilitation
On Jan. 17, 2023, the Air Force Intelligence Directorate of the Syrian government forces ordered mosque preachers in the northern countryside of Homs to facilitate the work of the Iran-led religious missionaries to spread the Shiite doctrine in the region.
The order emphasizes that preachers and residents would face criminal prosecution if these missionaries were obstructed, and also imposed attending religious courses in the Shiite doctrine on residents.
They also instructed mosque preachers to assist members of these missionaries in gaining acceptance from the residents of northern Homs countryside and peacefully coexist with them, allowing them to purchase properties and lands designated by the members of these missionaries.
Iran is attempting to expand its political and military influence by spreading the Shiite doctrine, recruiting residents to serve Iran’s national interests, as well as purchasing properties, especially in areas controlled by its militias.
Since the beginning of this year, more than five missions led by Shiite clerics from Iranian, Iraqi, and Lebanese nationalities have arrived in the towns of Houla, Talbiseh, al-Zaafaranah, and surrounding villages inhabited by Sunni residents who were mostly displaced, residents told North Press.
In Talbiseh, Iranian missions, with the assistance of Syrian security forces, seized two houses near the main bridge in the town and used them as residences for those missions protected by members of the Syrian intelligence. These missions also took control of the Saad ibn Abi Waqqas Mosque and renamed it to Imam Hussein Mosque, conducting Shiite courses, seminars, competitions for children, and giving away sums of money in an attempt to attract residents who have been economically burdened by the crisis in Syria.
Foreign doctrine
Muhammad al-Jasem, a resident of the town of Dar al-Kabirah in the north of Homs, says, “The Shiite doctrine is a foreign doctrine to the town and contradicts our beliefs and religion, but the support of security forces for Iranian actions have forced residents not to act out of fear of enforced disappearance in detention centers.”
Al-Jassem explains the majority of the town’s wealthy residents have moved their families to live in rented houses in the city center. They fear that their children might embrace the Shiite sect, which is extensively promoted by the missionaries.
The missionaries opened a center to teach Shiite doctrine to children near the municipality of Dar al-Kabirah. The center witnesses weak turnout as some children attend only for financial reasons. The children attend a course for a month and receive 500,000 Syrian pounds (SYP, which equals about $33) when they finish, according to al-Jassem.
These missionaries take advantage of the people’s poor conditions to force them into Shiism, serve Iran, and implement its plans and interests in Syria.
These missionaries started establishing a camp on the outskirts of Rastan near the desert to recruit the youth and teach them how to use weapons.
Increased risks
Hazem al-Abdullah, from the town of Ter Maela in the north of Homs, says the people of the town are exhausted and have no power to resist the Shiite missionaries imposed on them by the security agencies of the government forces. Most people have given up and have been subjected to Shiite ideological courses for two months now on a daily basis in the Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq Mosque.
They started by opening courses for children and then included the youth. Now, the residents fear that these courses will target women in the near future.
Al-Abdullah confirms the people not only fear that these missionaries would erase the religious identity of the area but also that these Shiite centers and military posts would be targets for Israeli airstrikes, posing threats to civilians.