The Syrian revolution was fought to tear down a police state, not to replace it with a replica under a different banner. Today, Assad’s dungeons of Damascus may have been replaced by the security apparatus of Ahmed al-Sharaa (aka Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham – HTS), but the arrest of New York journalist Bilal Abdul Kareem proves that the transitional administration is replicating the very tyranny from which Syrians died in their thousands to escape.
The social media firestorm that preceded Bilal’s arrest centered on his interview with an Egyptian sheikh regarding the citizenship rights of foreign fighters.
The truth is that Sheikh Abu al-Yaqzan al-Masri, whose real name is Muhammad Naji, is a man of little importance to most Muslims. In the grand scheme of geopolitics, the Egyptian cleric is a minor figure, perhaps even a strategic nuisance, but journalists must be allowed to interview whoever they choose.
The interview was a vital expression of press freedom.
A free press is not defined by its adherence to government-approved narratives; it is defined by its right to interview the controversial, the marginal and the inconvenient.
Bilal’s record cannot be rewritten. When foreign operatives and dignitaries negotiated their way out of the catastrophic siege of Aleppo in 2016, he stayed behind. He chose to remain under a storm of barrel bombs to ensure that the world witnessed the agony of the Syrian people. He was prepared to die so that the truth might be made known.
Having been smuggled across the border into HTS-controlled territory myself in January 2019 to report on the ground, I saw a reality that completely contradicted the convenient narratives of both Western intelligence and local security forces.
During my time in Idlib, I deliberately refused to interview Jolani or anyone in his inner circle. Instead, my focus was on a 400-strong community of expatriates, primarily British and European Muslims.
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These heroic individuals were not jihadists or militants. They were professionals, teachers, educationalists, clinicians and humanitarian workers driven by a profound belief in the Ummah. They left comfortable lives in the West to rebuild shattered schools, establish medical services, and restore basic dignity to the Syrian population when no one else would.
To now criminalise discussions about the legal status and human rights of these families is a betrayal of those who stood by Syria in its darkest hours.
The post-Assad administration run by Jolani is rapidly losing its moral legitimacy. The revolution was fought for accountability, the rule of law, and the dismantling of the secret police. However, Syria now finds itself under a leadership that fills its dungeons with dissenters and silences critical journalists beyond the reach of transparent justice. Syria under Jolani risks becoming a mirror image of the Assad regime he allegedly sought to replace.
The current leadership’s desperate bid for international and Western acceptance has created dangerous strategic compromises. The supporters of the current administration are either too blind or too compromised to see the long-term geopolitical consequences of Sharaa’s policies, which include:
* The exploitation of Syrian territory by allowing foreign military operations — including Israeli strikes against Lebanon from Syrian soil — which undermine regional solidarity and compromise Syria’s sovereignty.
* Delivering the Zionist dream. By striving to cooperate with global powers, this administration risks delivering the regional ambitions of a “Greater Israel” on a silver platter.
My American friend Bilal Abdul Kareem is currently detained because he dared to ask uncomfortable questions about citizenship, governance and military alignment. His arrest is a litmus test for the future of Syria.
If the new administration cannot tolerate a single independent journalist delivering inconvenient truths, it has already failed the revolution. We must not allow the messenger to be destroyed for exposing the regime’s structural failures.
Syria has sacrificed the soul of the revolution by arresting Bilal Abdul Kareem. He must be released without delay.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
