“ Sectarianism as a political tool fundamentally serves to consolidate power and divide society . It can function to divert attention from socio-economic and political issues by scapegoating a particular group — defined through sectarian or ethnic identity — as the source of the country’s problems and as a security threat, thereby legitimizing discriminatory or repressive policies against it. Moreover, sectarianism acts as a mechanism of social control by shaping class relations and reinforcing forms of dependence between popular classes and elite leaderships. As a result, popular classes may lose forms of independent political agency and instead become politically mobilized primarily through sectarian identities. “In this context, the new authorities appear in several respects to reproduce patterns associated with the former Assad regime, notably through the continued use of sectarian policies and practices as instruments of governance, control, and social division.”
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51