Al-Sharaa described Rifai as “one of the flags of the Levant” during the ceremony [Getty]
Senior figures in Syria’s new government attended the funeral of a prominent Sufi-leaning preacher in Damascus on Wednesday as the country’s conservative Islamist rulers seek to put together a broader Islamic coalition.
The funeral was held for Sheikh Sariya al-Rifai, an Assad critic and brother of Syria’s Grand Mufti Osama Rifai, who died aged 77 in Turkey on Monday.
Rifai had been living in exile in Turkey for more than a decade after criticising the Assad regime’s crackdown on protesters in the early days of the country’s 14-year civil war.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and his newly-appointed foreign and defence ministers were among the officials gathered at the Umayyad Mosque for the ceremony.
Al-Sharaa is the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist rebel group with previous ties to al-Qaeda that spearheaded the overthrow of the Assad regime in December.
The organisation broke ties with al-Qaeda in 2017 and has pledged since ousting Assad to establish a moderate administration that will govern on behalf of Syria’s minorities as well as its Sunni majority.
Speaking at the funeral, Al-Sharaa described Rifai as “one of the flags of the Levant” and called for national unity following the 14-year civil war.
“Today, we are a great historical crossroads,” he told the gathering.
“We lost the Levant for a period of time, and this experience should not be repeated again. Today, it is a trust in all our hands, and we participate in building it, reviving it and developing it.”
Sariya’s brother, Grand Mufti Osama Rifai, was also in attendance, having returned to Damascus from Turkey earlier in the week after 13 years in exile.
The Rifais, both influential Islamic scholars, emerged as prominent critics of the Assad regime after it began its brutal crackdown on opposition protests in 2011.
In August of that year, Osama was hospitalised after Assad’s forces attacked the Rifai Mosque in Damascus – a focal point for protests in the early days of the uprising – and Sariya was banned from preaching. Both brothers subsequently left the country.
Osama was appointed Syria’s grand mufti by the opposition in 2021 after the Assad regime abolished the position.
