30-12-2013
ARA News – Exclusive
Nusaybin, Turkey− Salahuddin al-Kurdi, spokesman of the Kurdish Islamic Front in Syria (KIF), said that the main objective of the Front is defending the rights of the Kurdish people in Syria, adding that the implementation of the Islamic Law (Shariaa) is the only way to guarantee a fair solution to the Kurdish cause.
As a armed group and a part of the extended Syrian Islamic Front, the Kurdish Islamic Front carries out most of its operations in northern areas near Aleppo and Hasaka.
“The Front (KIF) fights to regain the rights of the Kurds, and we intend to establish an Islamic authority in Syria’s Kurdish region after the downfall of the current regime,” al-Kurdi said in an exclusive interview with ARA News.
Al-Kurdi considered the Kurdish political parties in Syria “incapable of accomplishing the aspirations of the Kurdish people”.
“The demands of those political parties do not exceed cultural and political rights for the Kurds in Syria, while we (the Kurdish Islamic Front) are looking forward to achieve more,” he said. “Islam guarantees rights our people are not familiar with; they think that Islam is the reason behind their sufferings. However, oppression was mainly practised by the secular parties such as the Arab Baath Party, the Turkish secular rightists, and the Persian Shiites who hold hostility towards the descendants of Saladin (the prominent Islamic Kurdish leader who defeated crusades)”.
According to al-Kurdi, the Ahrar al-Sham Movement −Islamist group affiliated with Syrian Islamic Front− issued a statement last week saying that the movement is about to declare a charter in which it considers Arabs and Kurds “equal in Islam” and they will be granted “all their legitimate rights under an Islamic rule”.
“The Movement’s charter maintains the rights of the Kurds. An Islamic rule in the country will guarantee the rights of all components of the Syrian community, including the Kurds”, al-Kurdi told ARA News.
Al-Kurdish said that the recently established Syrian Islamic Front (SIF) −coalition of a number of Islamic groups− will be responsible for admitting the Kurdish cultural, social and political rights in Syria.
“We have joined the SIF on the condition of responding to the demands of our Kurdish people, and we will continue our fight until those demands are achieved,” he said. “If any group will try to use the Kurds for some authoritarian interests, our weapons’ barrels will be directed to all of its members.”
He added that the Kurdish Islamic Front (KIF) defended other Muslim factions against the “suppression of Assad forces”.
“We never hesitated to defend Arab Muslims, and they are supposed to behave in the same way towards the Kurds; otherwise, the Front (KIF) may take independent decisions regardless of the attitude of other Islamic groups in Syria,” al-Kurdi argued.
Regarding areas under the control of the Kurdish Front, he said: “Several Kurdish areas which are freed from the Assad forces are under our control, such as a collection of villages near al-Bab (in northern countryside of Aleppo), some other villages in the suburbs of Tel Abyad/Girespi (near Raqqa), and few areas in Hasakah and Qamishli/Qamishlo”.
Al-Kurdi denied any relations with any Kurdish forces outside Syria, adding that KIF does not hold any hostility towards any Kurdish group either.
“We make remarkable efforts to provide our people with the needed supplies and food. We do this only in the liberated Kurdish areas,” he emphasized.
As for the recent violations carried out recently by some Islamists against Churches in several areas in Syria, al-Kurdish condemned the actions and stressed that such actions are only executed by al-Qaeda affiliated groups −in a reference to the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham group (ISIS).
“Such practices violate the main objectives of our Islamic law which emphasizes protecting other religions and non-Muslim worship places,” al-Kurdi said. “Freedom of belief is maintained in the state of Islam.”
Al-Kurdi, spokesman of the Kurdish Islamic Front, concluded saying: “All components of the Syrian society will obtain their legitimate rights under a just Islamic rule that ensures equal rights for all”.
Interview by: Zara Seyda. Contribution: Egid Ibrahim
Source: ARA News
(Editing by: Adib Abdulmajid)
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