The reinvention of al-Golani

This short piece was originally designed as a riposte for an exchange in a sub-thread of a post I made on Facebook. The person tried to dismiss the generous image-laundering blast the Syrian rebels and their leader, Abu Muhammad al-Golani, enjoy in Western media. He argued, erroneously, that the said media calls a spade the spade when it comes to the coverage of Syrian rebel exploit in the Middle East and their victory over Assad, the dictator they toppled after decades in power.

Yet, like in the case of other social media debates, the person throwing this argument just assumed himself to be capable of attempting media content analysis like a pro and dumped the verdict on us. The truth is that there was no content analysis, just a mere assumption.

To go straight to the point, the Western Media has been doing its best to launder the image of Syrian rebels and their leadership by portraying them as a moderate, pragmatic militia trying to provide the right leadership in Syria.

Like in the case of any professional job in laundering a damaged brand, the media, will not attempt to delete the past of the same people branded as ISIS and Al-Qaeda since they are now the friends of the West. Yet, the simple way to confer legitimacy on them is to use “sanitised” language and tales of positives about them. In every headline you read, al-Golani is described as “Syrian Rebels Leader”. The man on whose head attracted the bounty of $10 million by the US government a few years ago is now enjoying cover interviews and glamourous profiling in the mainstream media.
PSB News lifted an article by the Associated Press and did a cover story with this poser: “Who is Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the Leader of Syria’s Rebels that Toppled Assad?” PBS News used dignified language to capture readers’ imaginations about him.

“Abu Mohammed al-Golani militant leader whose stunning insurgency toppled Syria’s President Bashar Assad, has spent years working to remake his public image, renouncing longtime ties to al-Qaida and depicting himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance. As he entered Damascus behind his victorious fighters Sunday, he even dropped his nom de guerre and referred to himself with his real name, Ahmad al-Sharaa,” they wrote.

This prologue of the article says everything one needs to know about Al-Baghdadi’s protégé who has carved a political niche for himself following securing a sensational victory against an enemy of the West. He is also rebranded as a champion of secularism, veiled as “pluralism.

CNN has a similar profile with a heading: “Who is the leader of Syria’s rebels, and what does he want?” The article extensively quotes the new Syrian leader from the earlier CNN interview with him. His latest image of a protector of Christian minorities is subtly highlighted.

But if there was subtleness in CNN’s whitewashing of al-Golani, The Telegraph has taken it to a new brazen level.
For instance, under the caption, “How Syria’s ‘diversity-friendly’ jihadists’ plan on building a state,” penned by Aaron Y Zelin, the paper accentuates al-Golani’s statecraft to Nelson Mandela’s level. He is, no doubt, laundered as a man capable of rebuilding a diverse nation.

Let us treat ourselves to the dignified language used to describe him and his leadership.

“Jolani has attempted to improve his reputation in the eyes of the West. In 2021, he gave an interview to PBS, the US state-funded broadcaster, calling the designation of HTS as a terrorist group “unfair” and “political”, ” Zelin told us. But who was behind these series of interviews involving CNN, and even state-funded media? Isn’t it curious that al-Golani has suddenly became the toast of the mainstream media after succeeding in tunneling himself to the straight pipeline to global visibility? Was he coached on what to say and how to say it? We should ask the agency behind the series of interviews. Don’t tell me there was none.

Yet, Zelin has given us more insight, about al-Golani’s new status in the West.

“He said that under the Salvation Government, the administrative arm of HTS, the rule should be Islamic “but not according to the standards of IS or even Saudi Arabia”.

“In Idlib region, Jolani has allowed women not to wear the veil and smokers to keep up the habit, a looser regime than, for example, the Taliban in Afghanistan.”

Wait, I have not finished.

“As his fighters advanced into Aleppo, Jolani put out a series of statements intended to allay fears among the population, segments of which are aligned with the Assad regime.
Fighters should not “scare children”, he said, while HTS channels eagerly broadcast clips of Christians in the city going about their business as normal. Afram Ma’lui, the Archbishop of Aleppo, promised that services would be unaffected by the takeover,” he further wrote.

Perhaps to clear further doubt about the new leader’s capacity to rule, the author added this: “Even as the HTS leader armed and prepared his fighters in Idlib, he stressed the importance of state-building.

“In March this year, Jolani addressed a cohort of top students at Idlib University, saying that rebels would have to build governments in the middle of a war – rather than after the conflict ends.

“Every brick built in the liberated areas advances us hundreds of kilometres towards our fundamental goal, which is the liberation of Damascus – God willing,” he said.

I can go on and on. But I am allergic to long reading. Nonetheless, permit me to close with this analogy. Can we easily accept that Bello Turji emerges as the new rebel leader of Nigeria from the North and after announcing “stunning” victory CNN starts glossing over how repented he is? And what will be your reaction if he is celebrated as a man who denounces violence and is now a champion of our diversity as a pluralist?

I wrote in from Abuja.