The Syrian Ministry of Awqaf, affiliated with the interim authority administered by “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham,” issued an official circular addressed to mosque imams and preachers in Syria, in which it described the military attacks on Kurdish forces as “conquests.” The circular opened with verse nine of Surat al-Anfal from the Qur’an, within a religious framing that confers religious legitimacy on the military operations.
The circular was signed by the Minister of Awqaf in the Syrian Arab Republic, Muhammad Abu al-Khayr Shukri, and was issued on 18 January 2019. In it, the minister called on mosque imams and preachers to perform qunut supplication in the five daily prayers and to pray for the victory of the soldiers of the “Syrian Arab Army.” He also called for raising the takbir in mosques as an expression of joy over what he described as “conquests and victories.”
This inciteful religious discourse comes amid military operations that began in mid-January 2026 in the countryside of Aleppo and areas east of the Euphrates, carried out by the forces of the interim authority, the “Syrian Arab Army/Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.” These operations were accompanied, according to the available information, by widespread violations and crimes against Kurdish civilians, as well as Kurdish male and female fighters who were captured during the battles, and the mutilation of the bodies of some of them.
In this context, the historical use of the term “conquests” to justify violence is invoked, recalling the “Anfal” campaign launched by Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq during 1987 and 1988 in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which resulted in the arrest and killing of approximately 182,000 Kurds and their burial in mass graves, with a similar religious and political employment of terminology.
In this context, the Democratic Islam Conference in the city of Qamishli in northern Syria condemned the statement issued by the Minister of Awqaf and held him religiously and morally responsible for every drop of blood shed under the name of “conquest and victory.”
This comes within the framework of escalating systematic incitement against the Kurdish people by supporters of the interim authority and media platforms affiliated with it, through the dissemination of misleading news and the exploitation of certain events within an inciteful religious context targeting Kurds. This incitement has also included practices carried out by armed supporters of the authority, consisting of broadcasting degrading scenes of Kurdish female fighters who were captured during the military operations, in addition to the mutilation of their bodies, and the use of abusive expressions that violate human dignity and demean the value of the victims on ethnic and gender-based grounds.
