Videos circulating on 16 July appear to show Syrian security personnel in the southern governorate of Sweida forcibly shaving the beards and moustaches of Druze men—an act regarded in the community as a grave humiliation—before parading them in public. Social-media clips and local news reports also depict soldiers chanting about having left “no moustaches” in Sweida. Activists say dozens of Druze were killed during raids that began a day earlier, including Sheikh Marhaj Shaheen, an 80-year-old religious elder who reportedly died after being beaten and shorn of his facial hair by fighters aligned with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The group, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani) and recently folded into Syria’s new ruling structure, has not commented on the allegations. Human-rights advocates condemned the scenes as sectarian abuse and urged international monitoring bodies to investigate the reported killings. There has so far been no independent confirmation of casualty figures and no immediate response from Damascus. The episode adds to long-running tensions between the Druze minority and Syria’s predominantly Sunni Islamist factions, heightening concerns of a wider escalation in the south.
Hundreds of Christians and Druze were slaughtered in Syria yesterday—silence. Now the same accounts are “outraged” Israel is stopping more slaughter. They’ve exposed themselves: it was never about human rights, it’s about defending Islamist terrorists and scapegoating Israel.
Stand with the Druze. https://t.co/HZLOyhPdWR
Yesterday, Syrian Islamists carried massacre after massacre against innocent Druze in Southern Syria. It is truly unbelievable how the same people who didn’t say a word yesterday, are suddenly outraged by Israel attempting to stop the slaughter. https://t.co/mxohyjGej5