Is Salafi-jihadism in the Levant unique?

The Levantine jihadism of HTS has taken a markedly different path from Islamic State and al-Qaeda. Understanding why requires revisiting its history, social roots, and political context In his 2010 novel Soldiers of God, the Syrian novelist Fawaz Haddad offered a compelling fictional account of post-invasion Iraq, told through the story of a Syrian Communist father who crosses into Iraq in search of his son, who has left Syria to join al-Qaeda and risen to become one of its commanders.The life story of Hussein al-Sharaa, the father of Syria’s current president, provides a real-world example of one member of that leftist generation whose dreams of Arab unity collapsed, leading him to leave Syria while his son embarked on a perilous journey by joining al-Qaeda. Subsequent politi…