'Oh Syria, God Protects You': Islam as Cultural Idiom under Bashar al-Asad.

The article focuses on the use of Islam as cultural dialect in Syria in 2000 under the nation's leader Bashar al-Asad. It notes that Islamic symbols and vocabulary were used by Ba'thist regime under Bashar in an attempt to gain legitimacy and popularity among pious Sunni Muslims in the nation. It adds that the growing use of Islamic rhetoric by the regime works in tandem with its efforts to ensure the acquiescence of the Sunni religious establishment for its political and social projects. It explores the efforts of Bashar to reshape Aleppo as the capital of Islamic culture. Also mentioned are vernacular religion and the limits of religious policies of Bashar.