1964 Hama riot

December 2014 Anti Baath Uprising 1964 Hama riot the Arab Cold War Map of the 1964 Hama Riot.svg 300px In green is Old Hama, which was the epicenter of the insurrection. In blue is the Sultan Mosque, which served as the rebel headquarters. April 1964 Hama, Syria Insurrection suppressed Syria 1963 Syrian Armed ForcesSyria 1963 Workers' BattalionsSyria 1963 National Guard of the Ba'ath Party 22px|border Muslim Brotherhood22px|border Fighting Vanguard Syria 1963 Amin al-HafizPresident of SyriaPrime Minister of SyriaSyria 1963 Hamad UbaydCommander of National Guard 22px|border Marwan HadidLeader of the Fighting Vanguard22px|border Mahmud al-Hamid Imam of Sultan Mosque22px|border Saʽid HawwaWeismann Itzchak Sa'id Hawwa: The Making of a Radical Muslim Thinker in Modern Syria Middle Eastern Studies October 1993 29 4 616 10.1080/00263209308700969 300+ killed or capturedSeale, 1990, pp. 94–95. 70-100 killedSeveral wounded and imprisoned. The 1964 Hama riot was a major riot and insurrection that took place in Hama, a city in northern Syria, between the newly installed Ba'athist government of Syria and the Muslim Brotherhood in April 1964. It occurred following the 1963 Ba'athist coup d'état, that placed the Ba'ath Party in power. The insurrection was brutally suppressed with heavy military force, resulting in many mortal casualties and partial destruction of the old Hama city neighborhoods. However, despite the government successfully crushing the insurrection, Hama continued to be a center of Islamists and a focal point of the Islamist uprising in Syria (1979–1982). Background The first clash between the Ba'ath Party and the Muslim Brotherhood occurred shortly after the 1963 coup, in which the Ba'ath party gained power in Syria. The Islamist political groups, of which the Brotherhood was the most prominent, presented the most significant challenge to the Ba'athists, who had suppressed their Nasserist and Marxist rivals by mid-1963. The outlawing of Brotherhood in 1964 strongly contributed to the movement's radicalization. In 1964 and 1965, strikes and mass demonstrations spread throughout Syria's major cities, especially in Hama, and were crushed by the military. The town of Hama in particular was a "stronghold of landed conservatism and of the Muslim Brothers," and "had long been a redoubtable opponent of the Ba'athist state," according to Syria expert Patrick SealeApril 2022. The governments of Egypt and Iraq financially supported opposition to the Ba'athists although countrywide discontent was high nonetheless from the stagnation of the economy, merchants resenting the increasing regulations, incompetent governance, and resentment of the Ba'athist government's secretive decision-making. Riot In April 1964 major disturbances occurred in several Syrian cities, with Hama forming the epicenter of the anti-government insurrection. Islamist insurgents in the city set up "roadblocks, stockpiled food and weapons, ransacked wine shops." The rebels were encouraged to revolt against the Ba'athists by the imam of the Sultan Mosque, Shaykh Mahmud al-Hamid, and were financed by some of the city's traditional merchant families. The Sultan Mosque would become the rebels headquarters, and it was used both as a sanctuary and to store weapons.Miller Judith God Has Ninety-Nine Names: Reporting from a Militant Middle East Simon and Schuster 2011 303 After Munzir al-Shimali, an Ismaili Ba'athist militiaman, was killed and mutilated by rioters, riots intensified and rebels attacked "every vestige" of the Ba'ath Party in Hama.Seale, 1990, pp. 92–93. Hamad Ubayd, the commander of the Ba'athist-dominated National Guard, called for and received tank support and reinforcements from the Syrian Army. Subsequently, neighborhoods where the rebels held sway were attacked with tank and artillery fire, forcing the rebels to withdraw into the Sultan Mosque after two days of fighting. President Amin al-Hafiz ordered for the rebels to be eliminated, and the mosque was subsequently bombarded, destroying the minaret where many of the rebels were positioned. The security forces thus managed to suppress the uprising. Some 70-100 members of the Muslim Brotherhood were killed,James A.Paul et al. Human Rights in Syria. Middle East Watch Organization, 1990: p.10. with many others wounded or captured and still more disappearing underground.Dumper, Stanley, and Abu-Lughod, 2007, p.164. Aftermath 1981 Hama massacre 1982 Hama massacre Islamic uprising in Syria Syrian Civil War A tribunal was set up to try imprisoned insurgents and was headed by Mustafa Tlass. Some prisoners were released, including Marwan Hadid, who was instrumental in organizing a second Islamist uprising in Hama years later. The shelling of the Sultan Mosque had outraged many Syrian Muslims and numerous countrywide strikes and demonstrations were held in protest. The opposition to the Ba'ath was wide-ranging, and included merchants, professionals, laborers and craftsmen and brought together poor Sunni Muslims from the countryside, members of the middle class and the traditional political and social elites. Hafiz felt compelled to resign in favor of a civilian politician, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, who was a member of the Ba'ath Party, but not from the officer corps. Al-Bitar publicly promised to protect civil liberties and announced a new provisional constitution. Bitar and other civilian members of the Ba'ath, such as Michel Aflaq, still held little sway over governmental decisions and both resigned from the government, with al-Hafiz re-occupying the prime minister post.Seale, 1990, p. 94. The events in Hama also caused a rupture within the Military Committee, the secretive junta that held prominent influence in the Syrian government since the 1963 coup. Muhammad Umran, the senior member of the Committee, disapproved of the severity of the assault on Hama and the subsequent bloodshed, while Salah Jadid and Hafez al-Assad strongly supported Hafiz's handling of the riots, viewing it as a necessary means to protect Ba'athist power against "class enemies."Seale, 1990, pp. 94–95. In early 1980s, Hama became the epicenter of the countrywide Islamist uprising. The city experienced a massacre in April 1981, with hundreds killed. The situation deteriorated further in early February 1982, when Islamist groups took over the city. In the ensuing army operation to oust them, most of Hama was destroyed and thousands of its residents were killed. See also Syrian Civil War Human rights in Syria List of modern conflicts in the Middle East References Bibliography Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia https://books.google.com/books?id=3SapTk5iGDkC&q=Cities+of+the+Middle+East Michael Dumper Bruce E. Stanley Janet L. Abu-Lughod ABC-CLIO 2007 9781576079195 Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East Seale Patrick University of California Press 1990 978-0-520-06976-3 registration https://archive.org/details/asadofsyriastrug00seal Category:1964 in Syria Category:1964 riots Category:Arab rebellions Category:Ba'athist Syria Category:History of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region Category:History of the Muslim Brotherhood Category:Military history of Hama Category:Political repression in Syria Category:Riots and civil disorder in Syria