Chapter XVI. Mining and Extraction

A man was walking on his way through the alleys of the old Levant. Two men in civilian clothes stopped him. One of them said he spoke with a clear Alawite accent.

-Here you stop

The man’s limbs trembled, he sensed something bad was about to happen.

They moved closer, and one of them snatched the book out of his hand without saying a word while the muscular stood directly behind him.

He did not dare to ask them who you are, perhaps it was hope, so he did not want to ask so as not to hear the answer that he did not wish for.

He opened the book on which the Thousand and One Nights were written without even looking at the cover, gave it a quick glance before closing it again, grinned, and then motioned to the man, telling him to follow us without saying a word.

His chest trembling with fear, he closed his eyes when he saw the side door of the black minibus with its black-tinted windows open. The second man grabbed his arm firmly and, like a sheep being driven to its altar, he went with them without even disputing with them, without asking them anything, or trying to flee.

Two more men were inside. He opened them, brought himself up, and held himself still while the second man pushed him and the two got off the bus and crowded around him.

– who are you? What are you expecting from me?

-You better go up or…, Air Force Intelligence…

“Or” What a letter with so many abbreviations. When someone is feeling intimidated, the word “or” conveys much more than just an exception. What happens next will determine the technique and type of torture, such as nail plucking, drowning, burying someone alive, electrocution, lashing, burning with fire, etc., or perhaps all of the above.

You must act appropriately if you hear this letter being read by two people speaking in the Alawite dialect; otherwise, catastrophic consequences may result.

After putting him in handcuffs, blindfolding him, and driving the car, the man swiftly headed to the Air Force Intelligence branch.

The man said to himself as he heard the voices of the officers surrounding him on the car, ranting about the forms of torture awaiting him: “Damn me, I should not have trusted the owner of the bookstore, for sure he is, Sheikh Suleiman is above suspicion, he sent me knowing nothing about the betrayal of the owner of the bookstore.

He had his fair share of beatings, taunts, and abuse at the branch before making it to the investigation office.

The detective: What’s your name?

-Imran

-What is your religion?

-Sunni

-Are you takfiri?

-No sir

-Why did you buy this book full of thoughts of atonement?

– This is the novel of One Thousand and One Nights, sir. What aspect of atonement does it contain?

-I’m not talking about the cover, damned one, but about the pages behind the cover, the genuine book with a false cover on it, so don’t lie, the interrogator said, slapping him across the face.

 Imran: Sir. What you’re referring to is beyond me! One Thousand and One Nights was one of the books I got, but I haven’t read it yet.

-Oh crap, I told you not to lie. That was the second blow. Do you really believe that we are in the dark about your relationship with Suleiman?

The man closed his eyes, “it’s over, my life is inevitably over, at least in the form it was a while ago.”

It was not an investigation, but rather an ambush that was planned in advance. It came to an end quickly after that blow. He was put into the cells in preparation for his transfer to Saydnaya prison, where he will have to decide his own fate. He can either enter the cells of death, torment, hunger, and thirst that regular Syrians enter, or he can enter the cells of freedom.

Alternatively, he can enter those cells with their special privileges, where he will find his desired book along with dozens of others that are even more extreme and blasphemous. He will also find there a professor who specializes in them, allowing him to learn at their hands and delve deeper into the fundamentals and controls of atonement.

He could be able to pass the tests in a few years and advance to the rank of elder in the Takfir sect and master of gents, or he might wind up going back to the death cells or even to the community cremation pit, but it appears like his future is bright.

Since he includes a seed that needs to be watered and nurtured, intelligence operatives have been keeping an eye on him for a while in the hopes that he may one day be useful.

This procedure, known by the Air Force Intelligence as the mining process, involves looking for those who exhibit symptoms of willingness to take an errant religious route, such as hyperbole and takfir, in a manner similar to how miners look for gold underground.

Then, as if by tricking him through one of their agents into obtaining a forbidden book that planted this idea, they are caught in a close ambush. Once he was apprehended, the process came to an end and the extraction stage started.

Where it must be extracted from the inside of the gold, and purified from the impurities suspended in it,

And the gold here is the deviant takfiri thought.

The impurity is the conscience and the remnants of humanity in it.

Since the Syrian people stood up in opposition to them during the Hama Revolution sixteen years ago,

Because to the strict secrecy surrounding what occurred, some testimony and reports concerning that revolution have made their way into the open, despite the fact that there is a dearth of information available to the general public and the media about it.

The accounts described atrocities that the regime did against the Syrian people that are unimaginable to a human being, distorting the regime’s reputation in the eyes of the international community.

This is just from the crumbs; what will happen if this happens again? Can they then conceal the truth?

They are not the only ones who are concerned about this; members of the Alawite sect have also expressed their displeasure and dread of the repercussions of these atrocities, which they feel could lead to a door of retaliation that cannot be closed unless the sect as a whole is destroyed.

They have lived in this country for more than a thousand years without encountering any damage from outsiders, therefore this episode is unique in that it shows the sect directly taking part in a large-scale killing without being covered up by colonialism or a veil.

So, a radical solution was required.

A solution that makes any upcoming revolution a source of terror for the Syrian people and the international community

A solution that allows them to repeat what they did in Hama.

Uncontrollably…