Rime Allaf, Patrick Haenni and Jerome Drevon

Writer and political analyst Rime Allaf and researchers Dr Patrick Haenni and Dr Jerome Drevon discuss the overthrow of President Assad in Syria and the rise of a new Islamic government that has grown from a former al-Qaeda affiliate.

Allaf is a Damascus-born writer, political analyst and former associate fellow at Chatham House. In It Started in Damascus: How the Long Syrian Revolution Reshaped Our World, she explains how Syrians are grappling with a freedom fight many decades old. Allaf says Bashar Assad betrayed the hopes of Syrians that he would be an agent of change when he succeeded his father. She asks whether a new power in Damascus can forge the change that Syrians have been dreaming of for a quarter of a century.

Haenni has been carrying out research on social movements and the state in the Middle East for many years. Drevon is senior analyst in jihad and modern conflict at the International Crisis Group. Together, they are authors of Transformed by the People: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s Road to Power in Syria, which explains how a jihadi group transformed into a movement that is now rebuilding Syria. They explain how Hayat Tahrir al-Sham embraced a non-radical conservative society and aligned itself with secular Turkey. Haenni and Drevon say the group has confronted al-Qaeda and Islamic State and marginalised its own die-hards.

Part of the festival’s programme of Islamic literature and culture.