On March 27 hardline Salafi groups staged massive demonstrations across several Syrian provinces including Damascus Hama Idlib Daraa and Deir ez-Zor under the Anti-Alcohol Campaign responding to previous protests by Christian and secular communities in Bab Touma Damascus who opposed neighborhood segregation and the restriction of civil liberties.
This field movement followed days of systematic social media incitement featuring extremist and takfiri rhetoric against other religions Slogans included threats regarding the return of the army of Muhammad and the liberation of Gaza while ISIS flags appeared publicly in the squares under the watchful eye of the so-called General Security Service This escalation represents a direct threat to Syrian national security by undermining civil peace and reviving radical ideologies that jeopardize the unity of the social fabric