Religion as one of the Controversial Issues in the Syrian Constitutions

Religion was one of the controversial issues during the writing of Syrian constitutions. There were two trends, one of which wanted to reinforce the role of religion and its status in the constitution, and the other refused to give a distinctive status to a specific religion in the constitution. Because, for the latter, this would disturb the equality of citizens, especially due to the fact that the former considers Islamic “Fiqh” as a source of legislation, or require that the President of the Republic be of a specific religion. In the past, parties would reach a compromise through dialogue. After 2011, as a result of what Syria has been experiencing in the recent period, the constitutional debate has been reignited by attempts to draw up a new constitution, and it is expected that the controversy will have repercussions on other issues. There are fears of adopting constitutional texts that are contradictory in essence and content in order to satisfy many opponents, and stripping some constitutional texts of their contents by replacing them with their complete opposites, in addition to attempts to satisfy certain groups by ignoring the concerns of other groups of the same people, and ignoring the principles of citizenship by discriminating between citizens on the basis of affiliation and religious belief.