Syrian Social Nationalist Party to Minister calling Syria an Arab Nation: do not discuss matters of which you are ignorant and resign

DARAMSUQ (DAMASCUS) – The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) has rejected the remarks made by the Syrian Minister of Endowments (Awqaf) Muhammad Abd al-Sattar al-Sayed who sarcastically asked an audience about the Syrian Nation saying, “Has anybody heard of the Syrian Nation? We only heard of the Arab Nation.”

The Syrian Ministers sarcastic remarks came after statements by President of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath regime Bashar al-Assad that Syrian history is Arab history – despite Bashar’s father, former Ba’ath regime leader Hafez al-Assad, having stated on several public occasions that Syria is in the name of the Syriac people.

The SSNP in her response pointed out that the Ministers statements are nothing but shameful ignorance; “The Syrian Nation are the peoples who have inhabited this land. It is a wonderful mixture of various authentic components, ethnicities and groups, in addition to groups that came in throughout recent times, settled, dwelt, fought, intermarried, and integrated with them,” the SSNP’s statement declared.

“If racists people and religious fanatics like you appear in society, we are here to prevent the spread of such destructive ideas,” the statement added.

The SSNP described the minister’s speech as reactionary, claiming his sarcastic statement is not compatible with his position because a responsible minister thinks first before making public statements and weighs his words carefully.

The statement called the minister to resign; “Leave politics, philosophy and economics; and do not discuss concepts of which you are ignorant.”