Over the last ten days or so, as deadly violence broke out in the southern Syrian province of Sweida, there was one name that kept coming up: Hikmat al-Hijri.

The 60-year-old spiritual leader of Syria's Druze community played a major role in events that saw over 500 people killed and threatened to overturn Syria's fragile transition, after decades ruled by a dictatorship.

Al-Hijri's critics have blamed his belligerent attitude towards the new Syrian government for what happened as violence escalated. They describe him as an "unhinged warlord," a power-hungry traitor to his country and a drug smuggler with ties to remnants of the ousted Syrian dictatorship's military. But his fans say the Druze spiritual leader is a "symbol of dignity and nobility," who was right to defend his community against the overbearing new Syrian government and their potentially dangerous followers.

The position of Druze spiritual leader is inherited and after his older brother, Ahmad, died in an unexplained car accident in 2012 — the Assad regime was suspected — the younger al-Hijri, born June 1965 in Venezuela, was given the post.

He is one of the three main religious leaders of the Druze community in Syria. The others are Yousef Jarbou and Hammoud al-Hanawi. The spiritual leaders are seen as a reference point on social, moral and religious matters and for any major decisions, there is supposed to be consensus between all three.

While the Assad regime was in power, and during the Syrian civil war, which started 2011 and ended 2024, al-Hijri's position might best be described as one of politically expediency. At times he openly supported the Assad regime, urging young Druze to fight for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. But by 2023, he........

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