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Input: “I support  Assad  because  he 's the defender of Middle Eastern Christianity " one member of the alt-right tells BuzzFeed News  giving just one reason why  he  and others like  him  back the Syrian president.
The brutal leader at the center of Syria’s five-year-long war has found support in one of the least likely places — among the alt-right. The white nationalists and trolls who identify with the alt-right have lifted up Bashar al-Assad as a hero in recent years. Support for the Syrian president means they can further tangled internet conspiracy theories  taps into a deep vein of anti-Semitism  anti-interventionism  and anti-globalism  and allows them to wind up their biggest enemy: liberals. It was a love affair years in the making. The nationalistic fervor that the Syrian government whipped up in its propaganda over the years has found a home in the hearts of many on the alt-right  the Intercept reports. From the point of view of James Alex Fields Jr. — who posted a popular meme of  Assad  on  his  Facebook profile before being charged with the death of a counterprotester in Charlottesville  Virginia  last month — and others like  him    Assad  was a figurehead who symbolized rebellion  a rejection of the popularly accepted narrative.  He  was also the perfect way to troll liberals like the ones Fields was marching against in Charlottesville. As Ben Nimmo of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab put it  the simplest explanation of the alt-right’s support for  Assad  is “the principle of ‘my enemy’s enemy’” — meaning mainstream media and politicians. “ Assad  has been repeatedly condemned by mainstream politicians  especially Democrats  and the mainstream media ” Nimmo told BuzzFeed News. “The alt-right forged their identity around demonizing the Democrats and the mainstream media. Amplifying or supporting  Assad  is therefore a way for the alt-right to troll their enemies.”
" Assad  did nothing wrong " the man yells. "Support the Syrian Arab Army." In the background another man chimes in: " Assad  is the man!"
" Assad  did nothing wrong" - Baked Alaska at UVA tonight. "Barrel bombs  hell yeah!"
The protests in Charlottesville culminated in violence and the death of a young female counterprotester  Heather Heyer. In the days after her killing  a pro- Assad  meme  showing the Syrian leader dressed in military fatigues  wearing sunglasses  and with the word “undefeated” at the bottom  was found on Fields' Facebook page.
People who fall in the center of the Venn diagram of  Assad  backers and Trump fans contacted in the aftermath  including both devoted members of the alt-right movement and those who have disavowed it  said they had been pro- Assad  before being pro-Trump. Many said they believed that  Assad  would protect Syria’s Christians after pro-democracy protests morphed into a civil war following the government’s brutal crackdown. Lue-Yee Tsang  an alt-right supporter in his late twenties who lives in the DC area  said he supported a president who protected and “supported the right of peaceful groups to maintain their ways of life ” as he believes Assad did. When the US election came around  Trump was the only candidate he considered supporting. “I’d love to have a Christian emperor instead  but given the field he was the best there was ” he said. A far right nationalist  who goes by the Twitter handle @IWillRedPillYou  who supports the expression of the alt-right’s views and who declined to give their real name  put it simply: “I support  Assad  because  he 's the defender of Middle Eastern Christianity.”
 Bashar al Assad  is a hero. The protector of Christians in the Middle East.
An estimated million Christians are among the 6 million people who have been displaced inside Syria or fled the country entirely among intense fighting  while others are reported to have fled to regime-held areas  and generally support the regime. Many were targeted by ISIS  who began operating in the country in 2014  further compounding the violence of the civil war. Some alt-right supporters said their love for  Assad  was also a means of advocating for American non-intervention  a facet they share with some left-wing supporters of  Assad 's regime. But they also stress the need to fight ISIS — the alt-right has repeatedly trumpeted the threat that radical Islamic terror poses to America  and the west generally. In  Assad   many on the far and alt-right see the Syrian leader holding a “crucial foothold” against larger geopolitical forces  Alexander Reid Ross  author of the new book Against the Fascist Creep and a lecturer of geography at Portland State University  told The Intercept.  Assad ’s actions would contain Islamic terror but (crucially) wouldn’t involve American forces. But more than that  those who spoke to BuzzFeed News were convinced that the Syrian war wasn’t simply a case of citizens agitating for freedom from a repressive regime. What they saw was Israel and the so-called “deep state” hard at work to disrupt a country that's just trying to protect itself. (The “deep state” refers to the myriad intelligence agencies and establishment officials they believe really run the US at the expense of the people.) What that meant  they said  was that  Assad  wasn’t the villain —  he  was the hero. “Without  Assad  Muslims would conquer and likely decimate those remaining Christians ” user @IWillRedPillYou said. If anything   Assad ’s faith as part of a minority Muslim sect in Syria — albeit a hugely powerful one — was yet another a reason to support him. And  he said  the Syrian dictator was a “sovereign leader that's been targeted by Zionist expansion for the better part of a decade.” “Even those who know very little about  Assad  see [being pro- Assad ] as part of a culture of opposition to both Daesh and the Jewish state of Israel ” Tsang  who stated he was “not anti-Muslim at all ” said. “I mean  it’s all over the memes so it’s easy to pick up  culturally.” User @IWillRedPillYou claimed that Israel wished to take part of Syria in the Golan Heights  while Iran’s involvement in the conflict was due to a desire to push back against Israel. “ Bashar al-Assad  is caught in the midst of fighting both ” they said. “ Bashar al-Assad  did nothing wrong.” Such beliefs  Nimmo noted  were reflective of the alt-right’s “very strong preference for conspiracy theories” and their “abiding belief in the ‘Deep State’ and ‘neocon’ conspiracies to hold onto power against The Will Of The People.” The focus on Israel mirrored their focus on Jews in the US.
It appeared to begin with a hashtag that appeared earlier that year  #CantMossadTheAssad  which had its first mentions on Twitter from very small accounts with fewer than 100 followers each. The hashtag itself played into the recurring anti-Semitic theme among many in the alt-right — that Israel’s intelligence and security agency was running the show in Syria. In August 2013  Alex Jones of Infowars ran an interview with a pro- Assad  blogger named Mimi Al-Laham  better known as PartisanGirl  but who also goes by a host of online names. Al-Laham told Jones it was implausible that the Syrian government had staged the chemical attack  which killed hundreds of people  including children  and was documented by extensive video evidence. The US  the UK  and France all said in September  following a UN report  that they believed only the Syrian government was behind the attack. But almost immediately after the videos of the attack began spreading on Twitter  supporters of  Assad  — from alt-right trolls to the Russian government — said there was no way the  Assad  regime could be involved. Jones also ran with it and said the operation was a “false flag ” an event staged to spark a reaction  blaming the attack on the rebels and claiming the war itself was part of a movement orchestrated by Goldman Sachs and Israel. Those in the alt-right appear to see no issue in cheerleading for a Muslim leader while simultaneously agitating against Islam. So Richard Spencer  who first helped popularize the term “alt-right ” is able to aggressively support Trump’s “Muslim ban ” while also getting behind the Syrian dictator because  as he told BuzzFeed News   Assad  had been “educated in the West and offer[ed] a civilized variant of Islam.” “ He  was educated in Britain  so was  his  wife   he  just seems to be a reasonable person ”  he  said. “I have more sympathy to some leaders because I feel I share something with them. I do like  him  more.  His  wife is very beautiful and a sophisticated woman as well.”
The #AltRight backs  Assad .
 Spencer  said  he ’d been “aware” of  Assad  since the early 2000s. Coverage of  Assad  at the time  soon after  he ’d inherited the presidency from  his  father  was limited to a rigged referendum confirming  his  succession ( he  was the only candidate) and muted support for an opening up of the tightly controlled state.
The core of it for  Spencer  was that  Assad   in addition to being the “rightful  legitimate ruler of Syria ” was fighting ISIS. Harking back to the question of  his  support for an Islamic leader   Spencer  stated: “The question really isn’t do I support white people or  Assad   the question really is whether I support  Assad  or ISIS?” But the alt-right narrative was complicated by the 2017 chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province  which Trump responded to by launching a series of airstrikes into Syria — the first time the US had targeted the regime in all its years of smaller-scale involvement. The strikes provoked a split in prominent alt-right media figures  between those who continued to support Trump and those who officially declared themselves “OFF the Trump train ” in the case of British citizen Paul Joseph Watson. (He would later recant and rejoin the train.)
Those in the alt-right who supported  Assad  prior to supporting Trump came to see the US president’s strikes as explicit evidence of the deep state’s interference in Syria  with Mike Cernovich  at the time a leading alt-right personality  leading the charge by amplifying the #SyriaHoax false flag — laying the blame squarely at the feet of the “deep state.” As  Spencer  put it: “The fact that I  and most all of the alt-right  offer  him  moral support is because  he  has become a bogeyman in the mainstream media and is clearly the target of the Deep State  military industrial complex  foreign-policy establishment.” “Sure  there might be some kids out there who want to shock their parents with an  Assad  meme  or something like that ”  he  admitted  putting those individuals on one end of a “spectrum” of support for the Syrian leader. Many of those in the alt-right  who support  Assad   are situated somewhere in the middle of reactionary trolling and deep state theories  according to  Spencer . “There are a lot of people who are so skeptical of everything that Washington does that whenever  Assad  is in the crosshairs they don’t like it  even if they don’t quite understand the full complexity of the issue.”  He  continued: “But I imagine that  on the whole  most in the alt-right share my perspective.” The engagement of a mostly younger  internet-literate crowd — like Tsang — rests on an bedrock of older and more traditional right-wing and far-right support for the Syrian president. David Duke  former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan  has voiced his support for  Assad   as has Ann Coulter. Across the Atlantic  France’s Marine Le Pen has stated that  Assad  is the the “solution” to the region’s current turmoil  and in the UK  Nigel Farage has voiced tepid support for the continuation of the  Assad  regime  as has controversial columnist Katie Hopkins  British Infowars writer Watson  and British Nationalist Party founder Tommy Robinson. But Cernovich wants everyone to ignore the memes  the support at Charlottesville  the discussions online — and his once-upon-a-time advocacy for  Assad . As Cernovich attempts to join the mainstream   he  is pivoting away from some tenets — such as support for  Assad  — and  despite evidence to the contrary  arguing that such support does not exist. Despite that  he  does think the Syrian leader should remain in place: “Opposing regime change  in my view  isn’t supporting anyone.” “Zero Trump supporters back  Assad   this is the definition of fake news ”  he  said. “I've talked to thousands of Trump supporters  never heard of  Assad  support.” ●

The Alt