Rateb Shabo is a Syrian physician and writer born in 1963. He spent 16 years in detention in Syria. He published The World of Early Islam (a study) and What Is Behind These Walls (a novel).
Similar to Assad, Syria's new rulers are using violence to cow a segment of the public, and drain society's energy to be part of building a 'New Syria'.
Comment: Four years after the first peaceful demonstrations of the Arab Spring, and the Middle East has reverted to inertia, violence, oppression, and apathy.
