1964 Hama riot

{{Infobox military conflict |conflict=1964 Hama riot |partof=the Arab Cold War |image=Map of the 1964 Hama Riot.svg |image_size = 300px |caption=In green is Old Hama, which was the epicenter of the insurrection. In blue is the Sultan Mosque, which served as the rebel headquarters. |date=April 1964 |place=Hama, Syria |coordinates= |map_type= |latitude= |longitude= |map_size= |map_caption= |territory= |result=Insurrection suppressed |status= |combatant1= Syrian Government
Ba'ath Party (Military Committee) |combatant2= Muslim Brotherhood |commander1= Amin al-Hafiz
President of Syria
Prime Minister of Syria
Hamad Ubayd
Commander of National Guard |commander2= Issam al-Attar
Supreme Guide of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood
Mahmud al-Hamid
Imam of Sultan Mosque
[[Sa'id Hawwa] After Munzir al-Shimali, an Ismaili Ba'athist militiaman, was killed and mutilated by rioters, riots intensified and rebels attacked "every vestige" of the Ba'ath Party in Hama.

Hamad Ubayd, the commander of the Ba'athist-dominated National Guard, called for and received tank support and reinforcements from the Syrian Army. Subsequently, neighborhoods where the rebels held sway were attacked with tank and artillery fire, forcing the rebels to withdraw into the Sultan Mosque after two days of fighting. President Amin al-Hafiz ordered for the rebels to be eliminated, and the mosque was subsequently bombarded, destroying the minaret where many of the rebels were positioned. The security forces thus managed to suppress the uprising. Some 70-100 members of the Muslim Brotherhood were killed, with many others wounded or captured and still more disappearing underground.

Aftermath

Main articles: 1981 Hama massacre and 1982 Hama massacre

Further information: Islamic uprising in Syria and Syrian Civil War

A tribunal was set up to try imprisoned insurgents and was headed by Mustafa Tlass. Some prisoners were released, including Marwan Hadid, who was instrumental in organizing a second Islamist uprising in Hama years later. The shelling of the Sultan Mosque had outraged many Syrian Muslims and numerous countrywide strikes and demonstrations were held in protest. The opposition to the Ba'ath was wide-ranging, and included merchants, professionals, laborers and craftsmen and brought together poor Sunni Muslims from the countryside, members of the middle class and the traditional political and social elites. Hafiz felt compelled to resign in favor of a civilian politician, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, who was a member of the Ba'ath Party, but not from the officer corps. Al-Bitar publicly promised to protect civil liberties and announced a new provisional constitution. Bitar and other civilian members of the Ba'ath, such as Michel Aflaq, still held little sway over governmental decisions and both resigned from the government, with al-Hafiz re-occupying the prime minister post.

The events in Hama also caused a rupture within the Military Committee, the secretive junta that held prominent influence in the Syrian government since the 1963 coup. Muhammad Umran, the senior member of the Committee, disapproved of the severity of the assault on Hama and the subsequent bloodshed, while Salah Jadid and Hafez al-Assad strongly supported Hafiz's handling of the riots, viewing it as a necessary means to protect Ba'athist power against "class enemies."

In early 1980s, Hama became the epicenter of the countrywide Islamist uprising. The city experienced a massacre in April 1981, with hundreds killed. The situation deteriorated further in early February 1982, when Islamist groups took over the city. In the ensuing army operation to oust them, most of Hama was destroyed and thousands of its residents were killed. Some three decades later, in the Syrian Civil War, Muslim Brotherhood-related groups were blamed by the Ba'athist-dominated government for taking an active part in the uprising. Hama experienced another massacre in July–August 2011, following its blockade.

See also

• Syrian Civil War
• Human rights in Syria
• List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

Bibliography

• Dumper, Michael; Stanley, Bruce E.; Abu-Lughod, Janet L. (2007), Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, ISBN 9781576079195
• Seale, Patrick (1990). Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-06976-3.