Welcome to the Middle East, Monsieur Macron. Allahu Akbar! – Allah's Willing Executioners

Two years after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Emmanuel Macron was in Damascus to meet the new strongman, the former jihadist Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has never been a man of peace but rather the polished face of the most violent Islamism – the one that disfigured Syria under the banners of jihad and massacred Christians, Druze, and Alawites in collusion with Turkish and Qatari protectors. The imposing door of the Great Umayyad Mosque opened with a theatrical creak. Macron and his host, al-Sharaa, removed their shoes and entered, followed by the delegations. Built 1,300 years ago on the site of a church, the mosque houses the relics of St. John the Baptist and the tomb of Saladin. Beneath Byzantine-era frescoes, the two signed energy and trade agreements. Two devices meanwhile exploded near the Four Seasons Hotel where the French president had stayed. “Macron is safe,” the Élysée immediately reassured. It is not a travel incident, but the background noise of a Middle East that has never stopped …