Syria's main insurgent group seeks to move away from al-Qaida past, get off Western terrorism lists
The leader of the most powerful al-Qaida-linked group in northwest Syria is rebranding his organization by moving away from extremist factions IDLIB, Syria -- The leader of an insurgent group that rules much of northwest Syria rose to notoriety over the past decade by claiming deadly bombings, threatening revenge against Western “crusader” forces and dispatching Islamist religious police to crack down on women deemed to be immodestly dressed. Today the man known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani is trying hard to distance his group, Hayat Tahrir al Sham, known as HTS, from its al-Qaida origins, spreading a message of pluralism and religious tolerance. As part of the rebranding, he has cracked down on extremist factions and dissolved the notorious religious police. For the first time in more than a decade, a Mass was performed recently at a long-shuttered church in Idlib province. Al-Golani told a recent gathering of religious and local officials that Islamic law should not be imposed by force....