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Most Alawis don't benefit from the Assad regime. Yet most do not support the
rebels, because they fear the Sunni sectarians amongst them. The same is true
of other religious minorities such as Druze and Christians.
This is one reason why the democratic forces based in northern and eastern
Syria talk of a "third way", separate from both the Assad regime and the rebels.
The predominance of Sunni sectarian forces amongst the rebels was promoted by
outside forces. Aid from Turkey and from government and private sources in the
Gulf went disproportionately to Sunni sectarian rebel groups, contributing to
their growing strength relative to secular rebel groups.
In 2014 the Sunni sectarian Jabhat al-Nusra attacked attacked and crushed the
Syrian Revolutionaries Front, a coalition of secular rebel groups in Idlib
province. Some of the survivors of the SRF fled to Afrin and helped form the
Syrian Democratic Forces.
Nusra took over large parts of Idlib, including an area inhabited by Druze.
The Druze were forcibly converted to Sunni Islam.
This kind of sectarianism contributed to religious minorities viewing Assad as
a lesser evil. This support, however grudging, helped Assad to survive.
Chris Slee
From: Marxism on behalf of Louis Proyect
via Marxism
Sent: Tuesday, 23 July 2019 6:44:42 AM
To: Chris Slee
Subject: [Marxism] Between Regime and Rebels: A Survey of Syria’s Alawi Sect |
by Elizabeth Tsurkov | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books
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“There is a small percentage of Alawis who benefited from the war, but
the vast majority are poor and hungry,” Loubna,* a fifty-nine-year-old
teacher, told me. “The Alawi community endures unprecedented pain and
bereavement. You cannot even hear a child’s laugh, whole neighborhoods
have no young men. Poverty, pain, and hunger are everywhere. People are
broken.” Loubna is a member of the small, heterodox Alawi sect (also
known as “Alawites”) that dominates the top echelons of Syria’s civilian
and military leadership, including the ruling Assad dynasty. Loubna
lives near the hometown of President Bashar al-Assad, Qardaha.
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/07/22/between-regime-and-rebels-a-survey-of-syrias-alawi-sect/
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