Assad is an Alawite. What are Alawites?

Muslim vs. Muslim

Remember Mad Magazine’s “Spy vs. Spy?”

Well, we have the personification of that in Syria, all of the Middle East, North Africa, and, if the truth be told, throughout the entire Muslim world.

After all, there is no such thing in Islam as “the Golden Rule.”  Islam’s rule continues to remain “an eye for an eye” by any means possible and through whatever deceptive practices are most expedient.

Syria’s President Assad is an Alawite, a sect of Islam that most of us have never heard of.  Assad is known as a “secularist Alawite.”  Hmmm.  What does that mean, exactly?

Here is an overview of Alawites from Wikipedia:

The Alawites, also known as Alawis (ʿAlawīyyah Arabic: علوية‎) are a prominent mystical religious group centred in Syria who follow a branch of the Twelver school of Shia Islam.

Note carefully what the “Twelver School” is all about.  Iran is also dominated by “Twelvers.”  The Twelvers is the common link between Shia’s and Alawites.   Continuing…

Today, Alawites represent 12% of the Syrian population and are a significant minority in Turkey and northern Lebanon. There is also a population living in the village of Ghajar in the disputed Golan Heights. They are often confused with the Alevis of Turkey, another Shia sect.

Alawite beliefs are kept secret for outsiders, even for non initiated Alawites. Therefore many rumours about their religious beliefs have arisen. Alawites were historically persecuted for their beliefs by the various Sunni Muslim rulers of the area. The establishment of the French Mandate of Syria, marks a turning point in Alawi history. It gave the French the power to recruit Syrian civilians into their armed forces for indefinite periods of time and created exclusive areas for minorities (including an Alawite State). The Alawite State was later dismantled, but Alawites continued to have significant representation in the Syrian army. Since Hafez al-Assad took power in 1970, the government has been dominated by a political elite led by the secular Alawite Assad family. During the Islamic uprising in Syria in the '70s and '80s, this establishment came under tremendous pressure. The conflict continues today as a function of the Syrian civil war.

The infidel is not the only hated group among Muslims.  Other Muslim Sects are equally reviled and are the current targets of death.  Avi Lipkin recently noted that Islam is an ideology that virtually requires every last Muslim to kill the very last Muslim – the ultimate Satanic “Spy vs. Spy” scenario.

So remember when discussing religion with Muslims, Islam is the religion of death; Christianity the religion of life.