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Alawites [b] are an Arab ethnoreligious group [17] who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism. [18] A sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ghulat branch during the ninth century, [19] [20] [21] Alawites venerate Ali ibn Abi Talib, the "first Imam" in the Twelver school, as a manifestation of the divine essence.
Alawites form the dominant religious group on the Syrian coast and towns near the coast which is also inhabited by Sunnis, Christians, and Ismailis. Alawites have historically kept their beliefs secret from outsiders and non-initiated Alawites. [32] [33] At the core of Alawite belief is a divine triad, comprising three aspects of the one God.
Alawi (Arabic: علوي), also transliterated as Alevi, Alevi, Alavi, Alvi, Alawid, or Alawite (French: Alaouite), is an adjective denoting "of or related to Ali", the Prophet Muhammad's cousin. As a proper noun it is used by individuals, dynasties, places, and religious sects and organizations who identify as being either descendants or ...
The Alawite Muslim community, a minority Islamic sect and the community of the Assad family, is also at risk of reprisal attacks for political and sectarian reasons.
The Alawites are the second largest religious group in Syria, after the Sunni Muslims. [8] They are divided into two main groups: traditional Alawites, who form the majority, and the minority Murshid Alawites (which rose from a modern schism in the Alawite sect at the beginning of the 20th century). [8]
Lebanon is an eastern Mediterranean country that has the most religiously diverse society within the Middle East, recognizing 18 religious sects. [2] [3] The recognized religions are Islam (Sunni, Shia, Alawites, and Isma'ili), Druze, Christianity (the Maronite Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, evangelical Protestantism, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the ...
Roughly 15 percent of the population identifies with minority Muslim sects, such as Alawites and Ismailis. In addition, small communities of Druze inhabit areas near the Lebanese and Israeli ...
The Assad regime had attempted to supplant the Alawite religious identity. Bashar al-Assad attempted to integrate Alawites into Sunni Islam as to alleviate Sunni opposition to his rule, while Hafez al-Assad entirely dismissed the Alawite faith as simply Twelver Shi'ism. Alawites insisted that they were a distinct Islamic sect, while accusing ...