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Assad regime has unleashed sectarian violence through private Alawite militias like the Shabiha, particularly in Sunni areas. Alawite religious iconography and communal sentiments are common themes used by Alawite warrior-shaykhs who lead the Alawite militias; as justification to commit massacres, abductions and torture in opposition ...
According to Peter Theo Curtis, the Alawi religion underwent a process of "Sunnification" during the years under Hafez al-Assad's rule so that Alawites became not Shia but effectively Sunni. Public manifestation or "even mentioning of any Alawite religious activities" was banned, as were any Alawite religious organizations, "any formation of a ...
The Sunni Muslims make up the vast majority in the country, mainly of the Hanafi and Shafi'i madhhabs. The Alawites are the biggest Muslim minority sect (10% of the country's population [2]), followed by Isma'ili and Twelver Shia Muslims, which constitute about 3% percent of the country's population. [3]
Assad became president in 2000 after his father Hafez died, preserving the family's iron-fisted rule and the dominance of their Alawite sect in the Sunni Muslim-majority country and Syria's status ...
Iran was Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most critical ally for more than 10 years. ... involvement in Syria was "to fight against jihadi groups" and to protect "Shia holy shrines" against ...
Bashar al-Assad's strategy of importing Iran-backed Shia fundamentalists engaged in regional conflict with Sunni-majority countries and his portrayal as being the sole defender of Alawite interests from the Syrian Sunni majority; led to the transformation of the conflict into a sectarian war by late 2013. [12]
That caused Assad to double down on the three key strands of his leadership — using repressive violence when necessary, relying on support from the Alawite community and some Sunni elites to ...
The Al-Otrush Mosque is a 14th-century Mamluk mosque.. The largest religious group in Syria are Sunni Muslims. Sunnis make up about 74% of the population, [7] of whom Arabic-speaking Sunnis form the majority, followed by the Kurds, Turkmens/Turkomans, Circassians, and Palestinians.