The challenge facing Syria’s Alawites

As sectarian tensions rise in Syria following the collapse of the Assad regime, a minority sect fears for its future amid calls for mass slaughter.

The feeling is a new one for the Alawites, a group that was powerful and influential during the dictator’s rule.

Deep anxiety

The Alawites are a minority esoteric sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Between 10-12% of Syrians currently belong to the group.

Although they were “historically marginalised”, said New Lines magazine, they “gained significant influence” after Assad’s rise to power in 1970, moving from “isolated mountain communities” to cities and “assuming a dominant role” in government and security institutions.

They “dominated the ruling class and upper ranks of the military”, said the New York Times, but many insist that they were also “oppressed” under the Assads and they “deny that they were a favoured class” pointing to “ramshackle homes” and low salaries as “proof” that they suffered.

As the country emerges from that dictatorship, the wider “cry for justice” and atmosphere of reckoning has left the Alawite community with “a deep sense of anxiety”. They have repeated “like a mantra” that they “need the same things: safety and security”.

Their fears are justified because extremist factions have circulated calls for mass violence against Alawites, including on the Telegram messaging service, where tags and videos have circulated “advocating indiscriminate slaughter”, said NLM. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights around 150 Alawites have been killed over the past month.

“Ominously” some said that if the new regime cannot guarantee their safety, they will “take matters into their own hands to protect themselves”, and some of those who were armed during the civil war are “refusing to disarm” until they receive guarantees that they will be protected from attacks.

Stay silent

The day after Assad’s downfall last month, Ahmed al-Shara, the Islamist leader of the rebels who overthrew the regime, sent a representative to al-Qardaha to meet with village leaders. The new interim government has also sent forces to guard a checkpoint outside the Alawite village.

But the Alawites want more, calling for a blanket amnesty from retribution, to avoid them being singled out. Officials within the new interim government said it’s “too early” for the Alawite community to be “dictating any terms”, said the NYT.

They “need to stay silent for at least a year and not make any demands”, said Ahmad Hilal, a lawyer who now heads the Palace of Justice. They “killed the prisoners in the prisons” and “showed us no mercy”. Now, “they are talking about nationalism and being part of a nation” but “why didn’t they speak up before this?”

Nevertheless, some haven’t given up hope that this moment can be unifying. Hassan G. Ahmad, an activist, told France 24 that Syria needs a government that “includes all parts of society” describing himself as “not Muslim, Alawite, atheist, Sunni, or anything else”, but “Syrian, above all”.