Syrian Cleric...: We Ruled It Is Permissible to Kill 'Alawite Women and Children...

Following are excerpts from an interview with Syrian cleric Sheik Muhammad Badi' Moussa, which aired on Al-Hekma TV on March 14, 2012 :

Interviewer : Is it permissible to kill 'Alawites – their women and their children – in retaliation for their actions?

Muhammad Badi' Moussa : Yes, my brother. We have issued a communiqué to the 'Alawites, in which we gave them a strong warning, which may be the last. Our brothers in the Free Syrian Army sent queries to scholars in exile, asking whether they were allowed to raid 'Alawite villages, like the Zahra, Eqrima, and Nuzha suburbs of Homs.

Our brothers in the Free Syrian Army asked several sheiks and scholars for a fatwa on whether they are allowed to kill ['Alawite] women and children, just as they are killing our women and children. The snipers are coming from the 'Alawite suburbs, and the free Muslim women who were raped and kidnapped are being held in 'Alawite suburbs.

All the scholars said: Have a little patience. They must be warned first. We don't want a civil, sectarian war to rage in Syria.

[The 'Alawites] know that they are a minority in our country, and that all the sects hate them and want to get rid of them. It is not in their best interest to follow the regime.

A better description from Daniel Pipes, a conservative expert on the Middle East:
http://www.danielpipes.org/191/the-alawi-capture-of-power-in-syria

‘Alawi doctrines date from the ninth century A.D. and derive from the Twelver or Imami branch of Shi’i Islam (the sect that predominates in Iran). In about A.D. 859, one Ibn Nusayr declared himself the bab (”gateway to truth”), a key figure in Shi’i theology. On the basis of this authority, Ibn Nusayr proclaimed a host of new doctrines which, to make a long story short, make ‘Alawism into a separate religion. According to Ibn Kathir (d. 1372), where Muslims proclaim their faith with the phrase “There is no deity but God and Muhammad is His prophet,” ‘Alawis assert “There is no deity but ‘Ali, no veil but Muhammad, and no bab but Salman.” ‘Alawis reject Islam’s main tenets; by almost any standard they must be considered non-Muslims.

Some ‘Alawi doctrines appear to derive from Phoenician paganism, Mazdakism and Manicheanism. But by far the greatest affinity is with Christianity. ‘Alawi religious ceremonies involve bread and wine; indeed, wine drinking has a sacred role in ‘Alawism, for it represents God. The religion holds ‘Ali, the fourth caliph, to be the (Jesus-like) incarnation of divinity. It has a holy trinity, consisting of Muhammad, ‘Ali, and Salman al-Farisi, a freed slave of Muhammad’s. ‘Alawis celebrate many Christian festivals, including Christmas, New Year’s, Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, and Palm Sunday. They honor many Christian saints: St. Catherine, St. Barbara, St. George, St. John the Baptist, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Mary Magdalene. The Arabic equivalents of such Christian personal names as Gabriel, John, Matthew, Catherine, and Helen, are in common use. And ‘Alawis tend to show more friendliness to Christians than to Muslims.

For these reasons, many observers - missionaries especially - have suspected the ‘Alawis of a secret Christian proclivity. Even T. E. Lawrence described them as “those disciples of a cult of fertility, sheer pagan, antiforeign, distrustful of Islam, drawn at moments to Christianity by common persecution.” The Jesuit scholar Henri Lammens unequivocally concluded from his research that “the Nusayris were Christians” and their practices combine Christian with Shi’i elements.

The specifics of the ‘Alawi faith are hidden not just from outsiders but even from the majority of the ‘Alawis themselves. In contrast to Islam, which is premised on direct relations between God and the individual believer, ‘Alawism permits only males born of two ‘Alawi parents to learn the religious doctrines. When deemed trustworthy, these are initiated into some of the rites at 16-20 years of age ; other mysteries are revealed later and only gradually. Religious secrecy is strictly maintained, on pain of death and being incarnated into a vile animal. Whether the latter threat is made good, mortals cannot judge; but the first certainly is. Thus, the most renowned apostate from ‘Alawism, Sulayman Efendi al-Adhani, was assassinated for divulging the sect’s mysteries. Even more impressive, at a time of sectarian tension in the mid-1960s, the suggestion that the ‘Alawi officers who ran the country publish the secret books of their religion caused Salah Jadid to respond with horror, saying that, were this done, the religious leaders “would crush us.”

Sorry, but I've been to Syria. Passed through via Karnak Bus (name of the bus company) what was left of the town of Hama where a Sunni uprising against Assad's father was quashed in 1982 by the Syrian army. They basically surrounded the town with tanks and artillery and shelled it till there was nothing left but rubble. Then they brought in trucks and bull dozers to carry away any survivors (Syrians told me around 10,000 were carried away never to be seen again) and push the rubble into round piles to show where the town used to be to anyone passing through. The Christian quarter was purposely left almost untouched and it was in that area that our bus stopped for a refreshment break (twice - to and from Aleppo where our sales representative, a Maronite Christian, lived).

The only reason, and it's a good one, for hoping the minority Alawis might continue to prevail is that the Christian, Druze, Kurd, and other minority communities may continue to survive under their rule. But the other side of the coin is that the current Syrian government is a close ally of the Iranians and either side is a dedicated enemy of Israel and the West. It's like the choice between Nazis and Bolsheviks. Whichever side you back or who wins presents its own set of problems.

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