The New York Times
Posted on 08/05/2012 12:10:39 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
The Alawites here are worried they could become easy targets. Historically, they have been viewed with suspicion across the Middle East by mainstream Muslims and often scorned as infidels. The Alawite sect was born in the ninth century and braids together religious beliefs, including reincarnation, from different faiths.
Many Alawites do not ever go to a mosque; they tend to worship at home or in Alawite temples that have been denied the same state support in Turkey that Sunni mosques get. Many Alawite women do not veil their faces or even cover their heads. The towns they dominate in eastern Turkey, where young women sport tank tops and tight jeans, feel totally different than religious Sunni towns just a few hours away, where it can be difficult even to find a woman in public.
(snip)
The Syrian rebels hardly conceal a vicious sectarian antipathy. Khaldoun al-Rajab, an officer with the rebel Free Syrian Army, said he witnessed two Alawites in a car take a wrong turn in Homs and end up in a Sunni neighborhood. “Of course they were arrested and killed by rebels,” he said.
(snip)
A few months ago, Mr. Eryilmaz, the member of Parliament, who belongs to an opposition party, went to see Mr. Assad in Damascus. He said that Mr. Assad was actually quite relaxed and that this whole conflict was really about religion.
“What’s happening inside Syria is the Syrian leg of an international project,” he said, with the Turkish government aligning with Saudi Arabia and Qatar to make this part of the Middle East more religiously “radical.”
He was sitting in a cafe in Antakya, a border town with a large Alawite population, and digging into a plate of baklava during the bright, sunny hours of the afternoon, when Muslims observing Ramadan usually fast.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“Look at my people,” he smiled, spreading his hands wide and encompassing families eating ice cream and one young couple nuzzling on a couch. “My people are free.”
Meanwhile, Syrian rebels are imposing Sharia rule on the territories they conquer. Ever since Iraqis voted in politicians who decided to eject our troops from Iraqi soil, I've stopped believing statements by neo-cons that Muslims hate our guts because their leaders lie to them. Rather, I believe that their leaders lie to them because if their leaders said anything good about us, they'd be toppled and killed in grotesque ways. The average Muslim hates our guts because of beliefs handed down from generation to generation for a thousand years. They don't see their leaders as gods - they already have a god, Allah and Allah's prophet is an enterprising and extremely successful conqueror named Muhammad. Muhammad's religious edicts are why they hate us, not whatever figurehead is in power at any given time. And any Muslim leader who says anything good about the infidel, thereby contradicting Muhammad's edict to kill the infidel wherever he is to be found, will himself be hacked to pieces. The root of the problem isn't the leadership, it's every practicing Muslim in the world.
The Alawi sect, which integrates doctrines from other religions -- in particular from Christianity -- arose from a split within the Ismailite sect. The Alawis appear to be descendants of people who lived in this region at the time of Alexander the Great. When Christianity flourished in the Fertile Crescent, the Alawis, isolated in their little communities, clung to their own preIslamic religion. After hundreds of years of Ismaili influence, the Alawis moved closer to Islam. However, contacts with the Byzantines and the Crusaders added Christian elements to the Alawis' new creeds and practices. For example, Alawis celebrate Christmas, Easter, and Epiphany.The Alawites believe that Muhammad was a usurper and that it was his brother who largely worked to create a different sect apart from Christianity and Judaism.Alawis claim they are Muslims, but conservative Sunnis do not always recognize them as such. Like Ismaili Shias, Alawis believe in a system of divine incarnation. Unlike Ismailis, Alawis regard Ali as the incarnation of the deity in the divine triad. As such, Ali is the "Meaning;" Muhammad, whom Ali created of his own light, is the "Name;" and Salman the Persian is the "Gate." Alawi catechesis is expressed in the formula: "I turn to the Gate; I bow before the Name; I adore the Meaning." An Alawi prays in a manner patterned after the shahada: "I testify that there is no God but Ali."
According to Alawi belief, all persons at first were stars in the world of light but fell from the firmament through disobedience. Faithful Alawis believe they must be transformed seven times before returning to take a place among the stars, where Ali is the prince. If blameworthy, they are sometimes reborn as Christians, among whom they remain until atonement is complete. Infidels are reborn as animals.
It's kind of bizarre that as much worry as many of us in the West have over Islam, that the Alawites, a non-Muslim sect described by real Muslims as heretics/apostates and who have rejected the parts of Islam we most dislike, is being vilified in favor of the violent Sunni fundamentalists who killed 3000 Americans on 9/11, and have killed 7000 GI's since then.
Our government, such as it is, seems to be in line with the shia. The faction we seem to be backing in Syria is the muslim brotherhood which has the only actual organized militia inside Syria.
In fact Turkey looks like it is developing into a traditional islamist hellhole Iranian style. First time I was there circa 1995 it was looking absolutely secular. Today it is common to see Quran in public places let alone crowds on veiled women.
But you would think they did have some common ground with Muslims. OK. They eat during Ramadan, their women don’t cover their face, and all that. But let’s not forget the main thing: Hafez and Bashar Assad were both mass murderers, and if that doesn’t make them good Muslims, I don’t know what will.
I like it. Where do I go to convert?
If the radicals take over, he will be the first to lose his head.
They need to return to "Kemalism", or they will go backward 100 years in 6 months.
Resistance is futile.
It is a real problem in a free country like ours because our laws prevent us from cleansing the infection.
Michele Bachmann is right, we are being infiltrated and refuse to acknowledge it. Meanwhile the Muslim Ellison practices smash mouth diplomacy to the delight of the media. We are so-o-o diverse!
Thanks for the post and comments
Allepo (I believe that’s its name) is a city where much of the action is taking place has a population the size of Chicago. John Bachelor did an informative piece on this last week where the discussion ranged from tribes as well as religious sects including Christians who are supporting Assad .
Allah doesn’t like competition; ask the Manichees, Nestorian Christians, Mandaeans or the Sabians.
Allah doesn’t like competition; ask the Manichees, Nestorian Christians, Mandaeans or the Sabians.
The New York Times
The Sunni Allah and the Shi’a Allah don’t seem to like each other much, either.
This line makes them sound like the "Jobs and The Woz" of Middle Eastern religion.
Aleppo is an old city .... anyone wanting an idea of what it used to be like back in the 1930's before all the hate and discontent, might pick up a copy of In Aleppo Once by Taqui Altounyan, an Anglo-Franco-Syrian woman whose mother's name was Collingwood.
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