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7th Rangers: Who are the Alawites of Syria?

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Who are the Alawites of Syria?
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Here are some extracts from Daniel Pipes essay:

For many centuries, the 'Alawis were the weakest, poorest, most rural, most despised, and most backward people of Syria. In recent years, however, they have transformed themselves into the ruling elite of Damascus. Today, 'Alawis dominate the government, hold key military positions, enjoy a disproportionate share of the educational resources, and are becoming wealthy. How did this dramatic change occur? When did the 'Alawi manage to escape their traditional confines, and what was the mechanism of their rise?

"'Alawi" is the term that 'Alawis (also called 'Alawites) usually apply to themselves ; but until 1920 they were known to the outside world as Nusayris or Ansaris. The change in name - imposed by the French upon their seizure of control in Syria - has significance. Whereas "Nusayri" emphasizes the group's differences from Islam, "'Alawi" suggests an adherent of 'Ali (the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad) and accentuates the religion's similarities to Shi'i Islam. Consequently, opponents of the Asad regime habitually use the former term, while its supporters use the latter. 'Alawis today number approximately 1.3 million, of which about a million live in Syria. They constitute some 12 percent of the Syrian population. Three-quarters of the Syrian 'Alawis live in Latakia, a province in the northwest of Syria, where they make up almost two-thirds of the population.

'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.

 Most striking of all, 'Alawis have no prayers or places of worship ; indeed they have no religious structures other than tomb shrines. Prayers take place in private houses, usually those of religious leaders. The fourteenth-century traveler Ibn Battuta described how they responded to a government decree ordering the construction of mosques: "Every village built a mosque far from the houses, which the villagers neither enter nor maintain. They often shelter cattle and asses in it. Often a stranger arrives and goes to the mosque to recite the [Islamic] call to prayer; then they yell to him, 'Stop braying, your fodder is coming.'" Five centuries later another attempt was made to build mosques for the 'Alawis, this time by the Ottoman authorities; despite official pressure, these were deserted, abandoned even by the religious functionaries, and once again used as barns.

 The Islamic religion reserves a special hostility for 'Alawis. Like other post-Islamic sects (such as the Baha'is and Ahmadis), they are seen to contradict the key Islamic tenet that God's last revelation went to Muhammad, and this Muslims find utterly unacceptable. Islamic law acknowledges the legitimacy of Judaism and Christianity because those religions preceded Islam; accordingly, Jews and Christians may maintain their faiths. But 'Alawis are denied this privilege. Indeed, the precepts of Islam call for apostates like the 'Alawis to be sold into slavery or executed. In the nineteenth century, a Sunni shaykh, Ibrahim al-Maghribi, issued a fatwa to the effect that Muslims may freely take 'Alawi property and lives; and a British traveler records being told, "these Ansayrii, it is better to kill one than to pray a whole day." Frequently persecuted-some 20,000 were massacred in 1317 and half that number in 1516, the 'Alawis insulated themselves geographically from the outside world by staying within their own rural regions. Jacques Weulersse explained their predicament:
Defeated and persecuted, the heterodox sects disappeared or, to survive, renounced proselytism.... The 'Alawis silently entrenched themselves in their mountains.... Isolated in rough country, surrounded by a hostile population, henceforth without communications with the outside world, the 'Alawis began to live out their solitary existence in secrecy and repression. Their doctrine, entirely formed, evolved no further.
E. Janot described the problem: "Bullied by the Turks, victim of a determined ostracism, fleeced by his Muslim landlord, the 'Alawi hardly dared leave his mountain region, where isolation and poverty itself protected him." In the late 1920s, less than half of one percent lived in towns: just 771 'Alawis out of a population of 176,285. In 1945, just 56 'Alawis were recorded living in Damascus (though many others may have been hiding their identity). For good reason, "the name Nusayri became synonymous with peasant." The few 'Alawis who did live away from their mountain routinely practiced taqiya. Even today, 'Alawis dominate the rural areas of Latakia but make up only 11 percent of the residents in that region's capital city. Read the whole well written piece here, by Daniel Pipes. Incidentally he is of the Juice Faith.

posted by Major D Swami (Retired) @ 8:11 PM  
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