choose their friends from all communities, sectarianism remains a real problem in Syria. The ruling family was born into the historically oppressed Alawi community. The Ottomans regarded Alawis as heretics rather than as "people of the book," and Alawis -- unlike Christians, Jews, and mainstream Shi

March, Syrian friends have told me, its shabiha militia tried to spark social breakdown in Latakia by pretending to be a Sunni mob while it shot up Alawi areas and an Alawi mob as it terrorized Sunni neighborhoods. Syrians say the regime is arming Alawi villages and wishfully thinking of a repeat of

her cities including Baniyas and Latakia on the Mediterranean coast, as well as to the northern city of Homs and some suburbs of Damascus. * With the Alawi-dominated regime under threat, the HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030083 --- PAGE BREAK --- 25 struggle is showing ominous sectarian overtones. At Baniyas, where

In truth, it covers up a regime dominated by religious fanaticism against the minorities. Do French leaders want the Muslims to have control over the Alawi people in order to throw them into misery? • We can sense today how the Muslim citizens of Damascus force the Jews who live among them to sign a docu

tegists believe that it would be greatly to their country's advantage if Syria were dismembered and permanently weakened by the creation of a small Alawi state around the port-city of Latakia in the north-west, in much the same way as Iraq was dismembered and permanently weakened by the creation of

nt, however, seems improbable; the rising tensions are likely an expression of resentment directed at the powerful ruling family, who belong to the Alawi sect, and a show of disapproval of the Syrian-Iranian alliance. Syrian protesters have advanced the following demands: 1. Repeal of the emergency l

some extent, the handiwork of the United States and its European allies. This perception is fundamentally wrong: Assad's is an oppressive, minority-Alawi regime. It came to power via a 1970 coup. In 1982, the current dictator's father, then president Hafez al- Assad, brought artillery and killed over

maging to our interests in Syria and Iran. 4. KSA we should consider guarantying their integrity. 5. Iraq — NAM bring it towards a break up. Bet on Alawi 6. ME peace process — we need a big bet. Incrementalism won’t work. Activities threaten our vital interests. No big bets can succeed if the US has

he came back a month after the invasion and, even in the face of serious threats to her life, she hasn't left. She had the previous Prime Minister, Alawi, over and we talked of kings and cabbages. I asked her if 50 years ago the Shia and the Sunni knew they were supposed to hate each other. She laugh

e a rat out of his drainage pipe in Libya? Or something profoundly cruel, such as the YouTube video of a Syrian man buried alive by shovel-wielding Alawi thugs taunting the victim to recite "There is no God but God and Bashar is his Prophet"? Or, alternatively, will we look back and see photos of Sau