Carol Kelly

From Perry Chiaramonte, Fox News. Com, i read what I've been reading in a lot of other places, so how are we to know who used chemical agents on the Syrian people? Quote:
While, many Syrian Christians do not want to become refugees, there is an underlying fear among the Christian community that their country could have the same issues seen in Iraq if the regime is toppled. Prospects for Syrian Christians will turn on whether the
Assad regime survives and if it does not, whether a successor government maintains the current regime's protection of the(Christian) Church... Unquote, After reading items such as this, it's increasingly difficult for me to believe Assad would protect Christians and, at the same time, destroy his own people in such a horrendous manner. I maintain that someone else is involved. I wouldn't find it outside the bounds of reason that Obama had a hand in the use of chemical weapons in Syria. And now he joins Merkel in a democratic discussion. Merkel who grew up in East Germany and was educated there! Merkel, I think we do not know thee.

saltwind 78 Loc: Murrells Inlet, South Carolina

Carol, No minority is safe in Syria. That country once had a thriving Jewish community. The lucky ones got out. A few remain, but are treated poorly as all the rest of the Syrian people.

moldyoldy

There were Christian and Jewish communities all over the middle east, even Saddam let them thrive. Too bad we keep trying to control them, instead of letting them evolve on their own.

Carol Kelly

If I understand you, we finally agree on something.

QuestGirl Loc: Jayhawk Country

I've read Assad is the last Christian leader in tbe region, but not sure if true. Seems to be true.

moldyoldy

The differences between Alawites and Sunnis in Syria have sharpened dangerously since the beginning of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, whose family is Alawite. The reason for the tension is primarily political rather than religious: Top positions in Assad’s army are held by Alawite officers, while most of the rebels from the Free Syrian Army and other opposition groups come from Syria’s Sunni majority.​

Geographical Presence: Alawites are a Muslim minority group accounting for a small percentage of Syria’s population, with a few small pockets in Lebanon and Turkey. Alawites are not to be confused with Alevis, a Turkish Muslim minority. A majority of Syrians belong to Sunni Islam, as do almost 90% of all Muslims in the world.
 
http://www.thoughtco.com/difference-between-alawites-and-sunnis-syria-2353572

QuestGirl Loc: Jayhawk Country

Thanks Moldy. I'm not sure I'll ever straighten out aoutthe sectors of Muslims in my head. It can be dizzong at times.

It is my believe we created this,the Syrian Civil War 6 years ago.

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

I don't believe Bashar Al-Assad gassed his people. I believe he is being framed. He was trained as an eye surgeon in London, and lived their until called back to Syria to take the place of his father.

It is hard to believe a doctor who trained and practiced medicine in the U.K. could callously butcher people. Besides, he was winning. ISIS is being forced out of Syria. With Russia's assistance, he has regained much of his territory, so such savage behavior would be counter productive for him.

As to the Alawites, they are something of a mystery...

Syria's ancient Alawites, to which the Assads belong, historically, have always been a secretive and persecuted sect.

HISTORY AND LIFESTYLE:

-- Oppressed during the period of the Ottoman Empire, in order to satisfy the constitutional rule that the president of Syria must be a Muslim, the Alawites have played down their distinctive beliefs in recent decades to argue they are mainline Shi'ites, like in Iran.

-- The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood called the Alawites "infidels" for decades. Because of the political power of the Assad family, leaders of the Sunni movement no longer say this openly, but nobody knows whether the Sunni majority rank and file is actually convinced.

-- Isolated in the mountains near Syria's Mediterranean coast, the Alawites taught that the Qur'an was to be read allegorically and they preferred to pray at home rather than in mosques.

-- They have always been highly secretive, initiating only a minority of believers into their core dogma, which includes reincarnation and a divine Trinity, and into rituals including a rite of drinking consecrated wine similar to a Christian Mass.

-- French colonial administrators tried to classify Syrian Alawitism as a separate religion despite resistance from Alawite leaders who, for their own protection, were more interested in identifying with Islam.

-- Like the nearby Druze, the Alawites have adopted the ancient practice of taqiyya, or hiding their beliefs to avoid persecution. "Taqiyya is a perfect qualification for membership in the Mukhabarat, the ubiquitous intelligence/security apparatus that has dominated Syria's Alawite government for more than four decades," the British Islam expert Malise Ruthven wrote recently.

The revolt against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, inspired by uprisings which toppled three Arab leaders in 2011, has taken a sectarian slant as most of the protesters trying to topple the president are Sunnis.

Assad is from Syria's minority Alawite sect and critics say the president has filled senior political and military posts with Alawites to impose his rule through sectarian loyalty.

THE ALAWITE SECT

-- Sunnis Muslims make up 74 percent of Syria's 22 million population, Alawites 12 percent, Christians 10 percent and Druze 3 percent. Ismailis, Yezidis and a few Jews make up the rest.

-- The clannishness, secrecy and tenacity of Syria's power elite around Assad have deepened Sunni Muslim suspicions about the enigmatic Alawite faith.

-- An oppressed minority for most of their history, Alawites suddenly cemented their control in Syria in 1970 when Assad's father Hafez staged a c**p that sidelined the Sunnis. He built a ferocious security apparatus based on fellow Alawite officers.

-- Allying with Sunni merchant classes in Damascus and Aleppo, the Alawite elite expanded their influence to the economy as well as the security apparatus and the military. The core of the feared pro-Assad Shabiha m*****a is Alawite.

-- This year's bloody struggle between Assad forces and pro-democracy protesters splits Syria along a minority-majority gulf made deeper by the fact many Sunnis call Alawites heretics.

-- Like most Arab countries, Syria has seen conservative Islam spreading in recent decades. This has sharpened Sunni differences with the Alawites, who claim to be mainline Shi'ites and sometimes copy Sunni practices to play down differences.

-- Sectarian k*****gs have racked the central city of Homs, and Alawites have been targeted because they were the same sect as the president. Many Alawites live around or in Homs and Hama, another restive city, and the port of Latakia.

-- Not all Alawites support the Assad dynasty and only a few have profited from Assad's rule, with many living in poverty in Syria's central mountains. The sect extends north to the Turkish city of Antakya, near the ancient city of Antioch, where there are now up to 12 million Alawites. Antioch was a 1st century center of Christianity in Asia Minor, which is now Turkey.

BELIEFS:

-- The Alawite religion is often called "an offshoot of Shi'ism," Islam's largest minority sect, but that is something like referring to Christianity as "an offshoot of Judaism."

-- Alawites broke away from Shi'ism more than 1,000 years ago and retain some links to it, including the veneration of Ali, the cousin and son-in law of the Prophet Mohammad. Alawi literally means "those who adhere to the teachings of Ali."

-- But several beliefs differ sharply from traditional Islam. Named after Ali, Alawites believe he was divine, one of many manifestations of God in a line with Adam, Jesus, Mohammad, Socrates, Plato and some pre-Islamic sages from ancient Persia.

-- To orthodox Muslims, this eclectic synthesis of Christian, Gnostic, Neoplatonic and Zoroastrian thought violates Islam's key tenet that "there is no God but God."

-- Alawites interpret the Pillars of Islam (the five duties required of every Muslim) as symbols rather than literal duties. They celebrate a group of holidays, some Islamic, some Christian, and many Alawite practices are secret. They proclaim themselves to be moderate Shi'ites, but their practices say otherwise.

Sources: CIA Handbook; Reuters/Jamestown Foundation/Dictionary of Beliefs and Religions/www.minorityrights.org/www.britannica.com/www.religiousfreedom.com/www.muslimhope.com