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Current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is an Alawite. The Alawites are the third largest religious group in Syria, after the Sunni and Shi'a Muslims. Hafez al-Assad and his son, President Bashar al-Assad, belong to the Alawite sect.
Jun 28, 2018 · The old city of Damascus, Syria’s capital, is an architectural testament to Sunni Islam. But the Iranian-backed Shia militias that fight for Mr Assad have expanded the city’s Shia quarter into ...
Apr 27, 2023 · The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which has ruled since 1970, relies on Alawis, a heterodox Shia sect that makes up about 13 percent of Syria’s population, as a pillar of its power.
- Mohammed Aly Sergie
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Bashar al-Assad's strategy of importing Iran-backed Shia fundamentalists engaged in regional conflict with Sunni-majority countries and his portrayal as being the sole defender of Alawite interests from the Syrian Sunni majority; led to the transformation of the conflict into a sectarian war by late 2013.
According to Peter Theo Curtis, the Alawi religion underwent a process of "Sunnification" during the years under Hafez al-Assad's rule, so that Alawites became not Shia, but effectively Sunni. Public manifestation or "even mentioning of any Alawite religious activities" was banned, as were any Alawite religious organizations or "any formation ...
- 180,000
- 2 million
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- 500,000-1 million
Jan 3, 2016 · In Syria, which has a Sunni majority, the Alawite Shiite sect of President Bashar al-Assad, which has long dominated the government, clings to power amid a bloody civil war.
Jul 13, 2023 · A key to their success is that President Bashar al-Assad backs them. ... Shia Islam, with Syria’s myriad religious minorities in order to bolster the regime’s dominance over the country’s ...