turkeybr Syria's Alawites: From Power To Peril

Activists protest against violence and sectarian attacks in syria on March 9, 2025 | Photo: AP Activists protest against violence and sectarian attacks in syria on March 9, 2025 | Photo: AP

The violence and revenge killings in Syria have once again torn open the scars of its 13-year civil war. An attack on Thursday near the port city of Latakia led to the worst bloodshed since insurgents, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)turkeybr, toppled former dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Gunmen loyal to Assad ambushed a Syrian security patrol, which set off clashes that, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), killed more than 1,000 people over four days. Among the dead were 745 civilians, 125 Syrian security personnel, and 148 Assad loyalists. Horrific videos circulating on social media show bodies piled up and executions carried out at point-blank range.

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Most of the dead are apparently from the Alawite community, who live largely in the country’s coastal province, including in the cities of Latakia and Tartous. Alawites, an ethnoreligious sect of Islam, make up about 10 percent of Syria’s population. Assad belonged to this sect, and under his rule, Syria's majority Sunni Muslims faced many atrocities. This fuelled hatred towards Alawites, some of whom are also affiliated with the crimes.

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While Alawites are generally considered an offshoot of Shia Islam, their beliefs and practices are far more complex. The Alawi or “Nusayri” doctrine (named after its founder, Muhammad Ibn Nusayr) was born in Iraq between the 10th and 11th centuries. Their beliefs and practices remain largely obscure outside the community, as they do not publish or actively spread their teachings. But those who have been able to study it say Alawites have a different interpretation of some practices considered foundational by other Islamic sects. For instance, Alawites view the hajj symbolically and do not perform a literal pilgrimage to Mecca.

Their faith has the elements of Christianity, Gnosticism, and Islam. Alawites believe in reincarnation,66br do not commonly use mosques for worship, and are tolerant toward alcohol. Alawite women generally do not observe veiling. Despite these differences, the sect has commonalities with Shia Islam. Like Shias, they believe in the divinity of Ali ibn Abu Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and the first leader of Shia Islam.

As a result of the mixture of beliefs, they were regularly accused of heresy and discriminated against by everyone from the Christian Crusaders to the Ottomans from Turkey. Though established in Syria since the 12th century, they were only able to formally adopt the name Alawi in 1920 during the time of French occupation of the area.

Their social conditions only improved with the rise of the Baath Party in 1963 and even more so when Hafiz al-Assad took control in 1970. He systematically appointed Alawites to key positions in the army, intelligence services, and state ministries. The members of their community were used to carry out the regime’s brutal campaigns, including the 1982 Hama massacre in which Assad targeted an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood, leaving 30,000 dead. Hafiz’s son Bashar continued this strategy. He made the Alawites the backbone of his counterinsurgency policy after 2011. Given this long history of repression, many within Syria’s emerging Sunni leadership and their followers carry a legacy of religious and social enmity toward Alawites.

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So far, HTS has consistently stated that Alawites will be part of the new Syria and that those involved in Assad-regime crimes will be held accountable through the justice system, not vigilantism. To support this, the new authorities have established reconciliation centres where former regime fighters can register and surrender their weapons—an essential step in the amnesty process.

Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has urged calm. “We announce the formation of a fact-finding committee regarding the events on the coast and form a higher committeeturkeybr,” he said in a national address on Sunday. The committee, formed to “achieve civil peace and uncover the truth”, is expected to issue a report with its findings in 30 days.