The cracks are beginning to show in Sharaa’s and HTS-dominated Syria with Alawite tensions.
It suprises me that so many with an interest in counterterrorism, terrorism, especially how it relates to the Middle East (and geopolitics), and Islamist ideologies and movements, there appears to be so little interest in the cultural, religious and political ideological dynamics underlying all this.
IMHO, the Alawites, as a relgious group in Syria, seems to generate little curiosity, yet it’s so relevant to the Syrian experience and situation as it exists and existed under the Assads, which has huge far reaching regional implications.
And then when it comes to discussing Ba’athism, an important Arab ideological movement that had a huge impact on the modern Arab world, especially Syria, also generates little interest. Frankly, it seems few even know about this ideology. Meanwhile, the Assads were the last of the Ba’athists in power in the Arab world.
The Alawites and Ba’athist ideology.
The Alawites are an interesting sect, a religion that branches from Shia Islam. The Assads are Alawites. Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad’s father and former dictator of Syria, really grasped onto Arab Ba’athism secular ideology. Ba’athism had all religions as equal. However, Hafez created a Syrian brand of Ba’athism that, in the end, gave favouritism to his fellow Alawites in Syria.
Sunni Islamist groups in Syria do not look favourably at the Alawites for two reasons. First, they are considered heretical in their beliefs, which have Ali as a virtual god-like, almost Christ-like figure, so they are seen as non-Muslims. (Despite Shia Iran’s alliance with Syria and Assad, Shia also sees Alawites as non-Muslim and heretics.) And because the Assads were Alawites ruling the country, particularly during the Civil War, it annoyed them further as the Assads were seen as illegitimate– re: Islamist belief, Shariya law, etc.
AQ and ISIS would often outright cold-bloodedly kill an Alawite when they captured any.
LinkedIn posting: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/royce-de-melo-39172813_syria-alawite-hts-activity-7285716286649593856-_Yca?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
FDD Report: Alawite Fears Ignite Syria’s Coastal Chaos:
Violence is spreading in Syria’s Mediterranean coastal region, home to the country’s largest concentration of Alawites, the religious minority whose members include the ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad. With the government now in the hands of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Sunni Islamist movement that toppled Assad, the Alawites fear retribution for their privileged status during 50 years of Assad family rule.
Protests against HTS have erupted in cities like Qardaha, Latakia, and Tartus. Clashes intensified on December 25, when armed groups loyal to Assad launched coordinated attacks on HTS checkpoints and ambushed police forces in Tartus, killing 14. This violence followed the circulation of videos showing the desecration of an Alawite religious site in Homs.
In a recent escalation, Bassam Hussam al-Din, a former National Defense Forces commander under Assad, led an attack on an HTS barracks, killing two and kidnapping seven. He later released a video demanding the withdrawal of HTS from the Syrian coast and calling for Alawite autonomy, before detonating a suicide bomb during an HTS rescue operation at the barracks.
To read more, see: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/policy_briefs/2025/01/16/alawite-fears-ignite-syrias-coastal-chaos
Also see:
1. ‘The Ideological Death knell of Ba’thism‘: This is a well-written and informative short article by a political expert and friend of mine on the last breaths of ‘Ba’thism’ [sic]: https://davidbuglass.substack.com/p/the-ideological-death-knell-of-bathism?r=3hbv0q&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
2. Taking the hate to the grave of Hafez al-Assad… And it’s religiously motivated, not only politically. See Video: The Sun: Moment cheering Syrian rebels burn COFFIN of Assad’s brutal father who slaughtered 40,000: https://youtu.be/i3l6rDQWW8E?si=TdJDShoc7F_naVVe
