Here are some extracts from Daniel Pipes essay:
For many centuries, the 'Alawis were the weakest, poorest, most rural,
most despised, and most backward people of Syria. In recent years,
however, they have transformed themselves into the ruling elite of
Damascus. Today, 'Alawis dominate the government, hold key military
positions, enjoy a disproportionate share of the educational resources,
and are becoming wealthy. How did this dramatic change occur? When did
the 'Alawi manage to escape their traditional confines, and what was the
mechanism of their rise?
"'Alawi" is the term that 'Alawis (also called 'Alawites) usually
apply to themselves ; but until 1920 they were known to the outside
world as Nusayris or Ansaris. The change in name - imposed by the French
upon their seizure of control in Syria - has significance. Whereas
"Nusayri" emphasizes the group's differences from Islam, "'Alawi"
suggests an adherent of 'Ali (the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad)
and accentuates the religion's similarities to Shi'i Islam.
Consequently, opponents of the Asad regime habitually use the former
term, while its supporters use the latter. 'Alawis today number approximately 1.3 million, of which about a
million live in Syria. They constitute some 12 percent of the Syrian
population. Three-quarters of the Syrian 'Alawis live in Latakia, a
province in the northwest of Syria, where they make up almost two-thirds
of the population.
'Alawi doctrines date from the ninth century A.D. and derive from the
Twelver or Imami branch of Shi'i Islam (the sect that predominates in
Iran). In about A.D. 859, one Ibn Nusayr declared himself the bab
("gateway to truth"), a key figure in Shi'i theology. On the basis of
this authority, Ibn Nusayr proclaimed a host of new doctrines which, to
make a long story short, make 'Alawism into a separate religion.
According to Ibn Kathir (d. 1372), where Muslims proclaim their faith
with the phrase "There is no deity but God and Muhammad is His prophet,"
'Alawis assert "There is no deity but 'Ali, no veil but Muhammad, and
no bab but Salman." 'Alawis reject Islam's main tenets; by almost any standard they must be considered non-Muslims.
Some 'Alawi doctrines appear to derive from Phoenician paganism,
Mazdakism and Manicheanism. But by far the greatest affinity is with
Christianity. 'Alawi religious ceremonies involve bread and wine;
indeed, wine drinking has a sacred role in 'Alawism, for it represents
God. The religion holds 'Ali, the fourth caliph, to be the (Jesus-like)
incarnation of divinity. It has a holy trinity, consisting of Muhammad,
'Ali, and Salman al-Farisi, a freed slave of Muhammad's. 'Alawis
celebrate many Christian festivals, including Christmas, New Year's,
Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, and Palm Sunday. They honor many Christian
saints: St. Catherine, St. Barbara, St. George, St. John the Baptist,
St. John Chrysostom, and St. Mary Magdalene. The Arabic equivalents of
such Christian personal names as Gabriel, John, Matthew, Catherine, and
Helen, are in common use. And 'Alawis tend to show more friendliness to
Christians than to Muslims.
Most striking of all, 'Alawis have no prayers or places of worship ;
indeed they have no religious structures other than tomb shrines.
Prayers take place in private houses, usually those of religious
leaders. The fourteenth-century traveler Ibn Battuta described how they
responded to a government decree ordering the construction of mosques:
"Every village built a mosque far from the houses, which the villagers
neither enter nor maintain. They often shelter cattle and asses in it.
Often a stranger arrives and goes to the mosque to recite the [Islamic]
call to prayer; then they yell to him, 'Stop braying, your fodder is
coming.'" Five centuries later another attempt was made to build mosques
for the 'Alawis, this time by the Ottoman authorities; despite official
pressure, these were deserted, abandoned even by the religious
functionaries, and once again used as barns.
The Islamic religion reserves a special hostility for 'Alawis. Like
other post-Islamic sects (such as the Baha'is and Ahmadis), they are
seen to contradict the key Islamic tenet that God's last revelation went
to Muhammad, and this Muslims find utterly unacceptable. Islamic law
acknowledges the legitimacy of Judaism and Christianity because those
religions preceded Islam; accordingly, Jews and Christians may maintain
their faiths. But 'Alawis are denied this privilege. Indeed, the
precepts of Islam call for apostates like the 'Alawis to be sold into
slavery or executed. In the nineteenth century, a Sunni shaykh, Ibrahim
al-Maghribi, issued a fatwa to the effect that Muslims may freely
take 'Alawi property and lives; and a British traveler records being
told, "these Ansayrii, it is better to kill one than to pray a whole
day." Frequently persecuted-some 20,000 were massacred in 1317 and half
that number in 1516, the 'Alawis insulated themselves geographically
from the outside world by staying within their own rural regions.
Jacques Weulersse explained their predicament:
Defeated and persecuted, the heterodox sects disappeared or,
to survive, renounced proselytism.... The 'Alawis silently entrenched
themselves in their mountains.... Isolated in rough country, surrounded
by a hostile population, henceforth without communications with the
outside world, the 'Alawis began to live out their solitary existence in
secrecy and repression. Their doctrine, entirely formed, evolved no
further.
E. Janot described the problem: "Bullied by the Turks, victim of a
determined ostracism, fleeced by his Muslim landlord, the 'Alawi hardly
dared leave his mountain region, where isolation and poverty itself
protected him." In the late 1920s, less than half of one percent lived
in towns: just 771 'Alawis out of a population of 176,285. In 1945, just
56 'Alawis were recorded living in Damascus (though many others may
have been hiding their identity). For good reason, "the name Nusayri
became synonymous with peasant." The few 'Alawis who did live away from
their mountain routinely practiced taqiya. Even today, 'Alawis
dominate the rural areas of Latakia but make up only 11 percent of the
residents in that region's capital city. Read the whole well written piece here, by Daniel Pipes. Incidentally he is of the Juice Faith.
|
