Alawites prefer to worship in private, at home or outdoors, believe the pilgrimage could be symbolic, don't think females needed to wear headscarves, use wine in their rituals and incorporate more ...

But Alawites, from a branch of Shiite Islam, have an acute fear of reprisals because of their connection to the Assad clan, which recruited from and favoured its own religious community for military ...

Assad, from the Alawite offshoot of Shiite Islam, long portrayed himself as a protector of religious minorities. Now Alawites fear that their community could face a backlash because of its long ...

Al-Rahy, a landscape worker and Alawite activist, was repairing damage in his brother’s house in this village after it was looted in the days after Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ouster.

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Al-Rahy, a landscape worker and Alawite activist, was repairing damage in his brother’s house in this village after it was looted in the days after Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ouster.

Jableh (Syria) (AFP) – At the bottom of Nisrine Ezzedine's garden, cement blocks mark the graves of her husband, son and nephew, all killed by foreign jihadists in Syria's Alawite minority ...