by DANIEL WILLIAMS
It’s part of a twenty year trend in persecutions in the Middle East
Violent attacks in Syria against a pair of religious minorities highlight the persistence of sectarian persecution in the Middle East during the past two decades.
In the Mediterranean coastal city of Latakia earlier this month, marauding Sunni Muslim militias killed more than a thousand Alawites, a population that belongs to a religious sect related to Islam. A small number of Christians, whose presence in the country dates back two millennia, were also attacked and at least four were killed.
Guilt by association is attributed to Alawites and Christian due to their relations with the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted from power in December after a long civil war. He had declared himself a protector of both sects.
Such protection carries a cost, possibly tarring minority citizens as favored by the ruler. In times of peace, minorities are expected to at least show obedience, and even express admiration, in return for protection from potential harm from majorities. When the dictator is overthrown, wrath falls on the minority populations considered lackeys of an evil regime.
Attacks from within the mainstream Sunni Islam sect have also been fueled by the emergence among radical Sunni groups of the view that minorities such as Alawites and Christians are not only heretics but pariahs who must be cast away. Similar attacks on minority religious and ethnic minority groups have taken place in Egypt and Iraq.
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