The Alawite sect of Shiite Islam thrived under the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, though it accounts for only 10% of the nation's population. Assad himself is Alawite, and he surrounded himself with fellow Alawites in key positions. Five months after his ouster, the payback continues. Reuters reports that hundreds of Alawite families have been forced at gunpoint to abandon their privately owned homes across the country. Typically, they are given just minutes to leave.
"We're definitely not talking about independent incidents," says Bassam Alahmad, executive director of human rights group Syrians for Truth and Justice. "We are talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of cases of evictions." Still more have been evicted from government-owned homes, though there is more of a rationalization for that—since they no longer work for the government, they are no longer entitled to the housing. The Reuters story includes first-person accounts from those who have been evicted.
All of this comes amid the backdrop of rising sectarian violence that threatens to undermine the new government's promise to unify the country, reports the New York Times. Two months ago, for example, extremist fighters killed an estimated 1,600 Alawites on the Syrian coast. The story details the new government's friction not just with the Alawites, but with the Druse and Kurd minorities as well. (More Bashar al-Assad stories.)
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