By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
AMMAN Tue May 22, 2012
"(Reuters) - A dissident from President Bashar al-Assad's minority Alawite sect is urging his co-religionists not to fear for their fate if the Syrian leader falls, arguing the "end of totalitarianism" is the best guarantee for the survival of their community.
The armed uprising led by Syria's Sunni Muslim majority has rallied around Islamist slogans that identify all Alawites with irregular "shabbiha" forces unleashed against protesters, leading some to fear they have no future without Assad.
A wave of sectarian killings in the protest hub of Homs reinforced those fears earlier this year.
Alawites say they were targeted on the basis of presumed communal loyalty to Assad. Some Sunni preachers subsequently began to denounce Alawites as heretics.
Severing their fate from Assad's is crucial for Alawites, said Maen Akel, a writer who has been travelling around Syria and documenting the 14-month-old uprising in film as well as with notes and interviews.
He acknowledged the fear Alawites have regarding their future, but argued that democracy would best defuse anger over the identification of Alawites as a whole with Assad's rule....."
AMMAN Tue May 22, 2012
"(Reuters) - A dissident from President Bashar al-Assad's minority Alawite sect is urging his co-religionists not to fear for their fate if the Syrian leader falls, arguing the "end of totalitarianism" is the best guarantee for the survival of their community.
The armed uprising led by Syria's Sunni Muslim majority has rallied around Islamist slogans that identify all Alawites with irregular "shabbiha" forces unleashed against protesters, leading some to fear they have no future without Assad.
A wave of sectarian killings in the protest hub of Homs reinforced those fears earlier this year.
Alawites say they were targeted on the basis of presumed communal loyalty to Assad. Some Sunni preachers subsequently began to denounce Alawites as heretics.
Severing their fate from Assad's is crucial for Alawites, said Maen Akel, a writer who has been travelling around Syria and documenting the 14-month-old uprising in film as well as with notes and interviews.
He acknowledged the fear Alawites have regarding their future, but argued that democracy would best defuse anger over the identification of Alawites as a whole with Assad's rule....."
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