House of Assad finally falls.but Syria may be torn apart

Syrians are celebrating for now but many neighbours have no interest in the country becoming united and peaceful

- SAM KILEY

As preparations were being made to entomb former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad in a mausoleum nearby, a young Imam sat on the steps of the mosque and sighed, before confessing a dangerous theological and political truth.

“As Alawites we’re not Shi’a Muslim you know? We’re not strictly speaking very Muslim really. Under Assad we just subscribed to all that to create a power block with Shi’a in Lebanon, and in Iran, to support our minority rule.

“We see all men of genius – Jesus, Plato, even Shakespeare – as manifestations of the divine. We’re not lying about being Muslim, but we’re also theologically Christian, and Jews,” he explained 24 years ago in the mountain village of al-Qardahah. Syria’s Alawites kept that quiet.

For decades Hafez, and then his son Bashar, saw being part of a “Shi’a crescent” that tied them to Tehran and Lebanon as their best means of survival. Many Christians fell in with them out of fear of the Sunni majority.

As Syria collapsed into civil war in 2012, Bashar and the dictator’s henchmen did everything they could to increase the sectarian rivalries that had always threatened to tear the country apart.

They figured they’d survive longer if they emptied their prisons of Islamist political detainees, let the Kurds do their own thing, and murdered the rest with help from Iran and Russia.