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The news was shocking beyond measure: a man went on a stabbing spree at a playground in the French city of Annecy last Thursday, stabbing four three-year-olds and an adult. The attacker shouted “In the name of Jesus Christ” as he did his stabbing and claimed to be a Christian. He even had a made-to-order Christian name: Abdelmasih Hanoun; “Abdelmasih” means “Slave of Christ.” It was suspicious and contrived, but it did seem to confirm the Leftist elites’ claim that the largest terror threat comes from right-wing Christians. There was just one catch: some people have recognized Abdelmasih Hanoun and...

Before the phrase was spray-painted on walls and stenciled on cars, Syrian military officers heard it in meetings to discuss how to quell an antigovernment uprising sweeping Syria in 2011. “Assad or we burn the country.” The stark words warned those who would defy President Bashar al-Assad. And when protests morphed into war, Mr. Assad, backed by hard-core members of his Alawite religious sect, made good on the threat, presiding over much of Syria’s destruction to maintain his grip on power. “In every meeting we had, the Alawite officers would say it—‘Assad or we burn the country,’” recalled Abduljabar al-Akidi,...

Syria's Alawite community have been a key source of support for the regime. But even they could turn on him. BEIRUT—Since Syrian regime forces were accused of conducting a chemical-weapons attack on Saturday on Douma, the largest rebel town near Damascus to surrender, the world has waited anxiously for the U.S. response. In the aftermath of the suspected attack, President Donald Trump spoke of imminent retaliation and had tough words for Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, and his patron Russia; he has since hedged to say an attack could come “very soon or not so soon at all!” Still,...

Assad has done some bad things in his day. There is no doubt about that. What choice did he have? The Alawaites are a tiny minority group (12%) surrounded by a sea of intolerant radical Sunni Arabs. He has made deals with horrible people. As an Israeli, I know this all too well. At the same time, I can take a step back and understand that the Middle East is a tough place and tough places call for tough measures. As I mentioned above the Alawites are a 12% minority. Most of their neighbors consider them pagans who worship the...

In order to deter the Syrian and Russian Air Forces inside the East Ghouta (collection of farms) region of rural Damascus, the U.S. backed moderate rebels from “Jaysh Al-Islam” (Army of Islam) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have placed kidnapped Alawite women in cages to protect themselves from airstrikes. The U.S. backed Syrian Opposition’s social media activists posted the photos of the six kidnapped Alawite women on Twitter, adding their extra commentary that included sectarian insults to degrade the helpless women and taunt the Syrian President Dr. Bashar Al-Assad. This is not the first time that the U.S. backed...

The leader of the al-Nusra Front, Syria’s al-Qaeda offshoot, reportedly called on jihadists to intensify attacks on Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s minority Alawite sect of Shiite Islam in retaliation for Russia’s military intervention. In an audio message posted on social media, al-Nusra chief Abu Mohammad al-Golani urged attacks on Alawite strongholds in response to what he described as the indiscriminate killing of Sunnis by the Russian military, Reuters reports. The terrorist leader declared that Russia’s invasion of Syria was aimed at preventing Assad from losing power, but was doomed to fail. “There is no choice but to escalate the battle...

To find popular support for the embattled regime of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, look to the mountains, valleys and coastal cities of the country’s western region. It is the Alawite heartland—the traditional home of the religious minority to which Mr. Assad and many of his key associates belong. Alawites make up just 10% to 15% of Syria’s population, and they are usually presented as fervent supporters of Mr. Assad. Most Alawites do indeed fear that, if the Assad regime falls, they will face reprisals from the country’s majority Sunnis, who have led the rebellion against the government since March 2011. Many...

President Obama is pushing back against the idea that he’s been outmaneuvered in Syria by Russian President Vladimir Putin since the two met at the United Nations on Monday. Obama appeared frustrated by the suggestion during a press conference this afternoon, dismissing it as a notion only talked about in the Washington D.C. “Sometimes the conversation here in the Beltway differs from the conversation internationally,” Obama responded. Obama accused Putin of acting in Syria “out of weakness,” repeatedly referring to Russia’s weakening economy. He also compared his coalition to act against ISIS in Syria to Putin’s unilateral decision to prop...

On the day in May when Islamic State militants raised their black flag above the ancient city of Palmyra, the Damascus Opera House featured a singer in a rumpled black suit belting out traditional Arabic ballads. Members of the audience were herded together so the half-empty auditorium appeared full on state television, and the crowd whistled, clapped and danced in the aisles for the benefit of the cameras. This week, as the extremist militants blew up a 2,000-year-old temple in Palmyra, the opera house in the capital 150 miles to the west prepared to open an art exhibit. “It is...

QARDAHA, Syria -- In the rolling hills above Lake Safarqieyh, Qardaha salutes its native sons: President Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez, the previous strongman and President. He's now buried above the town in an elaborate tomb. "We glorify him because he built modern Syria," said Maysam Ahmed. Qardaha's loyalty to the Assads is based in their shared Allawite religion. Hundreds of young men from the area volunteered to fight in Syria's grinding civil war.

By the pool, glistening, oiled, and muscular bodies gyrated to a juiced-up version of Adele’s “Someone Like You.” Atop huge speakers, a Russian dancer swayed suggestively in front of the young, beautiful Syrian set drinking imported Lebanese beer with salt and lemon. Behind them, columns of smoke were rising—signs of car bombs and explosions, of an encroaching war. One woman in a tight swimsuit playfully squirted a water gun, joking that she belonged to the pro-government militia, the Shabiha, meaning ghosts or thugs, which is believed to be responsible for a recent massacre of more than 100 people, many of...

From their Instagram feeds they appear to be just like other young people enjoying the summer time: backflipping into water, chilling at a pool bar, basking in a sundrenched meadow. But the photos belong to a group of Syrians who have maintained their privileged lives, despite the war ravaging their country. They’re Alawites, the country’s minority sect and its elite. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and many in his ruling government belong to the group, which comes from a strand of Shiite Islam. They dwell in Tartous and Latakia, perched on the Meditteranean on the Syrian coast, where there are few...

In the Assad regime's heartland, dead officers are sent home in ambulances, while the corpses of ordinary soldiers are returned in undecorated pick-up trucks. Then come the press gangs: military recruiters raid houses to find replacements by force for the dwindling ranks of Syria's military. Sharing their sect with President Bashar al-Assad, Alawites have long been the core constituency for the Syrian regime. As the civil war drags into its fifth year, the minority sect is seen by opposition rebels as remaining unwaveringly loyal.

TARTUS, Syria — There are no official statistics regarding the number of Alawites who have lost their lives since the peaceful protests in Syria turned into an armed sectarian conflict in many areas of the country. Human rights organizations are not counting the victims in Syria on a sectarian basis. However, in statistics published July 12, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced that 65,803 people from the ranks of the Syrian regime forces and armed groups loyal to it have died. It is likely that the vast majority of the dead are Alawites, especially among the militias fighting alongside...

The Kurdish Democratic Party (PYD), a branch of Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK), recently declared that they want to form a Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria... is there any place for Assyrians? Is there room in a future ruled by Kurds, considering what happened in northern Iraq? Analysts I talked to are optimistic and see a difference from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in north Iraq. Assyrians make up about 30% of al-Jazeera's population and should have better conditions, they say. But the biggest threat to Assyrians is emigration, since many are fleeing to seek a better life in the West....

The sectarian tensions underlying the conflict in Syria have erupted in Australia, with acts of violence, harassment and threats ... Jamal Daoud, a high-profile community leader in western Sydney, says the situation is becoming "very vicious". Although he is a Sunni Muslim, because of his opposition to removing the Syrian regime by force, Mr Daoud says extremists at home view him with the same hatred they have for Shiites and Alawites. ... the source of the violence in Sydney, the Jabhat al Nusra supporters," he said. "The last two years they have flourished in western Sydney, they have flourished. We...

The crisis in Syria ...a deadly power struggle between two bitterly opposed Muslim ideologies, Sunni and Shia. Already, the war inside Syria has resulted in 93,000 dead and 1.6 million refugees, with millions more displaced internally SNIP On one side are those who follow President Assad, who belongs to the Alawites — a splinter sect from Shia Islam. On the other are ...insurgents drawn from the majority Sunni population, some of whom have close links to the Sunni jihadists of Al Qaeda. SNIP The main pillars of the current Assad regime are the army, the intelligence services and the Ba’athists,...

Top Sunni Muslim cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, says the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization is the “Party of Satan.” In an interview with Al Arabiya aired on Sunday, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, slammed Lebanese Hezbollah group as “party of Satsan” that seeks to “sow discord” among Muslims.

Pathetic. Last year Barack Obama repeatedly warned that chemical weapons use by the Syrian regime against its own people would be a “game changer.” But since evidence was found that the Assad regime used chemical weapons so far Obama has not acted. Today he blamed Bush for his inaction. “We have evidence that there has been the use of chemical weapons inside Syria. But, I don’t make decisions based on ‘perceived.’ And, I can’t organize coalitions around ‘perceived.’ We tried that in the past, by the way, and it didn’t work out well.” It’s Bush’s fault.

In the first meeting of its kind by Alawites who support the revolt, delegates distanced themselves from Assad's crackdown against an uprising in which 70,000 people have been killed. "We call on our brothers in the Syrian army, specifically members of our sect, not to take up arms against their people and to refuse to join the army," the delegates said in a statement after two days of meeting in the Egyptian capital. Alawite domination of the officer army corp is one of the pillars of Assad's control."The Syrian regime is not an Alawite sectarian regime ... the Alawite sect...