Sectarianism in the Syrian Conflict

Syria has always been a multi-ethnic land of many religions. Ancient Christian communities, Alawi and other Shi'a, Druze, and a few Jews (app. 22 per wikipedia) live alongside the Sunni Muslim majority (estimated at around 60-70% of the population). "The people of Syria" have risen up, but those people are more that 60-70% Sunni. They claim genocideand other discimination by the "Alawiteregime" headed by Alawi president Bashar Al-Assad. Their propsed answers vary. The infamous slogan among some rebels "Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the grave" should suffice as an introduction to the problems Syria faces as these people, heavily armed, impose their will on city after city across Syria.

(the following is a stub page for the moment)

Persecution of Syria's Sunni Majority by the Government
(forthcoming)

Alawi/Alawite
(forthcoming)

See:

Houla Victims: Shumariyeh/Shomaliya

Tekkim Chemical Test Video

Aqrab Massacre

Maan Massacre

Other Shi'a/Shi'ite
(forthcoming)

Salafist rebel forces destroyed a Shi'ite mosque in Jisr Al-Shughur (northern Syria) in mid-December, 2012, and filmed it. Reuters/DailyStar, Dec. 14: Sunni Syrian rebels burn Shiite mosque: video Reuters reported "A fighter holding a rifle says the rebel group is destroying the "dens of the Shiites and Rafida," a derogatory term meaning "deserters," which is used against Shiites."

Shia Muslim civilians, in unknown numbers, were singled out for execution in the Al-Shaddadi Petroluem Company Massacre of mid-February, 2013. A facility of the Syrian Petroleum Company near Hasakah (far northeast of Syria) was overrun by rebels of the Al-Nusra Front. Five apparent guards were shown after execution, being cursed as Shi'ite pigs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The SOHR also heard about "tens of Syrian Petroleum workers were killed by the rebels after al-Nusra took over the management buildings and the workers' residential quarters," perhaps for the same offense.

Christians
Threats and attacks of various kinds against Syrian Christian communities have recurred throughout the rebellion.

Two dispatches from the Catholic FIDES news agency relate the suffering of Christians in the north following the Turkish-assisted rebel attack on Ras Al-Ayn in November. 2012-11-30 ASIA/SYRIA - A young Christian of the opposition: "Minorities crushed in the conflict" According to a note from a young man of a Christian family in Syria, the FSA attackers had a "black list," with which ...
 * ''...they went from one house to another looking for their enemies. Among these were the names of the heads of Christian families. Why? ".
 * [...]
 * In Ras al-Ain, the victims were not only Christians, but Christians were the only ones who were immediately expelled from their homes, carrying babies in their arms, put to flight the streets strewn with corpses. Such intervention is that of an army of invaders and not an army of liberators, as the Army of the opposition call themselves.

Another - [http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=32723&lan=eng 2012-11-23 ASIA/SYRIA - Christians in high Mesopotamia refuse to take up arms. Bishops' appeal to the Pope and the leaders of Nations: avoid the catastrophe that is upon us] - notes a growing refugee problem, the threat of a rebel advance into high Mesopotamia with its large Christian population. Clerics and Bishops in Syria united to demand the goverment and the "Salafists" stay out. Some at least were refusing offers of defensive weapons, renouncing any fighting against anyone, instead issuing an "urgent appeal to Benedict XVI and the Leaders of nations, asking them to put pressure so that armed groups do not come in our region."

His mother's Christian religion (signaled by a necklace) might have had a role in an apparent rebel sniper attack in Homs, November 2011, that killed young Sari Saoud. Rebels took possession of his body and made propaganda videos, arguing that the government doesn't protect Christians, it shoots them.

Persecution of Syria's Minorities by the Government
The rebels and opposition often accuse the government of using the minorities against them in various ways, frightening them with scary stories of post-Assad Syria. Sometimes, as at Jaramanah in late November, it's alleged the government scares them with things like car bombs in a Christian neighborhood that, otherwise, would look like a rebel attack. (see A Damascus Whodunnit)

One of the more troubling examples is the alleged Aqrab Massacre of some 200 Alawite civilians. Rebels said a house with 200 hostages was blown up by their (Alawite) Shabiha captors, and then shelled and bombed by the Syrian military, just to blame the rebels. That was a lie, the world has decided, and only the rebels are responsible for what happened (and we don't know what happened).