Assad should save his people and family by carving out a piece of land and seceding from Syria while they still have the opportunity. It is really a very unique and adaptive religion that should not go extinct.
No doubt Syrian Christians would join them since they share many religious saints and that the Alawite religion is a syncretism of Islam, Christianity and Gnosticism. Perhaps, even Buddhism.
Summary of Wikipedia article:
Like the Druze, some Alawi tenets may be secret and known only to a select few. Syncretism in particular from Ismaili Islam and Christianity. Some Sunni scholars have categorized Alawites as pagans. Alawis are reported
- to celebrate certain Christian festivals, "in their own way", including Christmas, Easter, and Palm Sunday
- to believe Ali is (like a Christ-type) incarnation of Allah.
- believe in reincarnation.
They were long persecuted for their beliefs by the various rulers of Syria, until Hafez al-Assad took power there in 1970. Robert D. Kaplan has compared Hafez al-Assad's coming to power to "an untouchable becoming maharajah in India or a Jew becoming tsar in Russia." In 1971, al-Assad declared himself president of Syria, a position the constitution at the time allowed only for Sunni Muslims to hold.
Colonial French had encouraged Alawites to join their military force, in part to provide a counterweight to the Sunni majority, which was more hostile to their rule. 1936 letter signed by 80 Alawi notables and was addressed to the French Prime Minister stating that "Alawite people rejected attachment to Syria and wished to stay under French protection."
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Other sources:
Believe that unbelievers (including other Muslims, Christians, etc) reincarnate as animals, while they repeatedly reincarnate till achieving illumination. The Alawite religion on the surface continues to mutate to suit their survival. Their Taqqiyya remain secretive from nominal Alawites. In modern times, Alawite leaders have found it expedient to steer closer to Sunni Islam, at other times steering closer to Shia, or even to Christianity. Therefore, young modern Alawite would only remember their religion as had suited Hafez Al-Assad.
Sounds Buddhist to me - reincarnate until you achieve enlightenment if you are good, but reincarnate into a non-Alawite and then ultimately into the most depraved amoeba if you are bad.
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They should quit now while there is a chance to revert to their former pro-European days.
