Islamic Sects

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>>2714864
Alawites are a mystery syncretist sect. They have a strange kind of trinitarian theology. They celebrate Christmas, consider Mohammad a legit prophet, and my understanding is many were upset when Assad got that Shia cleric to rule that they're Muslims. My understanding is most Sunni Muslims do not consider them Muslims at all, and from what I've gathered they're viewed as heretics by mainstream Shia.

We really don't know very much about their religion at all. They're very secretive about it for fear of persecution at the hand of Sunni Muslims. You can read a bit about it on Wikipedia and in some web articles, but there's not a whole lot of verification and it's hard to know what they really believe.

They are called "those who turn off the lights"
Supposedly in their meetings they turn off the lights and have sex with whomever is near to them, including relatives.
Probably slander and bullshit

>>2715583
This is exactly the kind of shit I'm talking about here>>2715566

There's a lot of bullshit floating around about them, most of it cooked up by Sunnis to discredit them. They've become reclusive about their beliefs as a result. Which is a stupid approach IMO, because it just makes it easier to make shit up about them, like "ooh what do these spooky kuffirs have to hide oooh". Still, that's the road they chose.

>>2715583
there are many turkish jokes about that

one of those weird ethnoreligions like yazidis, samartians or druze

>>2715566

Fascinating. Thank you anon. So the Assad's getting power in Syria was a big deal for this reason?

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>>2715627
Yes, and Assad gaining power is the only real reason they're considered Muslims at all. When he took over in a coup, Sunnis were furious because apparently the constitution says the president must be a Muslim. Alawites had been important in the military since the French period, but had never led the government itself, which was Sunni dominated. As I understand it, this led to some violence.

Honestly, a big part of the reason Sunnis in Syria were so easily radicalized when the civil war kicked off was a deep, simmering anger that came from being ruled over by people they considered to be non-Muslims.

So the story goes that a number of clerics, including I think a few prominent Muslim clerics started promoting the idea that Alawites are Muslims to encourage their participation in Arab nationalist projects. It's rumored that the Assad regime has been trying to get Alawites to act more like "normal" Muslims to make things easier.

>>2714864
>They've become reclusive about their beliefs as a result.
I disagree. Secrecy and initiation seems to be important for them.

>>2715671
You're probably right. There's a long history of mystery sects in that part of the world.

Still, the few Alawites I have spoken to have explained it to me as a way of avoiding persecution. Maybe that's another way to obscure it, idk.

>>2715583
Sounds fun

The Alawites are the most heretical and ridiculous of the Shia sects. They unironically believe that Ali, Muhammad and Salman the Persian were incarnations of Allah. If this isn't kufr I don't know what is.

>>2715712
behead yourself

Keep it right, keep it white, keep it Alawite.

>>2715725
Why should I? Even other Shias consider them ridiculous heretics

>>2715627
When Hafez took power he reformed the Alawite beliefs to try and keep them similar to Sunnis beliefs as possible, a pathetic attempt by Hafez to maintain his hold on the country rather than reform it with tolerant ideals.
>>2715669
>Sunnis were furious
The whole Ba'ath party was furious because Syria was a democracy and Hafez limited his premiership to his dynasty.
> ruled over by people they considered to be non-Muslims
The divide in Syria is much better compared to that of Egypt during the revolution where farmers were migrating to the cities en masse because of desertfication and drought. It's evident even now, the recent example being East Aleppo which was lost because civilians considered the rebels foreign to them so they had no public support. The same could be said with Damascus and the surrounding areas, the urban civilians stick with the regime and the rural folk flock to rebels groups.

>>2715790
You're not wrong about the urban-rural split, but I think it's hard to deny the role radicalization of Sunnis in the country has played. There's a reason the secular and inclusive rebel groups fell so fast

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>>2715566
>>2715669
>>2715790

Examples of why /his/ is best board

>>2715583
I'm an Alawite who can confirm this is slander and bullshit. It pisses me off when I read stuff like this, but I guess it's what we get for not revealing most of our theological beliefs.

Osama Bin Laden's mother was an Alawite.

really stimulates the neurons

>>2716836

Please anon, enlighten me

>>2716860

>irrelevant

>>2715583

They said the same of Christianity

>>2715566
So are they like Islamic Mormons or something?

>>2716836
Might explain his more moderate stance towards other Islamic sects. There was a big divide in Al Qaeda in early 2000, when the US invaded Iraq Zarqawi the founder of ISIS pushed a strategy of killing all non-Sunnis whereas Bin Laden opposed it and called it unhelpful to the cause.

I wouldn't be surprised, Al Qaeda during the Osama era was friendly with Shia Iran and cooperative with Alawite Assad.