Attack on `Alawites in Syria

Look at this article on Syria in the New York Times.  It basically follows the pattern of coverage: the New York Times has decided they won't include reactions by Syrian government or their supporters.  One wishes they do that when they cover Israeli crimes, just as when they ignore Syrian government statements when it comes to Syrian regime crimes. They correspondents manage to speak to supporters of the pro-Saudi elements of the Syrian opposition throughout the region, and yet not one voice to question or verify claims.  Look at the way they covered the torture and murder of 11 `Alawites near Homs.  Of course, this is not novel as there have been reports of attacks on `Alawites and even of marking houses in which `Alawites reside.  Many `Alawites have to move from their neighborhoods including in Rif Dimashq, or Duma and Hrista.  It is now very easy for any supporter of the Syrian Ikhwan council to dismiss a person as mukhabrat or shabbihah (thugs or armed goons of the regime) to justify his murder and the expulsion of his family from the neighborhood.  This is even happening in cyber space: if you don't support the Syrian National Council you are called a supporter of Bashshar and the crimes of the Syrian regime.  But the attack on `Alawites is part of the traditions of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhoods: they did that in the late 1970s in Syria.  It is not new but Western or Arab media won't cover that because all `Alawites are dismissed as criminals or as goons of the regime.  There is not one article written about the religious bigotry against all `Alawite that is being generated by Saudi channels (and such expressions against `Alawites is of course welcome on Aljazeera now).  In the New York Times it says:  "There were reports that those killed belonged to the minority Alawite sect, and the killing of the factory workers was to avenge their deaths.  But antigovernment activists said that among those dragged from the bus and killed were at least one Sunni Muslim and two Christians, in addition to Alawites."  So you can simply dismiss the murder of innocent `Alawites by citing the authority of an unknown person who claimed without evidence that not all are `Alawites, and that two were Christians.  But we never claimed that the Ikhwan were not bigots against Christians, Mr./Ms.