Akram, the Angry Arab correspondent in Syria, sent me this:
The Coast Bees Movement, a Facebook page
expressing the point of view of the Alawites who oppose the regime (Arabic), deserves so many likes and
also their online newspaper (the first issue can be downloaded here- Arabic),
Al-Sindyian (The Oak, a tree known in the Syrian coastal mountains, where the
majority of the Alawites live) deserves to be read and encouraged (Facebook- Arabic)"
"Let aside the direct victims of the dirty war between the Syrian
regime and its armed opposition, the killed, wounded and displaced people, the
Alawite might be the most oppressed Syrian community. The Syrian regime, without
saying it expressly, rules in their name, and the western media, naively or, more likely, by design,
promote this idea: how many times have you read this sentence describing the
Syrian regime: The alawite
minority sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, which rules Syria? Everyone talks about the minorities fears
from the fall of the regime. But can anyone remember a single article that
tried to break the typical image of the Alawites as being a "ruling sect" who sacked the country and the main source of the Shabiha and Mukhabarat? Can
anyone recall a western reporter that tried to visit the coastal area and talk to
average Alawites about their fears and hopes?
However, among this community, there are individuals
who bear a double injustice: Welcome to the "opponent Alwaites". As Alawites,
they're threatened in their own lives, by those who suppose to be their brothers
in oppression, marked of being of the
"ruling sect" and thus not recognized as being opponents. As
opponents, they are treated by their own people as being traitors. For both
sides, they are mere aliens. However, these aliens don't only exist, they also
present a bright and clean image of the Syrian revolution, the image of a
secular, educated and humane opposition, an image that disappeared long time
ago, after the scene has been occupied by bloody and fanatic gunmen. Those lonely people, my brave brothers and sisters,
deserve more than just a greeting; they deserve our admiration for their
courage and their belief of a Syria for its entire people.
