Thanks Ayman Jawad al-Tamimi for this update on the FORCED conversion of the Druze of Jabal al-Samaq to Sunni Islam, that had been going on for a long time.

Where is the help when you need it to one of these minorities?

This is what had been happening to the “minorities” of the Middle East for a long time (over 1000 years).

Know for sure that 100 years ago there were more Druze in the same area.

Again thanks for the writer for drawing attention to this CRIME..

Minorities of the Middle East are the first line of defense against extremism

I agree with Mjabali, This is absolutely awful.

The problem is that there will more much more of this coming down the road. This is just a glimpse of what is to come.

NYT editorial talks about shifting realities in Syria and having to liver with the regime for now as the IS gets stronger.

It is just hiccup on the path of complete destruction of the country however to shift here and there.

The foreign policy of this administration is non existent.

Only 1% of IS territory was lost. No one in the US gives it a second thought anymore.

I suggest reading James Fallows’ article.

This is from the daily star today

Rockets, mortars rain down on Syrian capital: activists – See more at: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Jan-25/285257-rockets-mortars-rain-down-on-syrian-capital-activists.ashx#sthash.J4Z3fSJa.dpuf

The Damascenes are also going to suffer when the regime falls. They are hated by the rest of the country especially those around the city living in abject poverty and getting barrel bombed daily. There will be retribution on the people of Damascus and they will be displaced, their properties looted, and they will move the capital to Homs most likely.

The dollar is at 300 to the Syrian pound.

This is why we should let them duke it out.

Those that call for continued presence of the US in the ME are fools that will destroy this country

The Tragedy of the American Military
The American public and its political leadership will do anything for the military except take it seriously. The result is a chickenhawk nation in which careless spending and strategic folly combine to lure America into endless wars it can’t win.
James Fallows
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

Shelling Damascus, Aleppo and now Latakia, by rebels, aka moderate terrorists, will reduce support for those rebels further not the opposite especially that virtually all victims of those criminal attacks are civilians. Thawrajiyyeh who filled facebook, blogs and TV stations with comments about the regime’s shelling of civilian areas (despite knowing that rebels use those areas as HQs and hideouts) are as silent as house mice now.
The people of Damascus and Aleppo were instrumental in defeating the Ikhwanji uprising in the early 80s and they are the ones who have defeated the Islamist terrorists today, that is why they are being targeted by “freedom lovers” !!

GHUFRAN
It is known that young people are the most mobile and socially sensitive part of society, it has the potential for constructive activities and destructive. Thus, there is a risk of criminal socialization of young people, and the perception of it is broken the traditional spiritual value basis of education and socialization.
Young people do not have enough experience to analyze and correct critical attitude to the world around them is characterized by perfectionism, the desire to achieve their goals at any cost. This aspect in their perception imposed significant differences between the desired and reality.
The phenomenon of extremism differs massively sets its goal a radical change in the social system. Solution to the problems of extremism requires much deeper changes than just the addition or modification of the existing regulatory framework.
Extremism requires an integrated approach as a theoretical comprehension and in practice to counteract it. To date, needs revision and updating, not only material and economic base of society, but also of values, the formation of new thinking, a fresh interpretation of the existing philosophical and religious concepts, etc.
نخجل من جهلنا

A bloody day in Egypt, Do not wait for condemnation from KSA, al-Arabiya TV channel or any sheikh from the GCC because the crime is not relevant, only the criminal is, and if the criminal is a friend then there is no crime, Israel is another example !!
(Egypt’s security forces killed 16 demonstrators in one day, 1400 since July 2013)

عبد الباري عطوان

تحولت الذكرى الرابعة للثورة المصرية الى مجزرة دموية بدلا ان تكون مناسبة سعيدة يتبادل فيها المصريون التهاني، ويوزعون الحلوى و”الشربات” احتفالا بهذا الحدث العظيم الذي اطاح بأحد اكثر النظم السياسية الشرق اوسطية طغيانا وفسادا، ولكن قوات الامن المصرية ارادته غير ذلك، وكان لها ما ارادت، واستخدمت الذخيرة الحية للتصدي للمتظاهرين العزل، ومعظمهم من الشباب، ووصل عدد الضحايا حتى كتابة هذه السطور اكثر من 16 شخصا وهو في تصاعد.
الاحصاءات شبه الرسمية تقول ان 1400 شخص قتلوا برصاص رجال الامن منذ الاطاحة بنظام الرئيس المنتخب محمد مرسي في الثالث من يوليو (تموز) عام 2013، علاوة على ما يقرب من العشرين الف معتقل يقبعون خلف السجون اكثر من الفين من بينهم يواجهون احكاما بالاعدام.
هذه الارقام لا تشرف النظام الجديد في مصر، ولا تكسبه ثقة الشعب المصري المسحوق والمنهك، ولا احترام الرأي العام العالمي الذي تحتاجه مصر للحصول على المساعدات والقروض اللازمة لانقاذها من ازماتها الاقتصادية المتفاقمة، ولا يمكن ان تبشر بمستقبل واعد بالامن والاستقرار

MJABALI,

Christians and Jews were too many in the Middle East during the Otoman Empire, a sunni empire. Specially in cities like Mosul, Erbil, Bagdad, Beirut, Damasacus or Aleppo they used to be 30 % to 40 % (in Beirut at least 70 %)

It was not until the takeover of socialist and nacionalist dictatorships (¨protectors of miniorities¨) and the palestianian fight that jews and christians began to disappear. Only chia sects have grown in percentage in the last 100 years.

These are the facts so please take your own conclusions. It is not so difficult. Sunni was dominant in its nature but Chiism is expanding in a very agressive way that will result in the end of minorities.

Sandro

Speaking of facts…here are few for you

1- Christians were the majority of almost every large city in the Middle East up to the 19th C. They existed because they were there before the Muslims. They stayed because the Muslims were making them pay taxes. The Christians started losing ground from the moment Islam entered the area.
The Christians emigrated in large numbers( late 19th and early 20th) because of the lack of opportunity/oppression and because of the Sunni Ottomans. It was because of the continuous tensions and harassments. Christians were almost all over what is today Turkey: where did they go? They disappeared because of the Sunni Ottoman Empire.

2- Druze: there were Druze all over Syria when the Sunni Ottomans came and ruled Syria. From that moment, the Druze systematically dwindled in numbers. The Druze were considered heretics and were raided by almost all of the rulers of Allepo and Damascus. The Druze were slaughtered. The Wahabi raids into syria in the 19th C. wiped out lots of Druze villages between Hama and Aleppo. Jabal al-Sammaq is what is left from a very thriving Druze community in the middle of Syria.

3- Shia were all over Syria. They did not grow in numbers in the way you (Sandro) are talking about them. The Shia were all over Syria since the day they saw the light. The Sunni Muslims wiped them out. During al-Assad, what is left from the 100’s years of massacres dared to show up.

4- Alawites: Alawites were in all of the big Syrian Cities. They were in Damascus, around it, South of it and in the Golan Heights too. What is left of all of those today is one village south of Damascus and few in the Golan.

5- Sunni Ottomans brought many people to Syria in the 19th C.

6- Birth rates and demographic data tells against everything you said dear Sandro…

7- Minorities are the first line of defense against extremism….

MJABALI,

Sorry to tell you that you really lack (or may be I should say you miss) a lot of historical information.

Druzes were expelled from Lebanon 19th Century because druze were supported by the Great Door to slaughter christians in Mount Lebanon. Druzes occupied south of Syria by 1860´s. Until that momento no druzes were registered in Jabal Druze (or Jabal al Arab as Hafez Al Assad liked to call it). Progroms in Christian quarters of Damascus were supported by druzes coming from Lebanon.

No one can believe that Chia (seen as heretics to the Sunna) could survive in large numbers and all around Syria for 400 years the Sunni Rule of the Ottoman Empire. Christians and Jew did as people of the Book.

Alawites used to live in misery atop of the mountains, as shepherds or small farmers, and used to sell their daugthers to sunni burgoisie mainly in Aleppo, Homs and Hama.

Come on give us all the demographic data you talk about. Let us see all these census you talk about. Lol.

Minorities are the first line of ASSADS FOR KEEPING IN CONTROL. Sending alawites, christians and druzes to the front line is the main pillar to keep hate between communities creating sectarianism in Syria.

Assad is the greatest sectarian machaivelli of all times, and his Lords in Iran are the Masters.

Finally, just be informed that a Christian undersigns this message.

Sandro:

I will navigate through your little knowledge about the Druze, Shia and Alawites…and also bypass your inability to understand the history of your own country…..

1- You truly believe that the Alawites always existed in the mountains, from day one. I heard this from many other people, other than you. Of course this is historically untrue. Alawites started in major cities like Baghdad, and Aleppo. Alawites existed in all of the big cities till the Ottomans killed them all, except those who lived in mountains and hard to reach areas, like Golan…

2- What you said about the history of the Druze in Syria reflects poor education, like your claim that the Druze just came in the 19th C. What you said is laughable and I will let it pass because it is not my responsibility to give you a lesson.

3- What you said about the Shia reflects your little knowledge about the fight between the Sunni Ottomans and the Shia..Also it is not my responsibility to give you this lesson.

4- The minorities are the first line of defense against extremism ….just remember this

5- Sandro always slander the Alawites and say they always lived in misery….how much does he know about the Alawites…Nothing…So according to Sandro ..Sayf al-Dawlah al-Hamdani was living in misery while was in his Castle ruling Allepo…or Banni Ammar the rulers of Trablus…or Abu al-Tayyeb al-Mutannabi…read some books sandro….

Sandro they are the light in this darkness, they are the source of enlightenment, they are the source of knowledge, they are the source of moderation, they are the source of arts and sciences; in brief, they are God’s chosen people 🙂

Ernest Renan: Nationalism: an inflated and glorified sense of one’s history and importance combined with utter hatred and contempt for the other.

In fact shia were more numerous in the past in the whole Syria:
1. al-Bab, a city east of Aleppo and now entirely Sunni, was populated by Ismaili Shias until Saladin.
2. the Hamdanids, past rulers of Mosul (for a short time) and Aleppo, were Shias (I don’t know if Ismaili or Twelvers), although they were formerly christians.
3. the Marwanids were a shia dinasty which ruled northern Syria and southern Turkey (990-1090).
4. the Uquaylids were a shia dinasty which ruled eastern Syria (990-1100) and were allied with the Hamdanids
5. the Banu Kilabi and the Numayrids tribes, who lived in northern Syria, were shia like the majority of other Arabs in the area before the Seljuq invasion. They were extremely tollerant thowards Christians. The Turks then forced them to convert to sunnism.
6. the Alawi religion was “founded” in Aleppo around 1000AD, then they were forced to move west.
7. The Druze religion started in Egypt and not in Lebanon, as Sandro said. Then they were persecuted and forced to spread in the middle east.

Syria itself was a mixed country, but it’s a fact that the sunnis have an higher birthrate and a lower migration trend…so they are prevailing.
“The difference in birth rates between Syrian provinces, by the way, can be rather dramatic. In Sweida, Latakia, and Tartous, the three provinces with a Druze or Alawite majority, the birth rate ranged in 2004 from 1.7% to 1.9%. In the heavily Sunni provinces of Idlib, Deraa, and Deir ez Zor, it was 3.1%”. (by The American Spectator).

From Iran Military Forum yesterday:

“The SAA seems to go from 10 steps forward to 15 steps backwards.. The rats have managed, quiet successfully with the help of the Zionists occupiers to neutralize almost all of Syria’s air defences/bases in the South… is there any more proof who’s actually leading this war against Syria?”

http://www.iranmilitaryforum.net/military-conflicts/updates-on-military-action-in-syria/msg287550/#msg287550

Prof. Landis was on BBC Radio 5 in the early hours this morning:

Listen from 50:00 minutes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0505tkl

I want to add:

1. On the reproduction of the population SAR is influenced by many factors, but their combination and the degree of influence is refracted through, institutional specifics of Syrian society, nurtured by the characteristics of the formation, at the crossroads of several civilizations, give their specific results.

2. In terms of fertility SAR occupies 59 place in the world, surpassing the average global trends. It occupies 1st place in western Asia, ahead of its neighbors. Mortality rates by more than 2 times less global, and the best in the region. The population is growing rapidly solely due to natural growth and the forecast not only Syria, but also UNPO, the population will continue to grow in the future.(Because of the war, the population of Syria has decreased by 8%)!

3. Institutional features of the country related to civilization, represented by high nuptiality trends, extremely low divorce rate and the great influence of the family institution (family consisting of 6 or more people is 30.1% of families), although it should highlight the “growing marriage,” the growing number of unmarried men and unmarried, however, the deciding factor for the demographic situation they have not.

4. Civilization particular country influenced the formation of the modern settlement. Clearly seen densely populated coastal areas and pristolichnaya and thinly populated central and eastern part of the country.

12. FRED
Do you deliberately give the information sectarian nature, associated only with the confessional engineering ?

The minorities are duking it out today in South Lebanon and in Sweida and in Hasaka.

Very good response from the party today. Let us what the leader will say on Friday.

But if Assad would just step down, and the West would bomb the regime, everyone would be at peace, right? Right?

The real American President Netanyahu, drops in to kick his taxpayers in the face- at the invitation of his suborned, subverted AIPAC ‘Congress’:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/28690-is-john-boehner-a-traitor

Israel lifted its state of emergency right after the Shebaa farm attack and allowed people to move and circulate and go about their business.

Iran had sent a warning to Israel via the US a few days before.

This tells me that this was a nice pre arranged scenario to allow the party of God to save face and limit it to a skirmish and avoid escalating it into a war.

It is of course a pinprick compared to what Israel has done. At this time, Israel will be free to conduct even more attacks but in Syrian territory.

In the meantime, the official central bank exchange rate is 190 pounds to the dollar. The accommodating opposition in Moscow declared today that ” there are signs of monetary and economic collapse” imminent and therefore we have to find a solution.

Damascus was hit with 110 missiles last Sunday.

It took four months to take the Eastern part of Kobani and even at that life will never be back to normal.

The boy president gave a surreal interview to foreign affairs.

Jordan is ready for a prisoner swap and hence giving the IS a pseudo legitimacy and the US keeps having a disorganized and rudderless policy.

Nato and GCC policies, or the lack of, led to losing Iraq to Iran and now Syria.
They did not like Saddam and the Syrian regime and they tried to change things to suit their short term interests but the outcome was disastrous by all measures. Other results beside empowering iran were the vast destruction in both countries, the resurgence of islamist terrorism and the loss of whatever is left of the national fabric in both countries along with massive relocation of Christians.
All of that while Israel is sitting pretty !!
يا أمة ضحكت من جهلها الامم

So the leader gave a speech. The party was ready for war, but was Lebanon ready for the war?

What if Israel decided to escalate? I guess the party was ready to do the same. Therefore it shows that it is irresponsible in its actions, dragging Lebanon into regional conflicts and taking the country hostage with its actions in both Syria and Lebanon.

It may make the supporters feel a little better for a while but it clearly is not going to make it gain any new popularity any time soon.

The mountain has delivered a mouse one more time.
Wheras the Israeli did kill high ranking officers showing that they knew where they were and what they were doing and sent a clear message the party hit just a regular convoy.

This will make it easier for Israel to hit Syria and if the party of God wants to retaliate in Lebanon it is going to drag itself and the country into the abyss.

I do not understand this irresistible urge amongst the so called leaders of the Arab world to hear themselves talk: se gargariser de gloire when their underwear is soiled.

Very moving article
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Dear-Syria-From-One-Refug-by-Ramzy-Baroud-Children_Death_Israel_Palestinian-150127-591.html?show=votes#allcomments

Druze sheikhs sound the alarm bell

That was from the Daily Star regarding Sheikh Balous You Tube video that went ballistic and has galvanized the Druze in Sweida around this fiery Sheikh.

A great article on the workings of the mafia regime.

A dose of REALITY from the ground in Syria:

1- The article published above in Syria Comment is about how the Druze are forced to convert into Sunni Islam in 18 or so villages? The Same villages had been witnessing a systematic campaign that destroyed almost all of the religious shrines related to this religion, plus a planned Sunni conversion measures, like schools and courts.

2- For few years the religious abuse of those Druze in these villages/Jabal al-Sammaq, went almost un-noticed, or un-reported.

3- The Islamic State right now is in 5 or so villages, at the door steps of al-Swayda

4- al-Nusra, who is a major player into forcing Jabal al-Saqqaq Druze to convert into Sunni Islam, are the strongest player in the South of Syria.

5- The Sunni religious Fatawi against the Druze are the same against the Alawites. They were republished in books within the last few years if anyone is interested.

6- the Druze were all over Syria….the persecution of the Sunnis exterminated many of them from many places, and forced many to convert into Sunnism.

“The boy president gave a surreal interview to foreign affairs.”

And here is a link to what the interviewer thinks of the interviewee!

AP
Has Bibi swallowed the knife?
An ostrich?

While Israel and Hizbullah were trading fire and Israel’s involvement in the Syrian war became more evident, the Washington Post revealed that the assassination of top Hizbullah commander, Imad Mighniyyeh, in Damascus (2008)was a joint Mossad-CIA operation, this is the first time a US involvement in the killing of Mighniyyeh is publically recognized. Critics did not comment on whether Mighniyyeh was an enemy of the USA or not but focused on how and where the CIA carried the attack:

On Feb. 12, 2008, Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah’s international operations chief, walked on a quiet nighttime street in Damascus after dinner at a nearby restaurant. Not far away, a team of CIA spotters in the Syrian capital was tracking his movements.
As Mughniyah approached a parked SUV, a bomb planted in a spare tire on the back of the vehicle exploded, sending a burst of shrapnel across a tight radius. He was killed instantly.
The device was triggered remotely from Tel Aviv by agents with Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service, who were in communication with the operatives on the ground in Damascus. “The way it was set up, the U.S. could object and call it off, but it could not execute,” said a former U.S. intelligence official.
Mughniyah was targeted in a country where the United States was not at war. Moreover, he was killed in a car bombing, a technique that some legal scholars see as a violation of international laws that proscribe “killing by perfidy” — using treacherous means to kill or wound an enemy.
“It is a killing method used by terrorists and gangsters,” said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of international law at the University of Notre Dame. “It violates one of the oldest battlefield rules.”

‘Turkey might become hostage to ISIL just like Pakistan did’
The Turkish government’s strategy for a role in the region might be costly because the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also referred to as Da’ish) is not easy to control and Turkey might become hostage to ISIL, according to this week’s guest for Monday Talk.
http://www.todayszaman.com//monday-talk_turkey-might-become-hostage-to-isil-just-like-pakistan-did_371465.html#

ALAN,

Is there life on Mars?

Jonathan Tepperman video is great. Many words spoken spoken by parties are empty. Just hear what someone coming from the ¨civilized world¨ views in Assad and get the truth. Assad is a drug addict living on mars or even in a farer space facing death but ready to destroy the whole world before him is crushed to death.

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