Simona Foltyn:
With Assad’s overthrow, Syria is under Sunni majority rule, the very scenario Assad portrayed as an existential threat to garner support among his own minority sect, the Alawites. They’re an offshoot of Shia Islam and comprise about 10 percent of the country’s population.
Many Alawites who joined Assad’s security forces did so for the sake of survival, rather than fierce loyalty. They got little in return. In this dilapidated Alawite neighborhood of Damascus, I sat down with a group of young men who were happy to see Assad gone.
Tareq Khateeb, Mezzeh 86 Neighborhood Resident (through interpreter): Many people misunderstood this matter. That’s because we were from the same sect as the former president. This area was better off. We lived in great poverty.
