Druze fear about being left behind in post-war Syria

[ad_1] Lina Sinjab BBC Center East correspondent

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/61a1/live/ea439b60-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/61a1/live/ea439b60-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/61a1/live/ea439b60-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/61a1/live/ea439b60-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/61a1/live/ea439b60-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/61a1/live/ea439b60-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/61a1/live/ea439b60-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/61a1/live/ea439b60-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images View of inside of burnt out car with a young boy standing on one side of the vehicle looking in" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP by way of Getty Photos Greater than 100 individuals had been killed in sectarian violence in a suburb south of Damascus in April

When the gunfire began outdoors her house within the Damascus suburb of Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, Lama al-Hassanieh grabbed her telephone and locked herself in her rest room.

For hours, she cowered in worry as fighters wearing military-style uniforms and desert camouflage roamed the streets of the neighbourhood. A heavy machine gun was mounted on a army automobile simply beneath her balcony window.

"Jihad towards Druze" and "we're going to kill you, Druze," the lads had been shouting.

She didn't know who the lads had been - extremists, authorities safety forces, or another person fully - however the message was clear: as a Druze, she was not protected.

The Druze - a neighborhood with its personal distinctive practices and beliefs, whose religion started as an off-shoot of Shia Islam - have traditionally occupied a precarious place in Syria's political order.

Underneath former President Bashar al-Assad, many Druze maintained a quiet loyalty to the state, hoping that alignment with it might defend them from the sectarian bloodshed that consumed different elements of Syria throughout the 13-year-long civil warfare.

Many Druze took to the streets throughout the rebellion, particularly within the latter years. However, in search of to painting himself as defending Syria's minorities towards Islamist extremism, Assad prevented utilizing the type of iron first towards Druze protesters which he did in different cities that revolted towards his rule.

They operated their very own militia which defended their areas towards assaults by Sunni Muslim extremist teams who thought-about Druze heretics, whereas they had been left alone by pro-Assad forces.

However with Assad toppled by Sunni Islamist-led rebels who've fashioned the interim authorities, that unstated pact has frayed, and Druze at the moment are nervous about being remoted and focused in post-war Syria.

Latest assaults on Druze communities by Islamist militias loosely affiliated with the federal government in Damascus have fuelled rising mistrust in direction of the state.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/b181/live/017eaa00-56ab-11f0-9261-abd7e0261bf5.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/b181/live/017eaa00-56ab-11f0-9261-abd7e0261bf5.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/b181/live/017eaa00-56ab-11f0-9261-abd7e0261bf5.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/b181/live/017eaa00-56ab-11f0-9261-abd7e0261bf5.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/b181/live/017eaa00-56ab-11f0-9261-abd7e0261bf5.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/b181/live/017eaa00-56ab-11f0-9261-abd7e0261bf5.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/b181/live/017eaa00-56ab-11f0-9261-abd7e0261bf5.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/b181/live/017eaa00-56ab-11f0-9261-abd7e0261bf5.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="A woman with shoulder length brown hair and in a white shirt looks to camera with a book case behind her" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Lama witnessed the outbreak of violent assaults towards Druze in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya

It began in late April with a leaked audio recording that allegedly featured a Druze spiritual chief insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Though the chief denied it was his voice, and Syria's inside ministry later confirmed the recording was pretend, the harm had been achieved.

A video of a scholar on the College of Homs, in central Syria, went viral, with him calling on Muslims to take revenge instantly towards Druze, sparking sectarian violence in communities throughout the nation.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, mentioned not less than 137 individuals - 17 civilians, 89 Druze fighters and 32 members of the safety forces - had been killed in a number of days of combating in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, the southern Damascus suburb of Jaramana, and in an ambush on the Suweida-Damascus freeway.

The Syrian authorities mentioned the safety forces' operation in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya was carried out to revive safety and stability, and that it was in response to assaults by itself personnel the place 16 of them had been killed.

Lama Zahereddine, a pharmacy scholar at Damascus College, was simply weeks away from finishing her diploma when the violence reached her village. What started as distant shelling became a direct assault - gunfire, mortars, and chaos tearing by her neighbourhood.

Her uncle arrived in a small bus, urging the ladies and kids to flee beneath hearth whereas the lads stayed behind with nothing greater than gentle arms. "The attackers had heavy machine weapons and mortars," Lama recalled. "Our males had nothing to match that."

The violence didn't cease at her village. At Lama's college, dorm rooms had been stormed and college students had been overwhelmed with chains.

In a single case, a scholar was stabbed after merely being requested if he was Druze.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/8ff9/live/c943b090-571d-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/8ff9/live/c943b090-571d-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/8ff9/live/c943b090-571d-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/8ff9/live/c943b090-571d-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/8ff9/live/c943b090-571d-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/8ff9/live/c943b090-571d-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/8ff9/live/c943b090-571d-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/8ff9/live/c943b090-571d-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="A young woman in her 20s with long brown hair and wearing a peach top sits on a sofa against a wall" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> This college scholar, additionally named Lama, says her dorms had been stormed and Druze college students had been overwhelmed

"They [the instigators] informed us we left our universities by selection," she mentioned. "However how might I keep? I used to be 5 lessons and one commencement challenge away from my diploma. Why would I abandon that if it wasn't critical?"

Like many Druze, Lama's worry is not only of bodily assaults – it's of what she sees as a state that has failed to supply safety.

"The federal government says these had been unaffiliated outlaws. Superb. However when are they going to be held accountable?" she requested.

Her belief was additional shaken by classmates who mocked her plight, together with one who replied with a laughing emoji to her submit about fleeing her village.

"You by no means know the way individuals actually see you," she mentioned quietly. "I do not know who to belief anymore."

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/94f7/live/e44492a0-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/94f7/live/e44492a0-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/94f7/live/e44492a0-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/94f7/live/e44492a0-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/94f7/live/e44492a0-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/94f7/live/e44492a0-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/94f7/live/e44492a0-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/94f7/live/e44492a0-571e-11f0-82f9-ffcaa67a8d94.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images Three men in military camouflage outfits carrying gun walk one after the other under some trees as several people watch on from the other side of the street" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Getty Photos Druze volunteers had been introduced in to assist defend their neighborhood throughout the assaults

Whereas no-one is bound who the attackers pledged their allegiance to, one factor is evident: many Druze are nervous that Syria is drifting towards an illiberal Sunni-dominated order with little house for spiritual minorities like themselves.

"We do not really feel protected with these individuals," Hadi Abou Hassoun informed the BBC.

He was one of many Druze males from Suweida referred to as in to guard Ashrafiyat Sahnaya on the day Lama was hiding in her rest room.

His convoy was ambushed by armed teams utilizing mortars and drones. Hadi was shot within the again, piercing his lung and breaking a number of ribs.

It is a far cry from the inclusive Syria he had in thoughts beneath new management.

"Their ideology is spiritual, not primarily based on legislation or the state. And when somebody acts out of non secular or sectarian hate, they do not signify us," Hadi mentioned.

"What represents us is the legislation and the state. The legislation is what protects everybody…I need safety from the legislation."

The Syrian authorities has repeatedly pressured the sovereignty and unity of all Syrian territories and denominations of Syrian society, together with the Druze.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/174e/live/98496b80-567b-11f0-95fc-edf89039c20a.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/174e/live/98496b80-567b-11f0-95fc-edf89039c20a.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/174e/live/98496b80-567b-11f0-95fc-edf89039c20a.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/174e/live/98496b80-567b-11f0-95fc-edf89039c20a.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/174e/live/98496b80-567b-11f0-95fc-edf89039c20a.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/174e/live/98496b80-567b-11f0-95fc-edf89039c20a.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/174e/live/98496b80-567b-11f0-95fc-edf89039c20a.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/174e/live/98496b80-567b-11f0-95fc-edf89039c20a.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="A man in his 40s with a greying beard and short dark hair looks directly at the camera " class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Hadi's lung was pierced by a bullet fired by an armed group that ambushed his volunteer group

Although clashes and assaults have since subsided, religion within the authorities's means to guard minorities has diminished.

In the course of the days of the combating, Israel carried out air strikes across the Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, claiming it was concentrating on "operatives" attacking Druze to guard the minority group.

It additionally struck an space close to the Syrian presidential palace, saying that it might "not enable the deployment of forces south of Damascus or any menace to the Druze neighborhood". Israel itself has a lot of Druze residents within the nation and dwelling within the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

Again in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, Lama al-Hassanieh mentioned the ambiance had shifted - it was "calmer, however cautious".

She sees neighbours once more, however wariness lingers.

"Belief has been damaged. There are individuals within the city now who do not belong, who got here throughout the warfare. It is arduous to know who's who anymore."

Belief within the authorities stays skinny.

"They are saying they're working towards defending all Syrians. However the place are the true steps? The place is the justice?" Lama requested.

"I do not wish to be referred to as a minority. We're Syrians. All we ask for is similar rights - and for individuals who attacked us to be held accountable."