Cycle of Fear —— Syria's Alawites in War and Peace

----- 恐惧的循环：叙利亚在战争与和平中的阿拉维派

ISBN: 9781849044684 出版年：2015 页码：322 Goldsmith, Leon Hurst

The Alawites are a key component to the current civil war in Syria. Journalist Robert D. Kaplan compared Hafez al-Assad's coming to power to "an untouchable becoming maharajah in India or a Jew becoming tsar in Russia-an unprecedented development shocking to the Sunni majority population which had monopolized power for so many centuries".[31] In 1971 al-Assad declared himself president of Syria, a position the constitution at the time permitted only for Sunni Muslims. The author shows how the political behavior of Alawites has long been shaped by the group's insecurity and lack of true integration into society.