On Wed, 28 Jul 2004, John Lacny wrote:
>> Note to Prof Avineri: Syria, Israel's next door neighbour, has been
>> ruled by a Shia minority for almost 50 years.
>
> Not quite. The Asad family are Alawites. Like the Shi'a, they revere
> Ali, but at least until the '70s -- when the elder Asad changed some
> tings in Syria -- they were not even considered Muslims by either Sunnis
> or Shi'ites.
>
> Correct?
You are right that there is some unclarity; I was simplifying in order to make my point sharper and my letter shorter.
But still, saying Alawites aren't Shia is little like saying Unitarians aren't Protestants because they've gone too far. I don't think that's really a distinction for us nonbelievers to make. The Alawites certainly consider themselves Shia. (As you probably know, Shia is simply short for "shia ali" or partisan of Ali, which they certainly are, down even to their name.) And most secular commentators routinely describe fivers, seveners and twelvers in all their richness as varieties of Shiism. You seem to be unconsciously identifying with the dominant twelvers.
It's also a bit beside the point of my very brief letter. All I need to show that Avineri hasn't the slightest idea what he is talking about is that they are not Sunni and that they are ruling an Arab state. I presume you would agree on that. Avineri was arguing this would be shocking and seen as un-Arab. That's clearly nonsense. For decades Syria was arguably the most Arab nationalist country of them all.
(BTW, it's not simply the Asad family who are Alawites, but most of the broad ruling elite. Alawites make up roughly 10% of the population of Syria -- a little less than, but roughly in the same ballpark as, the proportion of Sunnis in Iraq, and perfectly comparable as a ruling minority.)
Fwiw, Juan Cole, author of _Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Culture and History of Shi'ite Islam_, refers to Alawites as "an estoteric shiite sect:"
http://www.juancole.com/2003_03_01_juancole_archive.html#906363
And as his book makes clear, in Shiism, sects happen.
Michael