Syria's sectarian mix a dilemma for new rulers

Straits Times

16-07-2025

Find out what's new on ST website and app.
A member of the Syrian security forces stands on a military vehicle after Syrian troops entered the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday following two days of clashes, in Sweida, Syria July 15, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa's hopes of stitching Syria back together under the rule of his Islamist-led government are complicated by the country's mix of sectarian and ethnic groups.
Syria is majority Sunni Muslim, and its religious minorities include Alawites, Christians, Druze and Shi'ite and Ismaili Muslims. While most Syrians are Arab, the country also has a sizeable ethnic Kurdish minority.
Here's an overview of the Syrian ethno-sectarian mosaic:
SUNNI MUSLIMS
Sunni Muslims make up the majority of Syria's population of more than 20 million.
Syria was for centuries part of the Sunni-ruled Ottoman Empire until it collapsed a century ago and the country became a French mandate. The group had historically dominated Syria's most powerful cities - Damascus, Aleppo, Hama and Homs.
Under Assad family rule, Sunni Muslims still held some prominent roles and President Bashar al-Assad's wife Asma was from a Sunni family that gained influence until he was ousted in December. But patronage was largely skewed towards the Assads' Alawite minority after Bashar's father Hafez al-Assad seized power in 1970.
In 1982, the Syrian branch of the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood launched a revolt in Hama against Hafez al-Assad. His forces crushed the rebellion, killing more than 10,000 people.
Some of the most prominent factions in the insurgency against the Assads identified as Sunni Islamist, including Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which was an al Qaeda affiliate until cutting ties in 2016.
ALAWITES
Alawites account for around 10% of the population and follow an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam and revere Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Islam's Prophet Mohammad. They were a historically poor, rural community from Syria's mountainous coastal region.
In 1920, French colonial rulers created an Alawite state along the coast, in what was seen as a divide and rule strategy. It was incorporated into the rest of Syria in 1936, before independence a decade later.
Hailing from the Alawite village of Qardaha, Hafez al-Assad seized power after climbing the ranks in the military and the Baath Party. While espousing the Baath's secular Arab nationalism, the Assads recruited heavily from the Alawites for the security apparatus.
Sunni fighters killed 1,500 Alawites in the coastal region in March, after a rebellion by Assad loyalists.
DRUZE
Syria's Druze community follows a religion derived from Islam and is part of a minority group that also has members in Lebanon, Israel, and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. In Syria, the community is concentrated in the Sweida region bordering Jordan, in areas adjoining the Israeli-occupied Golan, and in Damascus' Jaramana suburb.
Echoing arrangements for the Alawites, French colonial authorities established a state called Jabal al-Druze centred on Sweida until 1936.
After Syria's civil war erupted in 2011, Druze held protests against Assad but were spared most of the mass violence that unfolded elsewhere in the country. They faced periodic attacks from other groups - including from Sharaa's HTS and other Sunni Islamist militants who regard their sect as heretical.
The Druze maintain a degree of secrecy about the practice of their faith that emerged in the 11th century and incorporates elements from Islam and other philosophies, emphasizing monotheism, reincarnation and the pursuit of truth.
Friction between Druze and Syria's new authorities has broken out into fighting several times this year - notably in Jaramana and Suweida.
Israel has intervened with airstrikes against Syrian government forces during the clashes with the stated aim of protecting the Druze.
KURDS
Kurds are Syria's largest non-Arab ethnic group at around 10% of the population and are concentrated near the border with Turkey and Iraq. They are part of a stateless ethnic group spread between Syria, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Armenia.
Syria's Kurds faced systematic persecution under the Arab nationalist Baathist rule.
While the Kurds are mostly Sunni Muslims, their dominant faction - the Democratic Union Party (PYD) - follows a political doctrine emphasising secular leftism and feminism and is heavily influenced by Abdullah Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
After the eruption of the Syrian conflict in 2011, a PYD-affiliated armed group, the People's Protection Units (YPG), established control of Kurdish-majority areas in northern Syria. Under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the YPG partnered with the United States against Islamic State.
SDF-held Syria today accounts for about 25% of the country, including some Arab-majority regions.
Leading Kurdish groups want to preserve regional autonomy, at odds with Sharaa's ambition of reunifying the country under central rule.
CHRISTIANS
While some prominent Syrian Christians joined the opposition against Assad, most Christian communities stuck by him, fearing that Sunnis would trample on minority rights if they took power.
The Christians are split into a number of denominations - some of them tiny communities with ancient roots in pre-Islamic Syria. Groups include the Greek Orthodox, Maronites, Syriac Orthodox and Catholics, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Armenian Orthodox and Catholics. There also are a few Protestants. REUTERS