Word: ite
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Assad's longevity is all the more remarkable considering that he is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that accounts for only 11% of his nation's population, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim. In a sense, it was Assad's religion that put him on the path to power. With few career opportunities available to a non-Sunni, Assad entered the military academy at 22; by 25, he was an air force officer. Around that time, the ambitious Assad became active in the country's Baath Party, which advocates...
Alarmed by the violence, President Gemayel dispatched a three-man Cabinet delegation to the Chouf to negotiate an end to the fighting. It included a Druze, a Shi'ite Muslim and a Maronite. The three ministers met with Sheik Muhammad Abu Shaqra, spiritual leader of the Druze community, and then set off, with their armed escort, on the return trip to Beirut. They were soon intercepted by Druze gunmen and taken to Jumblatt's home in the town of Mukhtara. Jumblatt was not there, and it was unclear whether he even knew of the abductions. Abu Shaqra sped...
Sheik Isa's main worry centers on a religious schism within his people. The royal family, along with most of the nation's decision makers, are Sunni Muslims, but some 60% of the country, including most of the poor, belong to the Shi'ite branch of Islam. Bahrain thus is an inviting target for an Islamic revolution imported from Iran, where the Shi'ites are dominant. The island in fact was part of Persia until Sheik Isa's ancestors, who came from Qatar, drove out the Persians in 1783. Since the revolution that brought Ayatullah...
...Lebanon, the sword of violence always seems to be unsheathed and ready to strike. Two Israeli soldiers were killed last week when a bomb exploded as their truck rumbled along a highway in southern Lebanon. In downtown Beirut, Lebanese army soldiers battled Shi'ite Muslim militiamen after government police tried to evict Shi'ite squatters from an abandoned school. Seven people died, including two soldiers. In the Chouf Mountains southeast of Beirut, Druze villagers clashed with a Lebanese army patrol. The toll: two dead and 18 wounded. The last incident carried ominous implications since the Lebanese army...
Sadly, the guerrillas also fight vehemently among themselves. The Soviet invasion has sparked friction between ethnic Tajiks and ethnic Pushtuns and thrown gasoline on centuries-old feuds between Shi'ite Muslims and Sunni Muslims, and between pro-Iranian Shi'ites and independent Shi'ites. The guerrilla movement is thus fragmented into hundreds of units organized along village lines, each loosely affiliated with one of the six major resistance groups. Based in Pakistan, the leaders of most of those groups are quite unable to control events at the front. The divisions are so deep, moreover, that...