Word: sect
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...towns that are not surrounded. But then so are the people of Aley and Ain Zhalta and other Druze towns, all prisoners of collective folk memories in which rights and wrongs are forever remembered. "We are the first people of Lebanon," says a Druze village elder, referring to his sect, which broke away from Islam in the 11th century (see box). "We cannot be ignored. We respect the rights of others, but they must respect our rights...
There was never much doubt that the Chouf, heartland of Lebanon's 250,000 Druze, who are members of a breakaway Islamic sect, would fall under control of the Druze militia, although the mountains are specked with Christian as well as Druze villages (see following story). The Druze militia has 30,000 fighters and, if pressed, could field thousands of irregulars. The Lebanese Forces, a Christian militia dominated by the Phalangists, have an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 fighters in the Chouf. This number could also be considerably increased, though at the moment many Christian families are sending...
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...
...Rios Montt's cardinal sin was being aggressively Protestant in a Catholic country. A member of a California-based sect called the Christian Church of the Word, he appointed two church elders as his principal advisers. He could also be petty: when Pope John Paul II toured the country last March, Rios Montt refused to provide government funds for a specially built car for the Pontiff...
...fighting last week was not simply the result of sectarian rivalries. It was a show of force, designed to win a larger share of power in Lebanon's political patchwork, by the Druze, a small and esoteric sect with roots in Islam. Last month Walid Jumblatt, Druze chieftain and leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, helped organize a National Salvation Front with the deliberate aim of opposing Gemayel. The front struck an alliance with Syria and demanded that Gemayel renounce the May 17 agreement according to which Israel would withdraw its troops if Lebanon agreed to security and political...