Word: sects
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...home, Assad has brought a stable government to a country that had rarely experienced that phenomenon before he came to power 13 years ago. His durability is especially noteworthy considering that Assad belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that accounts for only 13% of his country's 9.6 million people (most of the rest are Sunni Muslims). Assad's long tenure has, however, been purchased at great cost. The regime cruelly silences opponents both at home and abroad, maintains a standing army of 275,000, and has five intelligence agencies to keep watch...
...fact that the Israelis did not remain in the mountains long enough to give the Lebanese Army a chance to fill the vacuum. As a result, members of the independent Lebanese forces moved in immediately, setting off the fighting between Christian militiamen and the Druze, a breakaway Islamic sect...
Besides sharing Iran's hatred of Iraq, Syrian President Assad has received something from Khomeini that is exceedingly precious to him: recognition of the religious legitimacy of the minority Alawite Muslim sect, to which the Syrian President and his loyalist adherents belong. It is altogether possible, Helms believes, that the Syrians are helping the pro-Iranian terrorists in Lebanon as a way of repaying the Ayatullah for giving the Alawites his seal of approval. Both Syria and Iran denied any role in the bombings, though newspapers in the two countries called the attack justified...
Other Lebanese factions have resented the Marines for their backing of the Christian-dominated government. Among them are the Druze, members of a sect that broke away from Islam in the 11th century. They are angry both because they have never had a fair share of political power in Lebanon and because the Christian militias moved forcibly into their mountainous region as soon as the Israeli forces had staged a partial withdrawal from Lebanon almost two months ago. Equally resentful of the Marines' presence are the Shi'ite Muslims, who are also fighting for a greater share of political power...
...Baumann's home is filled with Harvard--memorabilia--photographs, scrapbooks full of newspaper clippings, and hundreds of cards and letters. Included in the stacks is a bulging packet of notes from Karim Aga Khan '59, the spiritual leader of the Pakistani Islamic sect, music composed by Joseph Raposo '58, articles by Eugene Bell, and a book by poet David McCord '56 autographed "To my friends Elsie and Henry, who made Cambridge a better city...