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on January 19, 2015

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Lebanese Christians remember former glory by Viviane Akiki, An Nahar/Al Monitor

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The August events in Suwaidaʾ and their implications

After a period of relative calm in the overwhelming Druze province of Suwaida ʾ the situation dramatically changed in the middle of last August. The villages of Dama (and Dair Dama) were attacked by a group of local Bedouin. Größere Kartenansicht Al Monitor reported that the attack came after local NDF members had responded with targeting Bedouin gatherings to the beheading of a Druze man . The Bedouin were allegedly joined by rebel elements, according to some reports from al-Qa ʿ ida affiliated Jabhat an-Nusra. The number of the casualties on the Druze side differs from 12 to 24 and reportedly includes a high number of religious sheikhs (according to opposition outlet Zaman alWasl even seven). Harming religious people ( ʿuqqal ) is generally a red line for the Druze. This was illustrated in April 2014, when the arrest of a sheikh led to rare public protests in Suwaida ʾ and temporary a precarious situation for the regime. However, as Aymenn al-Tamimi has pointed out

Druze reincarnation & the Druze as a political entity

Social Anthropologist Gebhard Fartacek (check out his work on shrines in Southern Syria) from the Austrian Academy of Sciences edited a reader about Druze reincarnation narratives. The book was just published this week and the e-book is also available as open access via Peter Lang Publishing. If you are interested in Druze religion you will find interesting contributions by Fartacek, Lorenz Nigst (University of Vienna), Eléonore Armanet ( Aix-Marseille University) , Nour Farra Haddad ( Saint Joseph University) and Salma Samaha (Lebanese University). I was asked to provide an overview of the current political situation of the Druze communities, which I did basically by summarizing all my existing research after a decade long preoccupation with different dimensions of Druze politics. One might notice that even though my chapter has "contemporary situation" in the title, some recent crucial events are not mentioned like the devastating attack on Druze villages by ISIS in J

The alleged conversion of the Druze in Idlib province

by Rami Abou Diab and Tobias Lang Islamist pressure on Druze villages in Idlib Three weeks ago a previous posting on this Blog about the situation of the Druze in northern Syria (Jabal al-A‘la or Jabal as-Summaq) stated, that " If it is true, that Kaftin or other Druze villages are under the control of ISIS, the inhabitants are faceing extremely hard times". While end of October an attack by al-Qaida affiliated ISIS on the village of Kaftin had been prevented by villagers of surrounding Sunni settlements and/or FSA elements, around December 22 the Islamist pressure on the 18 Druze villages in the area intensified (for a detailed map see here ). Reports started to circulate, according to which the inhabitants of the Druze villages had declared their conversion to Islam. A four page long declaration by sheikhs of the villages was posted on social media by activists connected to ISIS and Jabhat an-Nusra , which may indicate it was done on their request. In this h

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(C) Tobias Lang

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