Fascinating report by Anne Bernard, the Beirut bureau chief of the New York Times, from Saiyida Zainab near Damascus, which houses the Shia shrine of the prophet Muhammad's granddaughter (or one of them to be exact). Protecting the shrine serves as a pretense for the involvement of Hizballah and Shia fighters from Iraq in Syria.

Muslim Shrine Stands as a Crossroads in Syria’s Unrest by Anne Bernard, The New York Times