MENA Minorities

Raphaël Lefèvre has a next fine piece on Lebanon's Alawites for the Syria in Crisis blog. The author argues that Lebanon's Alawite community is at a crossroad since the implimentation of the security plan in Tripoli and the escape of ‘Ali and Rifa‘t ‘Aid to Syria. Lebanon’s Alawites at a Crossroads , by Raphaël Lefèvre

Holy Land Christians disappointed by pope's visit , by Alona Ferber, Haaretz

Clashes broke out in Homs between the National Defence Forces (NDF) and militiamen of the Syrian Social Social Nationalist Party, who are both fighting on the side of the regime. With the increasing importance of militias for the regime, the factionalism of the former is increasing. This leads to the assumption, that such incidents might happen more frequently in the future, since the army (and the revolutionary guards) are extremely overstretched and find it difficult to control their allied militias. What makes this episode even more interesting is the sectarian component: while the NDF here is mostly Alawite, the SSNP in Homs and nearby Wadi an-Nasara ("Valley of the Christians") has a large Christian (mostly Greek Orthodox) following. Fighting among pro-Assad groups points to factional future by Lauren Williams, The Daily Star BEIRUT: Fierce clashes erupted between pro-Assad militias from the National Defense Forces and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party in Ho...

Lukas Wank hat für das Internetportal Shabka mein Buch "Die Drusen in Libanon und Israel" rezensiert. This land is my land, this land is my land , von Lukas Wank, Shabka  

Over the last year it became pretty clear that the Israeli government aims to give the Arab-Christian population a Druze like status - i.e. mandatory conscription and a legal seperation from the Arab population, which would then be only Muslim. The efforts reached have t o introduce mandatory conscription have reached a preliminary peak with the sending of volutary draft notices to yound Christian Arabs. IDF to send 'voluntary draft notices' to Christian Arabs  by Gili Cohen, Haaretz The Israel Defense Forces will send draft notices to Christian Arab teenagers over the next several weeks in an attempt to increase voluntary enlistment within the community.  Christian Arab citizens of Israel are not subject to compulsory military service. They can volunteer, but few do. According to an Army Radio report on the new policy, every year about 2,000 Christian Arabs reach the...

Friederike Stolleis von der Friedrich Ebert Stiftung hat anlässlich von Baschar al-Assad's Osterbesuch in Ma‘lula einen sehr guten Kommentar in der TAZ veröffentlicht, der in sozialen Netzwerken für einiges an Aufsehen gesorgt hat: Das Spiel mit den Christen , von Friederike Stolleis, TAZ