The Alawis,also known as Nusayris,are an Arab ethnoreligious group that live primarily in the Levant and follow Alawism, a religious sect that splintered from early Shia Islam as a ghulat branch during the ninth century.
In the face of bloody chaos, all of Syria's peoples must work towards real citizenship and not descend into sectarian splintering, says Robin Yassin-Kassab.
