What is the main religion of Syria?
Sunni Muslims form the majority in Syria. In Syria and Lebanon, they tend to support the rebels and oppose the Assad regime, and Syrian Sunnis have been subject to ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Alawite minority in recent months.
Are Alawites Shia?
The Alawis, Alawites (Arabic: علوية Alawīyah), or Nusayris (Arabic: نصيرية Nuṣayrīyah) are a religion which originated from Shia Islam. The Alawites revere Ali (Ali ibn Abi Talib), considered the first Imam of the Twelver school.
What is the main culture in Syria?
Syria is a traditional society with a long cultural history. Importance is placed on family, religion, education and self-discipline and respect. The Syrian’s taste for the traditional arts is expressed in dances such as the al-Samah, the Dabkeh in all their variations and the sword dance.
What God do Syrians believe in?
Sunni Islam is the main religion in Syria. The Great Mosque of Aleppo consists of pre-Islamic, Seljuk, and Mamluk architectural styles.
Is Turkey Shia or Sunni?
Most Muslims in Turkey are Sunnis forming about 80.5%, and Shia-Aleviler (Alevis, Ja’faris, Alawites) denominations in total form about 16.5% of the Muslim population. Among Shia Muslim presence in Turkey there is a small but considerable minority of Muslims with Ismaili heritage and affiliation.
What are Syrian beliefs?
According to CIA World Factbook, 87% of Syrians are Muslim, the majority being Sunni Muslims (74%). A further 13% are Shi’a Muslims, following the Alawite (11%), Ismaili (1%) or Twelver Imami (0.5%) sects.
What traditions do they have in Syria?
- Independence Day. Kicking off the Syrian events calendar in April is the National Independence day.
- Cotton Festival. Every year in July, Aleppo shows the rest of the country just what it has to offer.
- Eid al-Fitr (End of Ramadan)
- Arabic Book Fair.
- Silk Road Festival.
- Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice)
Why are there so many Shiites in Syria?
However, their numbers swelled after 2003 with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees during the Sunni-Shiite civil war in that country. Twelver Shiites fear a radical Islamist takeover of Syria and largely support the Assad regime. With Syria’s ongoing descent into conflict, some Shiites moved back to Iraq.
Who are the Sunnis and Alawites in Syria?
Sunni Muslim Arabs. A majority of Syrians are Sunni Arabs, but they are politically divided. True, most of the fighters in rebel opposition groups under the Free Syrian Army umbrella come from the Sunni provincial heartlands, and many Sunni Islamists don’t consider Alawites to be real Muslims.
Who are the second largest ethnic group in Syria?
The Kurds in Syria are the second largest ethnic group in the country (forming around 10.6% of the population) and are mainly Sunni Muslims. The majority live in the northeast, bordering on Iraq and Turkey.
Is there a religious divide in the Syrian Civil War?
1 Growing Religious Divide. At its core, the civil war in Syria is not a religious conflict. 2 Alawites. President Assad belongs to the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam 3 Sunni Muslim Arabs. A majority of Syrians are Sunni Arabs, but they are politically divided. 4 Christians. The Arab Christian minority in Syria