There is a lot of disagreement about how the Alawite rulers of Syria treated Syrian Sunnis. This is especially true during the Assad regime. Hafiz al-Assad ruled from 1970 to 2000. His son, Bashar al-Assad, ruled from 2000 to 2024. There is proof that they were cruel, not kind. The Alawite minority makes up about 10–12% of Syria’s population. The Assad family gained power over a Sunni-majority country, which is about 70% of the population. They used politics and controlled the security forces. Sometimes, they employed harsh repression.
Before they became powerful, Alawites were marginalized and faced persecution by Sunni rulers. This occurred especially during the Ottoman era and the first few years after freedom. After Hafiz al-Assad’s coup in 1970, he set up a government. This government gave Alawites a lot of power in the military, police, and government. As a result, this changed a lot. Although the regime included some rich Sunni merchants from Damascus and Aleppo to diversify its ranks, the core power structure remained Alawite. This exclusion made many Sunnis angry because they felt left out or stifled.
During times of protest, the regime’s treatment of Sunnis became openly cruel. In 1982, Hafiz al-Assad put down a Sunni-led uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood in Hama. This is a famous case. An estimated 10,000 to 40,000 people were killed. Most of them were Sunni civilians. Additionally, much of the city was destroyed. This event showed that the government was ready to use deadly force. They considered people a threat, especially the Sunni majority, if they opposed them.
During the Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011, this trend got worse under Bashar al-Assad. Protests that started out peacefully were mostly led by Sunnis who wanted change. However, they were met with violent crackdowns. The regime’s security forces were mostly run by Alawite Muslims. They arrested many people. They tortured them and killed people without a trial. The Caesar pictures were leaked in 2014. They showed thousands of tortured bodies from regime prisons like Sednaya. These images revealed that terrible things were happening all over the country. Most of the victims were Sunnis who were against the regime. Human rights groups predict that by 2024, more than 300,000 people will have died. Millions more will have been forced to leave their homes. Sunnis will be hit the hardest because they are the majority and are active in resistance groups.
Regime actions, like arming Alawite groups (like the Shabiha) to attack Sunni communities, made sectarian tensions worse. There were also claims of ethnic cleansing in places like Homs. Alawite families moved into Sunni neighborhoods that had been empty for a while. The government announced it was taking action against “terrorism.” However, critics argue this was just an excuse to silence Sunni opposition. They believe it was done to maintain Alawite power.
Sunnis did not all have to deal with violence, though. Some sided with the government for political or economic reasons and had pretty good lives. The Assad government put on a secular front. They did this by not making any clear religious laws. Sunnis were noticeable in the military and in government. Sunnis suffer more than other groups, especially during protests. This suffering shows that they are not being treated fairly. Instead, they are being repressed.
In short, the Alawite rulers of Syria treated Syrian Sunnis very badly under the Assads. This was especially true during times of perceived power challenges. However, how a person was treated depended on their loyalty to the government. Massacres, prison abuse, and horrible crimes occurred during wars. These events make it clear that the Sunni majority should not be treated “nicely” as a whole.
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