Over the last few years, some of the regimes of the Middle East have begun to experience an unraveling of their state systems. From Libya all the way to Iraq, many governments that were formerly strong bedrocks of stability have now been reverted to chaotic states where military coups, civil wars and sectarian conflicts have now come to the forefront. For decades, many of these states have tried to construct state identities and institute policies that tried to transcend or bypass the various factors that have disenfranchised segments of the population. Today, given the volatility in the region, those factors of disenfranchisement like sectarianism, class and youth have now become exacerbated to the point where they are unraveling the state. …show more content…
In his book, Worth manages to show the unraveling of Syrian society along sectarian lines as the Syrian Civil War unfolds. Demographically Syria is 70% Sunni, yet it is ruled by a small religious sect, the Alowites, who only make up 12% of Syria’s population. Religiously, Worth describes the Alowites as an offshoot of Islam that not only revere Muhammad and Christ but also venerates Plato, Socrates and Aristotle while privately “reviled Muslims and Christians as wretched heretics destined to be reborn as apes and pigs” (Worth 82). Nevertheless, the Alowites were categorized for centuries by the Syrian Sunnis as “heretics” until 1936, when the Alowites leader, Suleiman al Assad, sought to cleanse the heretical stain of the Alawis by having Shia clerics issue fatwas that “declared Alawis to be orthodox members of the Shiite fold” (Worth 85). When Suleiman’s son, Hafez, became president in 1971, the minority Alawis finally came to power and were overwhelming placed by Assad into key military and governmental positions which further cemented the Alawis into power. Worth describes how prior to the Syrian Civil War, sectarianism, although dormant in some segments of the population, was disregarded by Syrian society. Worth shows this journey through two Syrian girls, Noura (a Sunni) and Aliaa (an Alawite) who have been childhood friends, even though they each belong to widely distinct ethno-religious sects. Their bond was so strong that Noura rejected a marriage proposal from a man who forbade her from being friends with Aliaa because she was an Alowites. Similarly, a Sunni schoolteacher talked about how before the conflict she had many Alawi friends, colleagues and neighbors and how she did not even think about their religion because “it was not important:. However, as soon as the conflict broke out the same schoolteacher remarked that the