The future of the Alawites

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the wake of the Assad regime’s fall in Syria, thousands of Alawites, a minority Shia sect historically linked to the former regime, have fled to Lebanon. They are seeking refuge from discrimination and sectarian violence that has left over 1,000 civilians dead, including women and children. The late Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, became the most powerful Alawite when he seized control of Syria in a coup in 1970. Under the rule of Hafez al-Assad and then his son Bashar - the ruling Assad’s recruited heavily from the Alawite community placing them in top posts in state, security and intelligence branches. Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa, promised to protect Syria's minorities, but has struggled to contain a wave of violence directed towards the Alawite community. Emily Wither travels to the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli to meet with Syrian Alawite refugees and a new youth movement. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So we've come into a courtyard where there are, how many people are living here now?
0:09.7	About 45 families.
0:12.4	And there's really not much privacy at all.
0:14.4	They've strung washing up against every wall space.
0:18.5	You said it used to be a conference hall.
0:22.8	And now it's become a home.
0:30.0	This is invaluable to them. This security they are feeling here, the peace they are feeling,
0:40.0	they don't mind. They would sell anything they have just to stay here and feeling peace and feeling secure.
0:45.5	And you've been coming here and collecting testimony of what happened to people.
0:47.5	What are some of the things that people have told you?
0:52.5	Oh, they have told me lots of different things.
0:55.8	I'm just going to pause Angelina Bilau, a young Aloite who's helping her community and warn you that this program contains details of
1:00.8	killing and sexual violence. I'm Emily Wither and on this week's heart and soul for the
1:05.7	documentary on the BBC World Service. I've come to Angelina's neighbourhood. It's an alawite area in the northern
1:12.4	Lebanese city of Tripoli. It lies on the Mediterranean coast and is very close to the Syrian border.
1:19.4	In recent months, there's been thousands of new arrivals here, as residents have flung open
1:24.2	community halls, mosques and their homes to shelter their fellow
1:28.5	al-Awhites, a minority offshoot of Shia Islam as they flee violence in Syria.
1:35.4	I've been coming to the shelters and to houses where refugees are current residents,
1:41.0	and I'm taking their testimonies in order to do a international pressure
1:46.7	and to demand accountability to people who are responsible for the massacres that happened in
1:53.5	Syria. They were stolen, they were forced to bark, they were humiliated, they were threatened, fired from their jobs. They killed
	...

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