West Asia crisis is deepening on sectarian line

INTRODUCTION:

Sectarianism is often treated as the primary cause of conflict in states such as Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq where previously many political forces and tribes had their own loyalties to a particular affiliation. In Syria, the classic case is the present Assad Government which has the loyalty of the tribes of the Alawite sect, a large number of which originate from Syria’s Mediterranean coast—particularly Qardaha, the hometown of the Assad family. Now they provide highest number of recruits for Shia rule in Syria which is opposed by the Sunni Arabs. Now the Sunnis recruit sub tribes in Syria to fight the Syrian Government.

ANALYSIS:

Sectarian militias are often formed in the lines of loyalty and political patronage. In Syria and Iraq, it is quite open now. In both countries, a security vacuum led to the formation of sectarian militias, such as the Mahdi Army among the Iraqi Shi‘a and Jabhat al-Nusra among the Sunnis in Syria. Intra-sectarianism is also part of the conflict in Syria. Not even the Islamist segment among Arab Sunni rebels could unite under a single sectarian agenda. Jabhat al-Nusra