The Druze religious cult, entangled in an outbreak of Tit-For-Tat Violence in Syria, started about 1000 years ago as a spur of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam.
Most drown religious practices are dressed in secrecy, with outsiders who are not allowed to convert and strongly discourage marriage.
More than half of the approximately 1 million Druze lives worldwide in Syria. Most other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, also in the Golan Heights, who conquered Israel from Syria in the Midden -Oosten war of 1967 and was annexed in 1981.
Here is a look at the Druze sect:
The Principles Druze Live by
A core of social doctrine for Druze is defending their brothers, which means they defend each other, said Makram Rabah, university teacher of history at American University of Beirut.
“If a Druze person somewhere in the world needed the help of another Druze person, he would get it automatically,” said Rabah. “You are part of a larger community.”
He emphasized how social and cultural rituals keep the community together. “They are a big tribe,” he said.
The marriage is not encouraged. Rabah said that mainstream druze would shun people who get married outside the cult. “You run the risk of being socially and wisely insulated,” he said.
How Druze has dealt with the Syrian government
Syria's Druze has a long history of cutting their own path to survive between the powerhouses of the country. They were heavily involved in revolts against Ottoman and French colonial rule to establish the modern Syrian state.
The Druze largely celebrated the fall in December of the Syrian autocrat Bashar Assad, but were divided between interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa's rule.
The last violence has left the community more skeptical about the new leadership of Syria and doubtful of peaceful coexistence.
In Israel, members of the Druze community had called for intervention to protect the Druze in Syria. But elsewhere in the region, Druze leaders have rejected the Israeli intervention.
Druze has armed militias
Multiple Druze -Anti -armed militias have been around for years, originally set up to protect their communities against group hunters of the Islamic State and drug smugglers who enter from the eastern desert.
Assad reluctantly gave a certain degree of autonomy because they wanted to prevent them from being involved in the front line. The Druzen were exempt from conscriptions in the Syrian army and instead set up local armed factions that were made of workers and farmers to patrol their areas.
Since the expulsion of Assad, the Druze are reluctant to put down their arms. The result is a cycle of distrust, where supporters of the government paint Druze factactions as potential separatists or tools of Israel, while the hostility of the Druze government only deepens.
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