Syria and Alawite

[sm78]

Ever since I came to know that the present president of Syria and his father are actually not Sunni muslims but belong to a small "esoteric" Alawite sect some of whose beliefs don't look remotely Islam (transmigration, and the incredible ridicule of howling jackels as tranmigrated sunni's calling others to prayers :) , referred in the article below), I have been wondering how this has been possible for so long. Given how prone to violence and brutality the Sunni (and in many ways real Islam is) are, how could he and his father manage this act.

Now it seems its only matter of time, as tanks can't hold on for much longer against a God frenzied crowd. Nonetheless, Alawite interests me, wud be glad to learn more. Not in sense of knowledge, but pure curosity on how these pre-islamic beliefs combined with Islamism has managed to survive in an increasingly dogmatic and radical Islamic society. This whole topic of Islamic "mysticism" is simulataniously ironic & funny yet interesting.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/syrias-ruling-alawite-sect/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alawi

[Jainarayan]

Syria is, and always has been, a hotbed of diverse and mixed forms of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, going back ~2,000 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Syria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion_in_Syria

Syria, Lebanon and Israel (and maybe Jordan) are the only Middle Eastern countries where there is a fair semblance of religious diversity. Not necessarily full tolerance everywhere, but diversity.

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam: Off topic, but directed at sm78. I've often pondered your 'mad as a bicycle' . Is this what you had in mind? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL75ygIsIsI&feature=related

Aum Namasivaya

[sm78]

Vannakkam: Off topic, but directed at sm78. I've often pondered your 'mad as a bicycle' . Is this what you had in mind? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL75ygIsIsI&feature=related

Aum Namasivaya

Can't open youtube from office :).

However, it is a dialogue from the last episode of classic british sitcom - Blackadder Goes Forth. Captain Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) in his last ditch effort to escape from WWI and certain death, puts his underpants on his head and two pencils up his nose to pretend as having gone mad and hence unfit for war duty. While the General Melchett (Stephen Fry) is on his way to trenches to evalute the situation with Blackadder, a dialogue ensues between Blackadder, Private Baldrick, and Lieutenant George (High Laurie).

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Private Baldrick (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0733153/): No, the thing is: The way I see it, these days there's a war on, right? and, ages ago, there wasn't a war on, right? So, there must have been a moment when there not being a war on went away, right? and there being a war on came along. So, what I want to know is: How did we get from the one case of affairs to the other case of affairs?
Captain Blackadder (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000100/): Do you mean "How did the war start?"
Lieutenant George (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491402/): The war started because of the vile Hun and his villainous empire- building.
Captain Blackadder (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000100/): George, the British Empire at present covers a quarter of the globe, while the German Empire consists of a small sausage factory in Tanganiki. I hardly think that we can be entirely absolved of blame on the imperialistic front.
Lieutenant George (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491402/): Oh, no, sir, absolutely not.
[aside, to Baldrick]
Lieutenant George (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491402/): Mad as a bicycle!
Private Baldrick (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0733153/): I heard that it started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry.
Captain Blackadder (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000100/): I think you mean it started when the Archduke of Austro-Hungary got shot.
Private Baldrick (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0733153/): Nah, there was definitely an ostrich involved, sir.
Captain Blackadder (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000100/): Well, possibly. But the real reason for the whole thing was that it was too much effort not to have a war.
Lieutenant George (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491402/): By Gum, this is interesting. I always loved history. The Battle of Hastings, Henry VIII and his six knives, all that.
Captain Blackadder (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000100/): You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war in Europe, two superblocs developed: us, the French and the Russians on one side, and the Germans and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea was to have two vast opposing armies, each acting as the other's deterrent. That way there could never be a war.
Private Baldrick (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0733153/): But, this is a sort of a war, isn't it, sir?
Captain Blackadder (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000100/): Yes, that's right. You see, there was a tiny flaw in the plan.
Private Baldrick (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0733153/): What was that, sir?
Captain Blackadder (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000100/): It was bollocks.
Private Baldrick (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0733153/): So the poor old ostrich died for nothing then.


If one appreciates the genius and sarcasm of classic british comedy, no explanation is needed to what the phrase means. Ofcourse every line in this dialouge is genius.

[Mana]

Namasté sm78

Love Blackadder!

Wibble!

prANam

mana