Bashir Al-Assad is a murderous dictator - but his wife has great fashion sense!

[phk]

I'm going to sound like a Democrat but I have a soft spot for him since he's a minority.

[phk]

I'm going to sound like a Democrat but I have a soft spot for him since he's a minority.

     I doubt that the Syrians would categorize him as a minority.

Why wouldn't they?

[phk]

He's an Alawite minority, but by those standards Saddam Hussein was a minority too.

Yeah in Iraq (and Bahrain, Lebanon, Israel) but not really in the MENA region.

Alawites are so much cooler and mysterious than Sunni Arabs.

Qaddafi wishes he was a minority:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4iv08JOwCk

[phk]

Actually looking at it in both ethnic and religious terms, minority rule is already fairly common in the Middle East.

Saddam Hussein was a minority whose community (Sunni Arabs) were outnumbered by Sunni Kurds and Shi'ite Arabs.

In Bahrain the Sunni Arab Khalifia family is from mainland Arabia and rules over the indigenous Baharna Arab Shi'ites.

Jordan's King Abdullah is a minority twice over. One whose Hashemite family is an import from the Hijaz region from Saudi Arabia into the East Bank and now the East Bankers are a minority in their country by the influx of Palestinians (West Bankers) in '48.

Lebanon has been politically dominated by Maronite Christians even though the plurality of the people are Shi'ite.

Syria has been ruled by a de facto Alawite monarchy since the 1960s even though they are less numerous than both the Sunnis and Syriac Orthodox Christians.

Iran's Supreme Leader is an Azeri even though the majority remain Persian.

The Persian Gulf countries like the UAE have wildly growing South Asian and Filipino populations, while ruled by Arabs.

Although Pakistan isn't MENA, it's featured a plethora of non-Punjabi politicians. Especially those from the Mohajir communities.

[phk]

These aren't ethnicities. Alawite is an odd breakaway sect of Islam, they claim to be Muslims but aren't and most Muslims don't consider them as such. Like Mormons basically.

I've always heard the Babis (are there any left that didn't join the Bahai?) and, to a lesser extent, the Druze called the Muslim Mormons, but the Alawites are a better choice.  Modern Druze don't even self identify as Muslims.

The Ahmadiya's of the Indian subcontinent are a better choice for "Muslim Mormon".

Bahai seems like UU with an Islamic twist to it.