Alawite Erotic

Alawites (alawiyyin in Arabic) comprise approximately 11% of the Syrian population — approximately 2.5 million pre-2011, the dominant ethno-religious community of the Latakia and Tartus coastal mountain region in northwestern Syria. The Alawite religion is a distinct Twelver Shia-derived ethno-religious tradition with substantial Christian, Gnostic, Ismaili, and pre-Islamic religious-traditional elements — the Alawite religion combines elements of Christianity (the celebration of Christmas, certain Christian-derived rituals), Twelver Shia Islam (the veneration of Ali ibn Abi Talib at the center of Alawite religious cosmology), Gnostic / Neoplatonic philosophy, and pre-Islamic Anatolian-Levantine religious tradition. The Alawite community has historically been politically marginalized within the broader Sunni-majority Levantine context but rose to political-military dominance in Syria under the post-1963 Ba'ath Party period and particularly the post-1970 Hafez al-Assad and 2000-present Bashar al-Assad regime. The post-2011 Syrian Civil War has been characterized by substantial Alawite-Sunni sectarian dimensions. Cross-border populations exist in Lebanon (~100,000+, Akkar region) and Turkey (the Arab Alawites of Hatay province, ~500,000+ — distinct from but related to the Turkish Alevi community which is a separate religious tradition).