Country: Syria

Group: Sunni

Date Finalized: 11/16/2022

Team: David Hammerle (lead), Nichole Dahlen, Natasha Chandra, Anusha Natarajan

Content Warning:  physical violence, war, genocide, murder, racism, ethnic discrimination

Approximate Time Period:  2011-2022

Sunni Muslims in Syria, which include ethnic Arabs, Kurds, Circassians, Chechens, and some Turkomans, approximately 75% of Syria’s population (U.S. Department of State, 2021). However, Alawites which make up less than 13% of the population, have disproportionally high political status, especially in military and security services (U.S. Department of State, 2021).  

During the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011 (Wikipedia, Syrian civil war, 2022), the government tortured more than 14,300 people to death and most of them were Sunni Muslims.  The government intentionally targeted Sunni Muslims because they believed they were “members of the opposition or likely to support the opposition” (U.S. Department of State, 2021). Nonstate actors, including some designated by the U.N. as terrorist organizations such as ISIS and al-Qa’ida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), killed thousands of civilians that were members of various targeted groups including Sunnis (World Without Genocide, 2021).  State-sponsored militias called Shabiha and non-government Shiite Islamist groups also killed many Sunni Muslims.  Security forces have been targeting Sunni districts since the beginning of the war in 2011, including the shelling of Sunni neighborhoods in Latakia by the Syrian Navy in August of 2011 (Wikipedia, Sectarianism, 2022).

In 2018, the Syrian government and their allies used “weaponry incapable of adequately discriminating between civilian and military targets in densely populated areas” to target opposition neighborhoods, resulting in mostly Sunni casualties. For example, during an attack on suburban East Ghouta, 1,473 civilians died, with the majority being Sunnis. Overall, the year’s civilian death toll by government and allied militias was 4,162, again with Sunnis constituting most victims (Office of International Religious Freedom, 2020).

Also, the government can punish those belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood or Salafist groups with death and the Muslim Brotherhood is a Sunni organization (Office of International Religious Freedom, 2020).

As of 2022, the Syrian civil war continues and there is no reason to think that the discriminatory lethal violence that has gone along with it isn’t also continuing.

Data Quality:   This has a data quality of 2/3 because there were a few sources, but half of them were from Wikipedia.

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of State (2021, May 12). 2020 report on International Religious Freedom – United States … Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-report-on-international-religious-freedom/syria/
  2. Office of International Religious Freedom. (2020, December 1). 2018 Report on International Religious Freedom: Syria. U.S. Department of State. Retrieved October 22, 2022, from https://www.state.gov/reports/2018-report-on-international-religious-freedom/syria/
  3. World Without Genocide (2021, January 1). Syria. Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/syria
  4. Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, October 13). Syrian Civil War. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_civil_war
  5. Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, October 16). Muslim Brotherhood. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 22, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood
  6. Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, September 28). Sectarianism and minorities in the Syrian Civil War. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sectarianism_and_minorities_in_the_Syrian_civil_war