Editing Druze (section)

=== In Syria ===
{{Main|Druze in Syria}}
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[[File:Druze warriors.jpg|thumb|left|Druze warriors preparing to go to battle with [[Sultan Pasha al-Atrash]] in 1925]]
In Syria, most Druzites live in the [[Jebel al-Druze]], a rugged and mountainous region in the southwest of the country, which is more than 90 percent Druze inhabited; some 120 villages are exclusively so.<ref name=landis>{{cite web |url=http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/Joshua.M.Landis-1/Joshua_Landis_Druze_and_Shishakli.htm |title=Shishakli and the Druzes: Integration and intransigence |first=Joshua |last=Landis |work=The Syrian Land: Processes of Integration and Fragmentation |location=Stuttgart |publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag |year=1998 |pages=369–396 |editor1-first=T. |editor1-last=Philipp |editor2-first=B. |editor2-last=Schäbler}}</ref>{{Rp|needed=yes|date=April 2012}} Other notable communities live in the [[Harim Mountains]], the [[Damascus]] suburb of [[Jaramana]], and on the southeast slopes of [[Mount Hermon]]. A large Syrian Druze community historically lived in the [[Golan Heights]], but following wars with Israel in [[Six-Day War|1967]] and [[Yom Kippur War|1973]], many of these Druze fled to other parts of Syria; most of those who remained live in a handful of villages in the disputed zone, while only a few live in the narrow remnant of [[Quneitra Governorate]] that is still under effective Syrian control.

[[File:Druzeindependance1925.jpg|thumb|right|Druze celebrating their independence in 1925]]
The Druze always played a far more important role in Syrian politics than its comparatively small population would suggest. With a community of little more than 100,000 in 1949, or roughly three percent of the Syrian population, the Druze of Syria's southwestern mountains constituted a potent force in Syrian politics and played a leading role in the nationalist struggle against the [[France|French]]. Under the military leadership of [[Sultan Pasha al-Atrash]], the Druze provided much of the military force behind the [[Great Syrian Revolt|Syrian Revolution]] of 1925–27. In 1945, Amir Hasan al-Atrash, the paramount political leader of the [[Jabal el Druze (state)|Jebel al-Druze]], led the Druze military units in a successful revolt against the French, making the Jebel al-Druze the first and only region in Syria to liberate itself from French rule without [[United Kingdom|British]] assistance. At independence the Druze, made confident by their successes, expected that Damascus would reward them for their many sacrifices on the battlefield. They demanded to keep their autonomous administration and many political privileges accorded them by the French and sought generous economic assistance from the newly independent government.<ref name=landis />{{Rp|needed=yes|date=April 2012}}

[[File:SyrianDouroze.jpg|thumb|left|Druze leaders meeting in [[Jebel al-Druze]], Syria, 1926]]
When a local paper in 1945 reported that [[President of Syria|President]] [[Shukri al-Quwatli]] (1943–49) had called the Druze a "dangerous minority", Sultan Pasha al-Atrash flew into a rage and demanded a public retraction. If it were not forthcoming, he announced, the Druze would indeed become "dangerous", and a force of 4,000 Druze warriors would "occupy the city of Damascus". Quwwatli could not dismiss Sultan Pasha's threat. The military balance of power in Syria was tilted in favor of the Druze, at least until the military build up during the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War|1948 War in Palestine]]. One advisor to the Syrian Defense Department warned in 1946 that the [[Syrian Army|Syrian army]] was "useless", and that the Druze could "take Damascus and capture the present leaders in a breeze".<ref name=landis />{{Rp|needed=yes|date=April 2012}}

During the four years of [[Adib Shishakli]]'s rule in Syria (December 1949 to February 1954) (on 25 August 1952: [[Adib al-Shishakli]] created the [[Arab Liberation Movement]] (ALM), a progressive party with [[pan-Arabist]] and socialist views),<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.syrianhistory.com/node/3379 |title=Syrian History}}</ref> the Druze community was subjected to a heavy attack by the Syrian government. Shishakli believed that among his many opponents in Syria, the Druze were the most potentially dangerous, and he was determined to crush them. He frequently proclaimed: "My enemies are like a serpent: The head is the Jebel al-Druze, the stomach [[Homs]], and the tail [[Aleppo]]. If I crush the head, the serpent will die." Shishakli dispatched 10,000 regular troops to occupy the Jebel al-Druze. Several towns were bombarded with heavy weapons, killing scores of civilians and destroying many houses. According to Druze accounts, Shishakli encouraged neighboring [[Bedouin]] tribes to plunder the defenseless population and allowed his own troops to run amok.<ref name = landis />{{Rp|needed =yes|date=April 2012}}

Shishakli launched a brutal campaign to defame the Druze for their religion and politics. He accused the entire community of treason, at times claiming they were in the employ of the British and [[Hashemite|Hashimites]], at others that they were fighting for [[Israel]] against the [[Arabs]]. He even produced a cache of Israeli weapons allegedly discovered in the Jabal. Even more painful for the Druze community was his publication of "falsified Druze religious texts" and false testimonials ascribed to leading Druze sheikhs designed to stir up sectarian hatred. This propaganda also was broadcast in the Arab world, mainly [[Egypt]]. Shishakli was assassinated in [[Brazil]] on 27 September 1964 by a Druze seeking revenge for Shishakli's bombardment of the Jebel al-Druze.<ref name=landis />{{Rp|needed=yes|date=April 2012}}
[[File:PikiWiki Israel 38786 Sultan Al-Atrash monument in Majdal Shams.JPG|thumb|Sculpture of [[Sultan al-Atrash]] in [[Majdal Shams]]]]
He forcibly integrated minorities into the national Syrian social structure, his "Syrianization" of [[Alawite]] and Druze territories had to be accomplished in part using violence. To this end, al-Shishakli encouraged the stigmatization of minorities. He saw minority demands as tantamount to treason. His increasingly chauvinistic notions of [[Arab nationalism]] were predicated on the denial that "minorities" existed in Syria.<ref>{{Citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ecTTlytIjswC&pg=PA41 |title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society |publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-203-89211-4 |date=2008 }}</ref>{{Rp|needed=yes|date=April 2012}}

After the Shishakli's military campaign, the Druze community lost much of its political influence, but many Druze military officers played important roles in the [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region|Ba'ath]] government currently ruling Syria.<ref name=landis />{{Rp| needed =yes|date=April 2012}}

In 1967, a community of Druze in the Golan Heights came under Israeli control, today numbering 23,000 (in 2019).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/doclib/2018/2.%20shnatonpopulation/st02_17.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191120162056/https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/doclib/2018/2.%20shnatonpopulation/st02_17.pdf |archive-date=2019-11-20 |url-status=live|title=Localities (1) and Population, by Population Group, District, Sub-District and Natural Region|date=2017-12-31|website=CBS Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/04/israel-settlements-golan-heights-trump-syrians.html|title=Trump paves way for Israel to expand settlements in Golan|last=Melhem|first=Ahmad|date=2019-04-11|website=Al-Monitor|language=en|access-date=2019-05-09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/world/middleeast/netanyahu-golan-heights-trump.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/world/middleeast/netanyahu-golan-heights-trump.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited|title=Netanyahu Seeks to Name a Golan Heights Settlement for President Trump|last=Kershner|first=Isabel|date=2019-04-23|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-05-09|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Before the [[Syrian civil war]], it was estimated that around 700,000 Druze lived in Syria in 2010, constituting about 3% of the population.<ref name="washingtoninstitute.org">{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/druze-and-assad-strategic-bedfellows|title=The Druze and Assad: Strategic Bedfellows|website=The Washington Institute|access-date=4 May 2023|archive-date=25 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925011935/https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-druze-and-assad-strategic-bedfellows|url-status=live}}</ref> Of these, approximately 337,500 resided in the [[Suwayda Governorate]], which had a Druze majority of around 90% and a significant Christian minority.<ref>{{cite book|title=Atlas of the Near East: State Formation and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1918–2010|last=Balanche |first=Fabrice|year=2017|isbn=9789004345188|page=27|publisher=Brill|quote=...comprised 50,328 inhabitants, of whom 85 per cent were Druze, and it integrated Christian communities (7,000 people) who had long lived in these mountains in harmony with the Druze.}}</ref><ref name="washingtoninstitute.org"/> This region accounted for 48.2% of the total Druze population in Syria.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-13505.html|title=Syria – Sunnis|website=www.country-data.com|access-date=12 May 2020|archive-date=23 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181023233708/http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-13505.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Additionally, about 250,000 Druze, or 35.7% of the total Druze population, lived in [[Damascus]] and its surrounding areas, including [[Jaramana]], [[Sahnaya]], and [[Jdeidat Artouz]]. Approximately 30,000 Druze lived on the eastern side of [[Mount Hermon]], while around 25,000 Druze were spread across 14 villages in [[Jabal al-Summaq]] in [[Idlib Governorate]].<ref name="washingtoninstitute.org"/>

The [[Qalb Loze massacre]] was a reported massacre of Syrian Druze on 10 June 2015 in the village of [[Qalb Loze]] in Syria's northwestern [[Idlib Governorate]] in which 20–24 Druze were killed. On 25 July 2018, a group of [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|ISIS]]-affiliated attackers entered the Druze city of [[Suwayda]] and initiated a [[2018 As-Suwayda attacks|series of gunfights and suicide bombings]] on its streets, killing at least 258 people, the vast majority of them civilians.<ref name="cbs">{{cite news |title=ISIS kidnaps dozens of women, girls in deadly Syria raids |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/isis-kidnap-women-girls-attacks-syria-sweida-druze-community-al-shobki/ |work=CBS News |date=30 July 2018}}</ref>

Several Druze militias fought in the Syrian civil war. These included [[Jaysh al-Muwahhidin]] which largely engaged in defensive war, though were also described as supporters of [[Bashar al-Assad]] and the Ba'athist government.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-11-13 |title=The Druze Militias of Southern Syria |url=https://www.joshualandis.com/blog/druze-militias-southern-syria/ |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=Syria Comment}}</ref> The Druze [[Al-Jabal Brigade]] played a major role in the [[2024 Syrian opposition offensives]], which toppled the Ba'athists.<ref>{{Cite web |title=المعارضة المسلحة تصل السويداء وتسيطر على مقرات أمنية (فيديو) {{!}} إرم نيوز |url=https://www.eremnews.com/news/arab-world/jgf1ru2 |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=www.eremnews.com |language=ar}}</ref>