Holding the Peace in Beit Yashout

Interview with a key mayor in the Latakia countryside

The conditions and experiences of Alawi communities post-Assad have been far from universal. While if you were to ask any random Alawi in a rural area if he felt safe or fearful he would almost certainly answer with the later, the reasons for this are not the same. Some communities have suffered from massacres, frequent kidnappings, or random sectarian- and revenge-motivated killings. But most Alawi communities have largely been spared these crimes. Here, fear is fed from watching what is happening, or claimed to be happening online, in other Alawi areas.

In these largely safe communities, certain local figures and local security officials play central roles in maintaining these conditions. This often requires both a proactive and cooperation security official and a local Alawi figure willing to assert themselves to this new government. One such figure is the mayor of Beit Yashout, Maher Ibrahim. I spent the day with him in mid-September, discussing his role as intermediary, how the new government has dealt with his town and the surrounding areas, and what happened in Beit Yashout on March 6.