The Growing Legacy Of Hate In Syria

Syrian children at a playground last week at a refugee camp in Zaatari, Jordan. Many speak of exacting revenge on the Alawites when they get back home. Moises Saman / The New York Times

'Brought Up To Hate,' Syrian Children Offer Glimpse Of Future Of Reprisals -- NBC/New York Times

'I hate the Alawites and the Shiites ... We are going to kill them with our knives, just like they killed us,' 11-year-old in refugee camp says.

ZAATARI, Jordan — Like all the small children in the desert refugee camp here, Ibtisam, 11, is eager to go home to the toys, bicycles, books, cartoons and classmates she left behind in Syria.

But not if that means living with Alawites, members of the same minority offshoot of Shiite Islam as Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad. “I hate the Alawites and the Shiites,” Ibtisam said as a crowd of children and adults nodded in agreement. “We are going to kill them with our knives, just like they killed us.”

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My Comment: I suspect that the children in the Alawite and Shiite communities feel the same way towards the Sunni community. This level of hatred reminds me of Lebanon during the height of it's long civil war .... a tenuous peace came about only when the country became divided along religious and sectarian lines. This will probably be Syria's future if this civil war continues for the next year (or two).