Bashir Al-Assad is a murderous dictator - but his wife has great fashion sense!

[tpfkaw]

The most ridiculous and poorly-timed puff piece I've ever seen... Truly revolting.

http://www.vogue.com/vogue-daily/article/asma-al-assad-a-rose-in-the-desert/

[Lief 🗽]

LOL

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Hot.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Awwwwwwwww...

[opebo]

Beautiful in my opinion.  By the way the title of the thread is hateful and discriminatory in calling Bashir Al-Assad a 'murderous dictator'.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Hateful yes, but not particularly discriminatory. Rare is the dictator who can hold power without having to shed blood. That said, Bashar has been one of the saner dictators around, probably because he spent most of his life never expecting to hold power until his brother Basil killed himself in a car crash.

[The Mikado]

By the way the title of the thread is hateful and discriminatory in calling Bashir Al-Assad a 'murderous dictator'.

It's neither, just accurate.  The Syrian regime's pretty gruesome (though it was far worse under his father).

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

By the way the title of the thread is hateful and discriminatory in calling Bashir Al-Assad a 'murderous dictator'.

It's neither, just accurate.  The Syrian regime's pretty gruesome (though it was far worse under his father).

I always got the feeling he would have been much happier living the good life in the U.K. having nothing to do with this stuff.........though I'm not saying he isn't good at directing the gruesomeness.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

"Murderous" connotes a certain cheerful delight in death that I don't think Bashar has, Mikado.  He's a ruthless SOB who certainly doesn't flinch from it when he thinks he needs to protect his position or mourn about what he has had done, but I don't think he gleefully anticipates people dying.  For example I doubt that had he been in Gaddafi's tent at the time, I don't think he would have ever sanctioned bombing a West Berlin disco, as Gaddafi did in 1986.  Even if it hadn't been traced back to him, it would have done nothing to secure his own power.

[phk]

I'm going to sound like a Democrat but I have a soft spot for him since he's a minority.

[opebo]

By the way the title of the thread is hateful and discriminatory in calling Bashir Al-Assad a 'murderous dictator'.

It's neither, just accurate.  The Syrian regime's pretty gruesome (though it was far worse under his father).

But the terms are inflamatory and intended as trolling, Mikado - the rulers of Syria arrest people, imprison people, torture them occasionally, kill them more rarely.  These are normal functions of any State, and no different from the actions of the USA or others.  To characterize them in this extreme way, without an 'proof' is just intended to create offense in those of us who love Bashir Al-Assad and all he stands for.

[Хahar 🤔]

Does laughing at this article make me a bad person?

[Associate Justice PiT]

I'm going to sound like a Democrat but I have a soft spot for him since he's a minority.

     I doubt that the Syrians would categorize him as a minority.

[phk]

I'm going to sound like a Democrat but I have a soft spot for him since he's a minority.

     I doubt that the Syrians would categorize him as a minority.

Why wouldn't they?

[Beet]

He's an Alawite minority, but by those standards Saddam Hussein was a minority too.

[phk]

He's an Alawite minority, but by those standards Saddam Hussein was a minority too.

Yeah in Iraq (and Bahrain, Lebanon, Israel) but not really in the MENA region.

Alawites are so much cooler and mysterious than Sunni Arabs.

Qaddafi wishes he was a minority:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4iv08JOwCk

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Alright, I don't know much about the various ethnicities in the Middle East.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

These aren't ethnicities. Alawite is an odd breakaway sect of Islam, they claim to be Muslims but aren't and most Muslims don't consider them as such. Like Mormons basically.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Mhmm, so he's basically the Syrian Mitt Romney.

Well, Assad certainly has even more horrible politics, but his wife is also hotter than Ann Romney. Tough choice.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The King of Jordan is far more tolerable than Assad and has the hottest wife of them all.

[phk]

Actually looking at it in both ethnic and religious terms, minority rule is already fairly common in the Middle East.

Saddam Hussein was a minority whose community (Sunni Arabs) were outnumbered by Sunni Kurds and Shi'ite Arabs.

In Bahrain the Sunni Arab Khalifia family is from mainland Arabia and rules over the indigenous Baharna Arab Shi'ites.

Jordan's King Abdullah is a minority twice over. One whose Hashemite family is an import from the Hijaz region from Saudi Arabia into the East Bank and now the East Bankers are a minority in their country by the influx of Palestinians (West Bankers) in '48.

Lebanon has been politically dominated by Maronite Christians even though the plurality of the people are Shi'ite.

Syria has been ruled by a de facto Alawite monarchy since the 1960s even though they are less numerous than both the Sunnis and Syriac Orthodox Christians.

Iran's Supreme Leader is an Azeri even though the majority remain Persian.

The Persian Gulf countries like the UAE have wildly growing South Asian and Filipino populations, while ruled by Arabs.

Although Pakistan isn't MENA, it's featured a plethora of non-Punjabi politicians. Especially those from the Mohajir communities.

[Хahar 🤔]

Alawites are heretics.

[Insula Dei]

Alawites are heretics heathens.

Fixed

[The Mikado]

These aren't ethnicities. Alawite is an odd breakaway sect of Islam, they claim to be Muslims but aren't and most Muslims don't consider them as such. Like Mormons basically.

I've always heard the Babis (are there any left that didn't join the Bahai?) and, to a lesser extent, the Druze called the Muslim Mormons, but the Alawites are a better choice.  Modern Druze don't even self identify as Muslims.

[phk]

These aren't ethnicities. Alawite is an odd breakaway sect of Islam, they claim to be Muslims but aren't and most Muslims don't consider them as such. Like Mormons basically.

I've always heard the Babis (are there any left that didn't join the Bahai?) and, to a lesser extent, the Druze called the Muslim Mormons, but the Alawites are a better choice.  Modern Druze don't even self identify as Muslims.

The Ahmadiya's of the Indian subcontinent are a better choice for "Muslim Mormon".

Bahai seems like UU with an Islamic twist to it.