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| Prophet Shoaib shrine no.2 at Tiberias |
It is not easy to speak about the Druze sect because simply since its founding in the middle ages in Egypt it considered secrecy as part of system becoming one of the most secret societies in history thanks to the rejection of other societies to them through time and also if we are speaking from a theological point of view , secrecy is taken from Shiite's Taqqiyya. People differ to identity the Druze as Muslim sect or as a separated religion , I believe they are more of sect that sprang from the Ismailism and due to political and geographical reasons it appears as a separate religion. Being supported by the controversial and ambiguous ruler Al-Hakim was enough
I did not know that Druze are different than Muslims or even what they are except when I read a fatwa from Dar El-Fat'a saying that a Muslim should not marry from the Druze sect except if that Druze man or woman converts , since then I tried to find more information about their beliefs and all what I find is either nothing except what it is allowed from the sect itself and what is said about them from another religions. I remember that I once read an article at Al Akhbar newspaper last year that claimed that the Ad-Darazi was the notorious tailor of crazy Al-Hakim who came from Persia and claimed the divinity of Al-Hakim leading a group of followers in to orgies !! The writer goes on says that the Egyptians were angry from both Ad-Darazi and Al-Hakim who was later by his sister's order and became the Druze's messiah where as Ad-Darazi escaped and his followers to Levant.The man claimed that Ad-Darazi comes from the word "El-Tarazi" which means a tailor !! Of course historically this story is totally proven to be wrong.
Between myth and reality , between the history and present and between religion and politics it seems that the truth about Druze can't fully be discovered easily. Al Jazeera a wonderful and rare documentary that we all should admire about about the Druze in one hour despite there is no much said about the beliefs of the sect but at least they managed to film for the first time in the world : The Druze holy book El- Mithaq.By the way El-Mithaq can't be found in libraries and even if you find it you will not understand it because it is encoded and you need to be from the Uqqal in order to decode it.
I respect and admire the Druze whether in Syria or in Lebanon but honestly I do have mixed feelings towards the Druze of Arab 48 especially that Azzam Azzam is from them.
The Religious Societies : The Druze
I also found this very old documentary about the Druze from 1970s, it is called ' Life of the Bees' , of course its quality is not good at all but its sound quality is great.
PBS also produced a documentary episode called "Contestant No.2" in its series Wide Angle last year about an Arab Druze girl who wants to join Miss Israel beauty pageant. Of course this time you will not find neutrality like the previous two documentaries , this is the traditional progressiveness against conservatism.
It is important to know each other now and respect our differences because minorities game is still there.