"After President Hafez al-Assad seized power in 1970, Alawites so prevailed as undercover agents that people feared naming the sect in public. The preferred euphemism was “the Germans.” Now, in a sign of both alienation and diminishing fear, some Syrians call them “mundas,” or infiltrators in Arabic. The government uses that word to describe the supposed armed Islamist gangs."
— Syria, Under Siege Inside and Out, Does Not Budge. The power of language.
