Cynics Unlimited

The Jerusalem Post has an excellent article on the Druse (also spelled Druze) of Lebanon:

On Friday, the residents of the mainly Druse town of Peki’in were getting ready to celebrate the marriage of one of their sons to a young woman from nearby Beit Jann.
…
Three hours before the feast, two Katyusha rockets fell on the neighborhood as the guests began to gather. One rocket scored a direct hit on the roof of the home where Salman and Dina Ali live with their children Hussein, Rana and Sari.

Galib Kheir, head of the town’s tourism department, wanted to know why no members of the media had came to see the damage that Peki’in had suffered over the past six days. It is a question also asked by town engineer Halim Muhana.
Underlying the question, which is asked with obvious resentment or hurt, is the unspoken accusation that no one cares about Peki’in because it isn’t Jewish.
The leaders of Peki’in stress that Hizbullah does not distinguish between Jews and Druse. “As far as Nasrallah is concerned, we are all Israelis,” said Galib Kheir. “He doesn’t care who he hits just as long as he hits.”

Such are the casualties of war that are forgotten during ideological battles and the media focus on Beirut. As a Druse expatriate once said to me, “we try to stay out of it” - yet this does not prevent them from taking intentional fire from one side and unacknowledged unintentional fire from the other side.

Far from being mainstream Muslims, the Druze practice a breakaway form of Islam heavily influenced by Christianity and Greek philosophy. In heavy contrast to surrounding monotheistic faiths, women are often regarded spiritually equal to or greater than men. Central tenets of Druse faith and at times public allegiance are still largely secretive out of fear of persecution in predominantly-Muslim nations. The relatively small sect resides primarily in the middle east (Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan) with satellite populations across Africa and the West.