Aaron Y. Zelin is the Richard Borow Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Rena and Sami David Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence. He also maintains the website Jihadology.net. Phillip Smyth is a researcher focused on Shiite Islamist groups in the Middle East and is a researcher at the University of Maryland. He writes Hizballah Cavalcade, which focuses on Shiite Islamist militarism in the Middle East. https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/contributor/aaron-y-zelin-and-phillip-smyth/rss en Government & Pro-Government Forces Opposition Groups & Rebel Forces Religious & Ethnic Groups Fri, 31 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000 Aaron Y. Zelin and Phillip Smyth https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/community/2014/01/31/the-vocabulary-of-sectarianism https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/community/2014/01/31/the-vocabulary-of-sectarianism As the conflict in Syria continues to spread throughout the Levant and adopt a broader sectarian tone – Sunni Salafis on one side and Iranian-backed, ideologically influenced Shiite Islamists on the other – it is important to know how the main actors have cast one another.