[2] During the 1980s, Jamil actively supported conversion to Shiism in the Latakia Mountains, especially among members of the Alawite community.
[3] In order to make Shiism more acceptable there he appointed a Shiite sheikh to head the Alawite al-Zahra Mosque in the city of Baniyas.
[4] In the 1980s, he set up a Latakia-based foundation (al-Murtada), which helped fellow Alawite Muslims to go on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
The foundation is also said to have tried to convert Sunni Muslim bedouins to the Alawi faith, angering the secular ruling Baath Party in Syria.
Al-Murtada is also said to have had a militia wing, made up of Alawi Muslims, which was armed and equipped by Rifaat al-Assad's powerful internal security division, the Defense Companies.
[1] Unlike Rifaat, Jamil openly supported the succession to the presidency of Hafez al-Assad's son, Bashar.
[10] The same sanctions were also placed on Fawaz Assad in 2011 by the European Union for "his involvement with the Shabbiha militia in the repression of protesters during the Syrian Civil War".