The civil war in Syria has turned into a religious war between Sunnis and Alawite Shiites, and according to one report, over 1,000 mosques have been deliberately destroyed in the course of the fighting.

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad is Alawite Shiite, and its allies are the Shiites from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The rebels are Sunni, like most of the populace, and are supported by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni countries in the Arabian peninsula.

Videos from the last few months show both sides taking part in action targeting rival streams’ holy sites. The most distinguished Sunni mosque targeted was the Haled Bin El-Walid mosque at the El Hailidiya neighborhood in Homs. Ben El-Walid was an associate of Muslim prophet Mohammed. In Al Qusair, the Syrian army and Hezbollah took over a Sunni mosque and turned it into a Shiite one.

Rebels, on the other hand, have blown up Shiite mosques and are currently fighting to take over Al Saida Zainab, southwest of Damascus, where a mosque named fter Mohammed’s grandddaughter is located.

A few days ago, a video was uploaded in which rebels boasted about taking over a Shiite mosque and turning it into a Sunni musque named after Aisha, Mohammed’s daughter, whom the Shiites look down upon as an immoral person.