 Local residents called him "al-Assad" (the lion) for his accomplishments and in 1927 he made the nickname his surname.In 1936 he was one of 80 Alawite notables who signed a letter addressed to the French Prime Minister and stating that "[the] Alawi people rejected attachment to Syria and wished to stay under French protection".Alawites initially opposed a united Syrian state (since they thought their status as a religious minority would endanger them), and Hafez's father shared this belief.