 Complete the following phrase:  The party was founded on 7 April 1947 as the Arab Baath Party by Michel Aflaq a Christian, Salah al-Din al-Bitar a Sunni Muslim and the followers of Zaki al-Arsuzi an Alawite. The founding congress, the 1st National Congress, was held in Rasheed Coffee Shop, close to what is now the Russian Cultural Centre. While Arsuzis followers attended the congress, he himself did not. He never forgave Aflaq and Bitar of stealing the name Baath from him. While the party remained small during the 1940s, the party together with some recruited Baathist military officers participated in the 