Syrian Christians fear bleak future after Assad

...as it looks increasingly as if the rebels are going to work to establish an Islamic state, institutionalizing the subjugation of the Christians.

"Syrian Christians fear bleak future after Assad," by Barbara Surka for the Associated Press, December 23 (thanks to Kenneth):

BEIRUT — With Christmas just days away, 40-year-old Mira begged her parents to flee their hometown of Aleppo, which has become a main battleground in Syria's civil war.
Her parents have refused to join her in Lebanon, but they are taking one simple precaution inside their besieged city. For the first time, Mira says, her parents will not put up a Christmas tree this year for fear that their religion might make them a target.

"They want to stay to guard the property so nobody takes it," said Mira, who spoke to The Associated Press in Lebanon on condition that only her first name be published, out of concern for her family.

"They cannot celebrate Christmas properly. It's not safe. They are in a Christian area, but they don't feel secure to put a tree, even inside their apartment," Mira said.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Syria's population of more than 22 million, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence that has been sweeping the country since March 2011. They are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic groups.

Hundreds of thousands of Christians fled Iraq after their community and others were targeted by militants in the chaotic years after dictator Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003.

During the Syria conflict, Christians have largely stuck by President Bashar Assad, in large part because they fear the rising power of Muslim hard-liners and groups with al-Qaida-style ideologies within the uprising against his rule. Many Christians worry they will be marginalized or even targeted if the country's Sunni Muslim majority, which forms the majority of the opposition, takes over.

The rebel leadership has sought to portray itself as inclusive, promising no reprisals if Assad falls. But some actions by fighters on the ground have been less reassuring.

This week, the commander of one rebel brigade threatened to storm two predominantly Christian towns in central Syria — Mahrada and Sqailbiyeh — saying regime forces were using the towns to attack nearby areas.

The commander, Rashid Abul-Fidaa, of the Ansar Brigade in Hama province demanded the towns' residents "evict Assad's gangs" or be attacked.

Christians and other minorities have generally supported Assad's regime in the past because it promoted a secular ideology that was seen as giving minorities a degree of protection.

The regime and ruling elite are dominated by the Alawite sect, itself a minority offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad belongs, but it has brought Christians and other minorities — as well as Sunni Muslims — into senior positions.

Christians have flourished under the Assad regime, which came to power four decades ago under Assad's father, Hafez. The regime divided economic privileges among minorities and certain Sunni families in exchange for giving up political power.

The threat of Islamic extremism resonates deeply in Syria, a country with many ethnic and religious minorities, and the regime has used their worries to try to keep their support. Assad has warned repeatedly that the country's turmoil will throw Syria into chaos, religious extremism and sectarian divisions....

Even for those who support the rebels, the nature of the opposition has caused ripples of apprehension. As the fight to overthrow Assad drags on, the rebels' ranks are becoming dominated by Islamists, raising concerns that the country's potential new rulers will marginalize them or establish an Islamic state.

Al-Qaida-inspired groups have become the most organized fighting units, increasingly leading battles for parts of Aleppo or assaults on military installations outside the city....

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Wellington | December 23, 2012 1:37 PM | Reply

Can't blame 'em. And what another indictment of Islam we have here---a brutal dictator is still better than Islamic rule. Shame on Islam for all time for this. So glad I'm not a Muslim. Who of sense would want to be?

minoria | December 23, 2012 2:53 PM | Reply

Check out:

"The Claim that Sundiata(circa 1217-died circa 1255),Founder of the Mali Empire in West Africa,was a Muslim,is False"

http://www.antisharia.com/2012/12/21/the-claim-that-sundiatacirca-1217-died-circa-1255founder-of-the-mali-empire-in-west-africawas-a-muslimis-false/

AND ALSO

"Al-Biruni(973-1048),Persian Founder of Indology(Study of India)"

http://www.antisharia.com/2012/09/10/al-biruni973-1048persian-founder-of-indologystudy-of-india/

dumbledoresarmy | December 23, 2012 3:24 PM | Reply

First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.

The Jews of Iraq - a community long, long pre-dating the arrival of Islam - after enduring over a millennium of misery as degraded, exploited and periodically murdered and/ or force-'converted' dhimmis, were finally *all* killed or driven out (or fled) in the 1930s through 1970s.

Then the Muslims started in, in earnest, on the indigenous Christians - *also long pre-dating the arrival of Arabs and Islam - after dwindling from the majority to a beleaguered minority under the pressure of over a millennium as despised, degraded, exploited and periodically-murdered or force-'converted' dhimmis.

They had already been attacking them at the same time as attacking the Jews; for example, there was an orgy of Iraqi Muslim mass-murder of Christians in the 1930s, just after the British left. That was by way of 'taking revenge' on the infidels. Unable to 'get at' the British, who were powerful, and had moved out of reach, the Muslims collectively punished the defenceless Christian infidels nearer to hand; this took place concomitantly with attacks on Jews.

Some Christians sided with the Muslims against the Jews, which was abysmally stupid, because it didn't earn them any brownie points with their Muslim oppressors *at all*; as witness the massive assault upon the remaining Christians that took place after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The American infidels were generally too strong, so the Muslims concentrated on killing and otherwise abusing the Christians, instead. Christians have fled Iraq wholesale; already reduced to a small minority by the time of Saddam Hussein, they are now vanishingly small. Most fled to Syria where only three or four years ago it was relatively safer to be Christian; but the Jihad has followed them there.

The same pattern is now playing out in Syria. There are basically no Jews left in Syria, which once had quite a significant population. So the Muslims, having gotten rid of the Jews, are now proceeding to dispose of the Christians.

And one can see the same pattern in Egypt, too. First the Jews were - after barely surviving, as a relentlessly exploited and persecuted minority, over a millennium of hellish dhimmitude - driven out in the clothes they stood up in. (Those who fled were lucky; there were others who were tortured and killed). Now the Muslims in Egypt are gearing up to drive out - or to kill off - the Christians.

Dhimmitude, though it may persist for quite some time, is always a precarious interim measure; the sheer monstrous hatred of the Other that Islam inculcates periodically overrides those mundane considerations of utility that govern the decision to keep a few [ruthlessly degraded and despised] non-Muslims around to do all the dirty work and to pay exorbitant jizya to compensate murderous Muslims for temporarily and oh-so-graciously refraining from mass-murder.

In some cases, the extirpation of the 'Sunday people', the Christians, preceded the destruction of the Jews - see Yemen, and North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya) where Jewish dhimmis survived for a long time after the indigenous Byzantine-era Christians had all been wiped out, driven out, or force-'converted'. But in the 20th/ 21st century the standard pattern seems to be applying.

Infidel | December 23, 2012 6:20 PM | Reply

If Syria falls, Lebanon will follow - a Sunni Syria will do what it can to make Lebanon - currently a Shia country - back to Sunni. So it would definitely be curtains for Hizbullah, but its replacement would be a Muslim Brotherhood type regime in Beirut.

So better that this war in Syria continues forever. In the meantime, Christians from both Syria & Lebanon should flee to Cyprus.

dumbledoresarmy replied to comment from Infidel | December 23, 2012 6:43 PM | Reply

Some Syrian Christians have been able to flee to Greece, too.

Frankly, both Cyprus and Greece should welcome the Syrian *Christians* (but ONLY the Christians - any Syrians found to be Muslims, should be turfed right back out again).

Greece has got a lot of nasty Muslim illegal immigrants right now - nearly a million of them! - so getting tens of thousands of Christians (who unlike the Muslims would be prepared to pitch in and *work*, and most of whom are used to hard times, and many of whom are Orthodox, though of a somewhat different stream, so could integrate) would help tip the demographic balance against the Muslims.

And the more people non-Muslim Cyprus has, the better their position vis a vis Turkey-supported Muslim 'Northern Cyprus'.

lookmann | December 24, 2012 1:36 AM | Reply

An AFP report, hours earlier to this one, had a similar title but different persons echoing almost same views;

http://www.france24.com/en/20121223-black-christmas-faces-syria-christians

what is more pathetic is

BEIRUT (AP) — Rebels have threated to storm two predominantly Christian towns in central Syria if residents do not "evict" government troops they say are using the towns as a base to attack nearby areas.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/12/22/world/middleeast/ap-ml-syria.html?ref=news

Kepha | December 24, 2012 1:06 PM | Reply

@dumbledore's army:

This is one reason why I groan at the re-election of the O. We are trying oh so hard to ingratiate ourselves with the Muslim Brotherhood-types behind the revolts in Egypt, Syria, and Libya, despite knowing clearly since 09/11/01 what they really think of us.

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