Syria: Christians fleeing country as crisis reaches "unprecedented levels of horror"

This article suggests that Christians are being victimized by both sides, but actually they're more often targeted by the jihadist rebels, who see them as Assad loyalists since he didn't enforce Sharia restrictions on them, and the Christians know that the rebels will.

"Christians in Syria Fleeing Country as Crisis Reaches 'Unprecedented Levels of Horror,'" by Stoyan Zaimov for the Christian Post, January 30 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

As the civil war in Syria has reached "unprecedented levels of horror," according to the U.N., Christians are being forced to flee their homes as avoiding the violent conflict has become less of an option.
"It's a fight to the death which by definition involves killing. No one will win but those who fought from the start will create a desert and then call it victory," Sky News said of the war raging between army forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad and rebels bent on taking down what they say is a tyrannical regime.

The war has swept the entire nation, closing down infrastructure and businesses, and forcing many to choose a side or risk being caught in the crossfire. One of the worst attacks in the country occurred less than two weeks ago, when over 100 people were found slaughtered near the Christian-populated city of Homs. Witnesses blamed forces loyal to President Assad, who allegedly killed civilians they believed were harboring or aiding rebel soldiers.

Christians make up around 10 percent of the country's predominantly Muslim population, and although they have tried to stay out of the conflict, they are being forced out of their homes by rebels and loyalists; they are facing starvation and lack of medical care, and fleeing to neighboring countries like Lebanon.

Those who stay, meanwhile, see churches burnt down and priests murdered, and they have little means of protecting themselves. While many other sectarian groups have formed militias and physically fought back against the violence, Sky noted that followers of Christ in Syria are predominantly from the merchant class and do not have strongholds where they can hide out.

"The Kurds, Alawites, Druze, Christian, and Shia minorities are all now contemplating and planning for a post-Assad scenario. Of them all, the Christians are the most exposed," the report notes. "No one will win. The people have already lost."...

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CHOI | February 3, 2013 6:46 PM | Reply

They're also setting Israel up for TROUBLE,by FORCING this on the Christians..
There are only 5 possible places that Syrian CHRISTIANS can flee by land:
Turkey,Lebanon,Iraq,Jordan and Israel.
With the other 4 being Muslim(with even Lebanon's Christians DIMINISHED),Israel could be brought under International"pressure" to admit the NEVER FRIENDLY to Israel Arab Christians.
Among them would LIKELY be Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards Al-Quds DISGUISED as "Christian refugees".
Additionally,"Global Jihadis" such as Al-Queda ,etc. could also attempt to INFILTRATE into Israel with Christian refugees.
So,there is a REAL THREAT to Israel here which requires them to admit NO ONE,which sets off a Choreographed PR JIHAD OFFENSIVE ,attempting, with their MEDIA STOOGES to drive a WEDGE between Israel/Jews and the world's Christians.
Syria's ALLY, North Korea pioneered "Refugee" Warfare in their June 1950 INVASION of South Korea,with ARMED North Korean Commandos infiltrated in Refugee Groups.

fitna | February 4, 2013 1:06 AM | Reply

The sad thing about this is that you won't hear about it on the MSM because it's largely dominated by seculars/liberals.

They've spent most of their lives hating Christianity over abortion, guns, religion in schools and now they don't care what happens to them by muslim hands.

I used to be a Christian (now atheist) but despite having our ideological differences, I know Christians and atheists are very similar and agree on most issues, like freedom, equality, democracy and so on.

Which is why I can completely sympathize with the Christians in the middle-east, I know it could've easily been myself or anyone here-having to live through that nightmare.

Unfortunately there is little that can be done, except for Christians to flee because they have no support from the West-in fact most people here are still trying to figure out whether Islam is a threat or not.

While the muslims might be crazy savages and despite some infighting the one thing they all agree on is subjugating, raping, robbing and killing non-muslims. If only we non-muslims had such unity, we could easily defeat Islam.

dby | February 4, 2013 1:47 AM | Reply

Fitna, i think that the msm ignore the ongoing persecution of Christians in moslem lands because the current Washington administration, like the previous one, doesn't want to turn their 'fight against radical islamists' into a religious war.
The ongoing effort to persuade large numbers of moslems that it is not them, but the radicals who are the enemy, and incidently also the enemy of moderate moslems, may indeed work, but at the huge cost of the loss of all Christian communities in moslem and arab lands.
I admire the valiant effort to avoid framing the issues as a religious war.
The ultimate challengs is that islam, in its core teachings, essentially tells its followers that they should be at war with unbelievers, kaffirs. Not that every muslim knows and accepts that reality, but it is so written, and the extremists are simply reading from, and acting upon, what is written.

Charlie Griffith replied to comment from fitna | February 4, 2013 10:24 AM | Reply

This is the heart of the matter in our civilizational war against these Muslims....

"If only we non-muslims had such unity, we could easily defeat Islam."

We Christians don't have the same trans-national unity that these Muslims exploit against us, even sectionally. The Roman Catholics seem to strive for such centralization among themselves at Rome, but they are exclusive of other Christian denominations worldwide.

Of course we see this same thing among the sects of these Muslims, but somehow even our Christian sects have a much weaker unity, it's more a local congregational loyalty.

We Christians are in for a much longer continuation of our centuries old war against these butchering Muslims......we must remember always that our Crusades were a REACTION against Muslim aggression.

This inconvenient truth is deliberately side-stepped by our Muslim enemies. But, the battle continues.

Charlie Griffith replied to comment from dby | February 4, 2013 10:41 AM | Reply

Re:
"I admire the valiant effort to avoid framing the issues as a religious war."

So do I.....but "effort" is the key word here. Our problem in naively seeming to isolate the passive, sleeper Muslims from the terrorists seems centered on the arrant impossibility of separating them IF they both adhere to their Koran.

Which Koran verses, exactly, separate the passive, sleeper resident American Muslim from the Terrorist Muslim? No one mentions that, do they?

I liken it to claiming to be "just a little bit pregnant".

This proud supporter of George Bush thinks that George Bush's magnificent error was in entering that Mosque on Massachusetts Avenue in the District and saying that we as a nation were not at war with Islam. His sincere thought is laughed at by those guiding the belligerence of these butchering Muslims worldwide.

We Americans are remaining naive in our approach to fighting this existential War despite the murderous evidence to the contrary. It's sort of a back-handed compliment to us Americans that we Americans seem ill-equipped to psychologically accept this divide.

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