Welcome to Watcher Forum |
|
| Syria’s Christians Risk Eradication | |
| | Author | Message |
---|
katsung47
Posts : 441 Reputation : 0 Join date : 2013-02-16
| Subject: Syria’s Christians Risk Eradication Fri Sep 06, 2013 4:29 pm | |
| Syria’s Christians Risk Eradication
A post-Assad Islamist regime threatens to re-enact the Armenian genocide.
By Philip Jenkins • September 4, 2013
U.S. policy towards Syria is bafflingly inconsistent. If U.S. leaders are so concerned about regimes slaughtering thousands of their own people, did they notice what just happened in Egypt? If they are so exercised over about weapons of mass destruction, are they aware that Israel has two hundred nuclear warheads, with delivery systems? Will American warships in the region be making those other stops on their liberating mission?
Most puzzling of all, though, is why the United States seems so determined to eradicate Christianity in one of its oldest heartlands, at such an agonizingly sensitive historical moment.
Syria has always been a complex place religiously. Although the country has a substantial Sunni Muslim majority, it also has large minority communities—Christians, Alawites, and others—who together make up over a quarter of the population. Those communities have survived very successfully in Syria for centuries, but the present revolution is a threat to their continued existence.
Under its new Sunni rulers, minorities would likely face a fate like that in neighboring Iraq, where the Christian share of population fell from 8 percent in the 1980s to perhaps 1 percent today. In Iraq, though, persecuted believers had a place to which they could escape, namely Syria. Where would Syrian refugees go?
A month ago, that question was moot, as the Assad government was gaining the upper hand over the rebels. At worst, it seemed, the regime could hold on to a rump state in Syria’s west, a refuge for Alawites, Christians, and others. And then came the alleged gas attack, and the overheated U.S. response.
So here is the nightmare. If the U.S., France, and some miscellaneous allies strike at the regime, they could conceivably so weaken it that it would collapse. Out of the ruins would emerge a radically anti-Western regime, which would kill or expel several million Christians and Alawites. This would be a political, religious, and humanitarian catastrophe unparalleled since the Armenian genocide almost exactly a century ago.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/syrias-christians-risk-eradication/ | |
| | | katsung47
Posts : 441 Reputation : 0 Join date : 2013-02-16
| Subject: Re: Syria’s Christians Risk Eradication Thu Sep 19, 2013 3:43 pm | |
| The price of regime change By David Warren, Ottawa Citizen
There are millions of Christians in Syria, who probably have the Russians and Chinese to thank that they may live there a little longer. The Security Council vetoes, a fortnight ago, on a resolution calling upon Syria's dictator to step down, and supporting an Arab-sponsored plan to "end the violence," put paid to any immediate prospect of western intervention.
The outrage expressed by Hillary Clinton, William Hague, and other western foreign ministers, probably concealed a little relief, for the vetoes provided the excuse they needed to avoid the issue, while continuing to posture about "humanitarianism" and "democracy." …….
Christians were as common in Syria as in Egypt, before their numbers were immensely swelled by refugees from Iraq - well over a million fleeing up the Euphrates River valley, from anti-Christian persecution by Iraq's Islamists. By now, there could be more than four million Christians within Syria's borders.
When the Assad regime falls, it will be open season on them, on the Alawites, and all the other minorities. Granted, Assad is a monster who has earned an ugly fate. But at what expense should we indulge the fleeting satisfaction of deposing him?
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/price+regime+change/6173293/story.html | |
| | | katsung47
Posts : 441 Reputation : 0 Join date : 2013-02-16
| Subject: Re: Syria’s Christians Risk Eradication Tue Oct 01, 2013 3:54 pm | |
| Raymond Ibrahim: "Christian life in Iraq has been a living hell ever since U.S. forces ousted the late Saddam Hussein in 2003" In "The Silent Extermination of Iraq's 'Christian Dogs,'" our friend Raymond Ibrahim in FrontPage (via RaymondIbrahim.com), April 19, discusses the rapid deterioration of the situation of Christians in Iraq -- while the world yawns: Last week an Iraqi Muslim scholar issued a fatwa that, among other barbarities, asserts that "it is permissible to spill the blood of Iraqi Christians." Inciting as the fatwa is, it is also redundant. While last October's Baghdad church attack which killed some sixty Christians is widely known—actually receiving some MSM coverage—the fact is, Christian life in Iraq has been a living hell ever since U.S. forces ousted the late Saddam Hussein in 2003. http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/04/raymond-ibrahim-christian-life-in-iraq-has-been-a-living-hell-ever-since-us-forces-ousted-the-late-s.html | |
| | | katsung47
Posts : 441 Reputation : 0 Join date : 2013-02-16
| Subject: Re: Syria’s Christians Risk Eradication Sun Oct 13, 2013 2:49 pm | |
| Most Syrians back President Assad, but you'd never know from western media Assad's popularity, Arab League observers, US military involvement: all distorted in the west's propaganda war Jonathan Steele guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 January 2012 The key finding was that while most Arabs outside Syria feel the president should resign, attitudes in the country are different. Some 55% of Syrians want Assad to stay, motivated by fear of civil war – a spectre that is not theoretical as it is for those who live outside Syria's borders. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/17/syrians-support-assad-western-propaganda | |
| | | katsung47
Posts : 441 Reputation : 0 Join date : 2013-02-16
| Subject: Re: Syria’s Christians Risk Eradication Fri Oct 25, 2013 2:31 pm | |
| Syrian Christians worry about life after Bashar Assad They fear civil war and revenge attacks if President Bashar Assad falls, an anxiety fed by the sectarian violence seen in Egypt and Iraq. Ignatius IV, patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, described Syria as an oasis of religious tolerance where Christians can worship freely, build sanctuaries and run schools, activities that are restricted by varying degrees in a number of Middle Eastern countries. Christian clerics are frequently shown on television taking part in joint prayer services with their Muslim counterparts. The defense minister is a Christian, as are other senior members of the government and security forces. "Wherever you go, you find Christians and Muslims," said the patriarch, who has a photograph of himself with Assad displayed on his office wall. "There is no distinction." http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-fg-syria-christians-20120307,0,4403703.story | |
| | | Sponsored content
| Subject: Re: Syria’s Christians Risk Eradication | |
| |
| | | | Syria’s Christians Risk Eradication | |
|
Similar topics | |
|
| Permissions in this forum: | You cannot reply to topics in this forum
| |
| |
| |
|