The Syrian Revolution’s Dire Threat to Christians

by Theodore Shoebat


 

The Syrian Revolution geared toward the establishment of an Islamic state. As this revolution’s fire burns, therefore, it is no surprise that Islamists are massacring Christians. If an Islamic state becomes the reality in Syria, and the developments reveal that that will soon be the case, we can expect a full-out genocide against Christians to be implemented by the Islamists in Syria. The fall of Assad will mean a mass cleansing of anybody who believes in the Bible, since the Assad regime protects the Christian population.

Just in late November, two car bombs went off in a Christian and Druze suburb of Damascus, killing forty-five and injuring 120. In a recent report by the UK’s Independent, one Syrian said that the rebels

wanted to kill us because we were Christians. They were calling us Kaffirs [infidels], even little children saying these things. Those who were our neighbours turned against us.

Archbishop Issam John Darwish said that there has been “an influx of jihadists in the rebels in the last six, seven months.”

On November 8th of this year, Agenzia Fides reported that the Catholic Church was trying to rescue ten Christians who were abducted by Islamists as they were traveling from Aleppo to Beirut.

According to an article written by Beatriz Schiava:

Christian neighborhoods like Bab Touma, Qatana, the Christian Quarters of Damascus, Hamidiye, and neighborhoods of Aleppo such as Sulaymaniya, AL Jarbiriya, Al Tilal, Villas, and many others have been targeted with bomb attacks and snipers that kill and injure hundreds of innocent bystanders.

On September 25, the Vatican News stated that 150 Greek Catholics, working in their apple fields near the village of Rableh between the Lebanese border and the city of Qusayr, were kidnapped. The next day, another 130 Christians from Rableh were kidnapped by armed thugs. The perpetrators behind this were part of a Sunni Islamist group from Lebanon called Ahmad Ammoun.

Though Ahmad Ammoun was said to have no known connection with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), it turns out that they do have a relation. As I reported on the event, both Ahmad Ammoun and the FSA are Salafist, and both have waged attacks on Christians and Alawite Muslims.

Attacks on churches, looting, the seizing of private property, and murder, are now common crimes done against Christians. 

Christians who are not wealthy enough to leave Syria have stayed behind, becoming an easy target for rebels, who have blocked there homes. 

In September, it was reported that 150 Christians took up arms to prevent rebels from entering major areas of Aleppo. In the Christian quarter of Jdeidah, Christian militia, with Syrian military assistance, took out Free Syrian Army thugs who were hiding in the Ferhat Square of the area. The reason? FSA members were hiding in buildings killing random Christians. According to one Christian witness named John,

“FSA snipers were on the rooftops and they were attacking the Maronite church and Armenian residents there.”

Manaf Tlass, a very famous rebel in Syria, has a cousin named Abdul Razzak, who commands the notorious al-Farouq brigade of the opposition, which was responsible for the forced exile of 80,000 Christians out of Homs.

In Aleppo, about 100 rebels invaded a Christian area of the city. One report on Syria had this to say:

The violent situation deeply hurts the entire Syrian population, the Christian community as well as other people groups. But about two or three weeks ago we observed an increase of violence that specifically is targeting Christians or Christian neighborhoods. Bombs now are placed in Christian areas where there is no strategic or military target at all.

Also in Aleppo, in November, a bomb went off near a Syriac Orthodox Church leaving between 20 and 80 people dead. An Armenian church was also bombed after being raided and vandalized by rebels.

One Christian named Michel said that the persecution toward Christians began after the first protest against the Assad regime. He continued to say:

“Then suddenly arms were being used and there were Arabs from different countries … They broke into Christian houses and accused them of blasphemy.”

Michel also recounted a horrific event which happened to his family while he was gone from his home:

“It was indescribable fear. They burned tyres in front of the house and wanted to burn the house….[My wife] took the children and was jumping over walls from one street to another until they managed to escape.’

The St. Gevorg Church in Aleppo’s Armenian Nor Kyugh district was set in flames by rebels, being almost put to ashes, while the Mesrobian Armenian school next to the church was also attacked. Moreover, in the Armenian district of Damascus, a bomb went off that killed 10 people, and wounded another 50.

Agnes Mariam, the Mother Superior of the Melkite Greek Catholic monastery of St. James the Mutilated in Qara, said that while the Assad regime does “not favor Christians, the social fabric of Syria is very diverse, so Christians live in peace.”

Right when Assad’s regime topples, the Christians will be amongst the greatest victims.
While Israel has not gotten involved in the revolution, it is not optimistic either. Syrian rebels have taken almost all of the villages near the frontier with the Golan Heights. Ehud Barak said: “Almost all of the villages, from the foot of this ridge to the very top, are already in the hands of the Syrian rebels.”

One rebel named Mateen said that the rebellion has “a big fight against the Jews ahead of us. We will take that up, God willing.”

Pope Benedict XVI has in fact objected to sending any arms into Syria, where they will be put into the hands of the rebels:

“The import of weapons has to finally stop …Without the import of arms the war cannot continue. Instead of importing weapons, which is a grave sin, we have to import ideas of peace and creativity.”

Where are the voices from major contemporary churches? Where is Rick Warren, Joel Olsteen? America and Europe have not offered any help for the Christians, and while mainstream churches stay silent, the U.S. government and Western allies are making matters worse. Within hours of Obama’s re-election victory, Western allies had already designed a development for Syria, expecting a much more aggressive approach to Syria by the president. England and Turkey have been discussing the use of NATO against Bashar al-Assad, expecting more support from Obama.

Let’s not forget that Obama last month recognized the official Syrian opposition as a legitimate group, saying,

I’m encouraged to see that the Syrian opposition created an umbrella group that may have more cohesion than they’ve had in the past, …We consider them a legitimate representative of the aspirations of the Syrian people. We’re not yet prepared to recognize them as some sort of government in exile, but we do think that it is a broad-based representative group.

What will this do? Remember Egypt. What caused the Muslim Brotherhood in the Egyptian revolution to be so confident? They got Obama’s approval in his famous “New Beginning” speech of 2009, which he gave in Cairo (a speech which, I believe, will be judged by history as one of the most destructive acts of a U.S. president).

While Obama has been vocal on his support for the Syrian revolution and the toppling of Assad, his administration is now considering giving weapons to help the rebels. The New York Times reported in November:

“While no decisions have been made, the administration is considering several alternatives, including directly providing arms to some opposition fighters.”

Turkey wants NATO to provide them with surface-to-air missiles to supposedly protect the country from the Syrian military, and State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the Patriot missile system would not be “for use beyond the Turkish border.”
The chances are high that the Obama administration and NATO’s involvement will go beyond just talk, and will involve working with terrorist groups, just as they did when they worked to oust out Gaddafi, as Walid Shoebat reported:

Appointing Libyan fighters to oust Qaddafi was akin to appointing the same individuals with the same ideology as Al-Qaeda. That ideology was established by the fighting groups that were involved in the Afghan-Russian war. It was these groups that were aided by NATO forces and supported by the Obama administration, which wanted the removal of the Gaddafi regime.

From what I have heard, the reasons why America is in support of toppling Assad is because they see him as a brutal tyrant who needs to be removed. Also, because America sees the Shiites as the major threat, and it believes that by removing Assad, Iran will then be weakened significantly. But what America and the rest of the West need to realize is that that by getting rid of Assad, the road will be paved for Turkey to invade Syria, and will yield Turkey’s rise as a major superpower in the Middle East.

With all of this said, the point is clear: Islam is an anti-Christian ideology, and when its fundamentalist followers take Syria, the Christians living there will be enslaved and become the victims of genocide.

Theodore Shoebat is the author of For God or For Tyranny.

Source: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/theodore-shoebat/the-syrian-revolutions-dire-threat-to-christians/

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