Amid the jubilation unleashed inside Syria and around the world by the fall of the Assad regime yesterday, one community that may not be in such a festive mood would be Syria’s Christian minority, writes John Allen. Source: Crux.
Prior to the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Christians represented 10 per cent of the population, about 1.5 million people.
Today that number stands at about 300,000, after many left due to constant fighting and economic stagnation, i.e., the same reasons millions of other Syrians have fled.
Others, however, have abandoned Syria because of persecution and violence at the hands of radical jihadist groups that make up a significant part of the rebel coalition.
Over the years, the widely held perception has been that Christians were relatively pro-Assad, not because they had any special affection for the regime and its obvious brutality, but rather because it at least kept the Islamic radicals at bay.
In effect, many Syrian Christians have long felt that the realistic alternative to Bashar al-Assad wasn’t a thriving, pluralistic democracy, but an Islamic theocracy.
To be clear, rebel forces have been saying all the right things during the present offensive, which has reached a crescendo with the capture of Damascus.
Abu Mohammed al-Julani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist group once linked with al-Qaeda and ISIS but which now insists it’s independent, recently hailed Syria’s history as a “a meeting point for civilisations and cultures,” promising to respect its “cultural and religious diversity.”
During a recent Mass in Aleppo just days after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters captured the city, Armenian Catholic Archbishop Boutros Marayati told his followers that he’s received “assurances” that “everything will remain as before, only better”.
Still, not all has been sweetness and light for Syrian Christians as the rebel coalition has swept across the country.
Defending the Christian presence in Syria is important for spiritual reasons, as the community stretches all the way back to the apostolic era.
But it’s also of geopolitical and strategic interest, because a Syria shorn of its Christians would be that much more likely to fall under radical jihadist control, further destabilising the region and, for that matter, the world.
FULL STORY
There may be hope for Syrian Christians, but don’t expect them to join the party yet (By John L Allen, Crux)
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