The Opposition and the Failure to Reassure the Christians
And, yet, Insane McVain and cohorts continue to yap about the 'moderate' Syrian rebels, who are anything but (as I have detailed ad nauseum here: Let's Catch Up With Those 'Moderate' Syrian Rebels That Obama, Kerry & McCain Are Still Trumpeting!)...
From Al Monitor via WeaselZippers:
By Tareq al Abed (translated from As-Safir (Lebanon)
Syrian Christians
as a whole have not thrown their support behind either side in the
Syrian war. Nevertheless, Christians in Syria have been subjected to a
lot of pressure by both the regime and the opposition, which failed to
give them (or any religious or ethnic Syrian component) any assurances
or support.
Some armed groups have accused the church of supporting the regime. And
many of the opposition’s statements and video clips do not reassure
minorities that they will be participants in the new Syria.
The political opposition: failure without borders
In the revolution’s first months, Christians did join the protests in
various towns and villages. One day of protests was even called “Good
Friday.” In several areas, the churches opened their doors to displaced
persons and those affected by the war, as in Daraa, Aleppo and Hama. But
when the revolution was militarized and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) was
formed, Christians started fearing for their future role in light of the
growing Islamist trend in the various armed opposition battalions.
Matters became worse after some oppositionists in the field accused the
regime of supporting the Christians, citing celebrations in al-Kassa’a
and Bab Touma in Damascus. Christians’ fears were reinforced after
bombings, shelling and clashes broke out at churches in Damascus and
other sites such as Irbeen in the Damascus countryside, Homs and Deir
ez-Zor.
In addition to all that, the political opposition has failed
miserably to reassure the Christians and has neglected to address many
worrisome events. Father Fadi Haddad was killed in Katana, in the
Damascus countryside. Bishops Boulos al-Yazigi and Youhanna Ibrahim were
kidnapped in Aleppo. Father Paolo Dall’Oglio disappeared in Raqqa.
Clashes recently reached Maaloula in the Qalamun. And there was news
about attacks on churches and monasteries in Ras al-Ain.
When the two bishops were kidnapped, the Syrian National Coalition and
Syrian National Council (SNC) accused extremist armed groups of
kidnapping and possibly killing them. Then both groups backpedaled and
said that the regime was behind the crime, to scare the Christians into
supporting it. The opposition did not promote a discourse emphasizing
loyalty to the homeland over religion. It took no concrete steps to
prevent a repeat of what happened to the churches in Iraq and the
subsequent waves of Christian migration.
The National Coalition and the opposition abroad thought that placing a
Christian figure in a leading position would reassure the minorities,
so George Sabra was elected to head the SNC. They also promoted Michel
Kilo, who made great efforts to showcase the role of Christian
activists in the revolution. Kilo asserted that the Christian street
disagrees with the church’s position. Activist Ghassan Saltana made the
same claim.
But on the ground, nothing changed. The opposition simply kept
repeating that the only guarantee for the minorities is to participate
in the revolution. Some activists have tended not to blame the National
Coalition, and the political opposition in general, because its
popularity on the ground is almost nonexistent and thus its positions
mean nothing. Neither the bishops’ kidnappers nor the Islamic State in
Iraq and Syria (ISIS) responded to the opposition’s calls, assuming they
even recognize it.
Things were made worse by the performance of the opposition media. It
presented the popular movement as a Sunni “revolution” against the
Alawites, or that the Sunnis were being killed while other sects enjoyed
calm, thus placing religious sectarianism above national belonging.
Regarding the political opposition inside Syria, such as the National
Coordination Committee, its role is limited because it has stayed away
from any street action and because of the weakness of its media. The net
result is a major failure by the opposition in dealing with Syria's
societal components. The opposition has limited itself to repeating
slogans that do not have any actual effect on the ground.
The armed opposition and the church: All eyes on Maaloula
For the last two years, the gunmen haven’t stormed any
Christian-majority area, even within the liberated areas. So the FSA’s
position toward the Christians depended on the first contact on the
ground between Christians and opposition fighters, despite that faction
leaders have praised the role of “our [Christian] brothers in the
context of the revolution.”
The commanders of the Islamist brigades, who have declared more than
once that their project was to establish a caliphate, have repeatedly
indicated that no one will persecute the Christians or drive them out of
their homes because they are “people of the book” and dhimmis (non-Muslim
citizens of the Islamic state), so there are no problems with them,
unlike the rest of the communities such as Shiites, Alawites and Druze.
ISIS has another position. Unconfirmed news from Raqqa indicate that Father Paolo was
killed in accordance with a decision from the “emir” on the grounds
that “the Christians have betrayed the covenant,” and should therefore
be killed. But that news has not been verified, and ISIS has said
nothing about Paolo’s disappearance so far.
But with the entry of the FSA and Jabhat al-Nusra to Maaloula
in the Qalamun mountains near Damascus, there is a lot at stake. While
opposition activists in the region have strongly denied (by posting
dozens of video clips) any assault on the monasteries and churches in
the town, the appeals by the FSA and the gunmen have failed to reassure
the people there.
On the other hand, a YouTube video showed an FSA gunman blowing up a
church in Aarbin in the Damascus countryside and burning it completely.
The clip shows the church destroyed and some of the icons burned.
http://tinyurl.com/lbpcbgo
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