Christians, Muslims Coexist Amid Chaos in Syria

By: Tareq al-Abed Translated from As-Safir (Lebanon).

Al-Qalamoun’s towns might be a model for peace and coexistence. It is here where people confront strife and where everyone stands together against the dangers that beset their homes and the region in general — from al-Tal, to Rankous, Saidnaya, Maaloula, Jirod, al-Qatifa, Yabrud, Nabak and Deir Attieh. These cities are quiet, but solid as a rock. They gave the world the Aramaic language, and to this day there are monasteries and historic churches in Saidnaya, Maaloula and Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi in Nabak. Those towns, along with neighboring towns in Lebanon, gave South America prominent leaders, such as former Argentine president Carlos Menem, originally from Yabrud.

Reaching Yabrud is not easy, as it is not off the highway that connects Damascus and Homs. This highway has been the site of clashes between the regime army and the opposition. Yabrud, a quiet town with a population of about 40,000, has succeeded in distancing itself from the lawlessness that has affected most of the country. There are no government soldiers in Yabrud. They are stationed on the road leading to town, which suffers from a lack of electricity, communications and fuel. Even so, Yabrud seems well organized. Its judicial body is able to resolve disputes, and its courts and the police are also functional. The armed opposition is abiding by the directives of the town council, so the town has succeeded in controlling the so-called revolution’s merchants — those who have taken advantage of the situation for their own interests. The town’s inhabitants refuse to replace one tyrant with another. It is worth noting that there is no trace whatsoever of tensions between Muslims and Christians in the town, despite the chaos that has jolted the country.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE MONITOR

Christians Under Siege in Syria

In January 1945, my mother, too young even for school, joined millions of other ethnic Germans fleeing westwards from Breslau as the Red Army advanced. My forefathers had lived in this region of Silesia (German since 1242) for at least nine generations that I know of. The forced repatriation – a process that might now be called ethnic cleansing – of my mother’s family and millions of other civilians from groups whose nationality would in future be inextricably linked to their ethnicity, was largely overlooked in the euphoria that swept the world at the end of World War II.

They never returned.

Now we are witnessing another wave of civilian displacement in the Middle East with hundreds of thousands of Christians being forced to flee  as they are banished from their 2,000 year old homelands in today’s remarkable surge in Arabian people power.

Their fate has been largely forgotten as the global media attention has moved on from Egypt and Libya and encamped in Syria to watch the terrible bloodshed in Damascus, Houla, Aleppo and Homs. Innocent people on all sides are enduring awful hardship, death and torture; civil war does not discriminate between young and old, rich or poor. In the ghastly bloodletting we are now seeing, no one seems safe from the prospect of sudden death and destruction of property.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE INDEPENDENT (UK)

Christians in Aleppo voice fears over Syrian uprising

For Aleppo’s Christians, there is a profound fear of the unknown. The Assad government was tolerant of religious minorities, but the rebellion draws most support from Syria’s majority Sunni Muslim community.

By Patrick J. McDonnell

Los Angeles Times

BEIRUT — As explosions and gunfire sounded in the distance, the parishioners of St. Joseph’s Church in Aleppo, Syria, prayed for peace.

“People are terrified,” Chaldean Christian Bishop Antoine Audo said by telephone from Aleppo, after the Mass on Tuesday. “They fear a situation that is becoming more and more violent and uncertain.”

Syria’s most populous city endured another day of shelling, street battles and reported strafing from helicopter gunships. Tens of thousands of people have already fled. Pickups and cars filled with families and their belongings have been streaming out as rebel gunmen battle government forces.

The United Nations reported Tuesday that thousands remain trapped in the sprawling city of more than 2 million, which has become the focal point of the more than 16-month rebellion against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The crisis inside the city is becoming ever more dire, say aid workers, who fear a looming humanitarian catastrophe. Bread is in short supply; people are waiting in lines for hours to grab what is available. Gasoline is prohibitively expensive or nonexistent. Cooking oil is hard to find.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE SEATTLE TIMES 

Christians in Syria live in uneasy alliance with Assad, Alawites

DAMASCUS, Syria – Hani Sarhan is a Christian who says none of his relatives works with the regime of Bashar Assad or has anything to do with it.

“But what we heard from (the protesters) at the beginning of this revolution saying, ‘Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the coffin,’ started us thinking about the real aim of this revolution,” he said. “So from this point of view, fearing for my life, I declared my support for President Assad.”

Muslims dominate this nation of 22 million people, but Christians can be found at all levels of Syria’s government, business community and military. The 2 million Christians here trace their roots to ancient communities and have survived under many rulers as Christian enclaves in other Arab nations, such as Saudi Arabia, have withered.

The rebellion of hundreds of thousands of Muslims against Assad that began in March 2011 has not seen Christians abandon their support for the Alawites, the Muslim sect to which Assad belongs and that has controlled Syria for decades. Christians have largely remained quiet as Assad’s forces pummeled rebel cities and towns with artillery, killing close to 10,000 people, according to the United Nations.

FULL ARTICLE FROM USA TODAY 

Syria’s Christians: Caught Between Supporting Assad and Fears of an Islamist Takeover

By PALASH R. GHOSH: Subscribe to Palash’s RSS feed

March 2, 2012 2:18 PM EST

President Bashar al-Assad appears to have declared war on his own people through a brutal, year-old crackdown that has claimed the lives of at least 7,000 people. So it is perhaps surprising to learn that Syria has long been a diverse society in which minorities and women have enjoyed certain rights and freedoms unknown in most other Arab nations

Aside from Sunni Muslims, the dominant community, Syria’s population also boasts communities of Christians, Kurds, Armenians, Druze and Greeks.

Assad is himself a minority belong to the Alawites, who are Shia Muslims.

International Business Times spoke to an expert on the Middle East to explore Syria’s demographic features, particularly its Christian population.

H.L. Murre-van den Berg is a professor at the Institute for Religious Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

IB TIMES: How large is Syria’s Christian community?

MURRE-VAN DEN BERG: It is generally estimated at about 8 to 10 percent of the population — usually these numbers given by government officials are on the high side.

On the other hand, the number of Christians in Syria recently went up because of substantial numbers of Iraqi Christian refugees – the UN up to 80,000 crossed into Syria from Iraq.
In addition, in contrast to Egypt, the Syrian Christian community is very diverse – including Armenians, Assyrians, and Syriac-Orthodox, among others — with many of them arriving as migrants during the twentieth century.

FULL ARTICLE FROM INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES