Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

Syrian Jihadists Are Forcing Christians to Become Dhimmis Under Seventh-Century Rules

Nina Shea,  director of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom and co-author of Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians, reports:

The religious persecution in Syria deepened this week, as evidenced by a written ultimatum purportedly distributed by the rebel jihadist group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) to Christians in the northern provincial capital of Raqqa. Rejecting conversion to Islam or death, some 20 Christian leaders of that city held firm in their faith and submitted to the Islamists’ demands to live by as dhimmis.

Under this arrangement, in exchange for their lives and the ability to worship as Christians, they must abide by purported seventh-century rules of the Caliph Umar. According to the Raqqa ultimatum, these include bans on renovating and rebuilding churches and monasteries, many of which need repair because they’ve been shelled and blown up over the past three years, and bans against the public display of crosses and Christian symbols and the ringing of bells. They are forbidden from reading scripture indoors loud enough for Muslims outside to hear, and the practice of their faith must be confined within the walls of their remaining churches, not exercised publicly (at, for example, funeral or wedding processions).

They are prohibited from saying anything offensive about Muslims or Islam. The women must be enshrouded, and alcohol is banned.

And the Raqqa Christians, who numbered about 3,000 before the conflict diminished them through migration and deaths, must henceforth pay the jizya, or Islamic protection money. The ultimatum sets the jizya at four golden dinars for the rich, two for those of average income, and one for the poor, twice annually, for each adult Christian.  [more . . .]

Colson Center's new TV Series starts tonight! (Nov. 25, 8:30 EST, NRB Network)

Colson Center's new TV Series starts tonight!
(November 25, 8:30 EST, NRB Network)

"Worldview from the Colson Center" begins airing each Monday night on the NRB Network on DIRECTV, SkyAngel, ROKU and a number of affiliate stations. It will also be live-streamed from the NRB Network Web site and on the NRB Android app.

The first twelve episodes will re-present Chuck Colson’s much-acclaimed “Doing the Right Thing” video series on rebuilding our society’s ethical foundations.

SYRIA'S CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY CRIES OUT FOR HELP

Nina Shea reports:

The Vatican news agency Fides reports today that two new mass graves containing a total of 30 bodies were found in Sadad, an ancient Christian town of some 15,000 people between Damascus and Homs, bringing to 45 the number of residents killed there by Islamist militias since October 21.

Surviving relatives and friends uncovered the graves after government forces recently recaptured the town from rebels. Those killed were reported by the local Syriac Orthodox metropolitan, who presided over 30 of their funerals this week, to be Christian civilians, including women and children. A list of their names was provided to the Catholic press.

The Islamist rebel militias of Al Nusra Front and Daash were identified by eyewitnesses as responsible for this war crime.

The battle also resulted in the destruction and looting of the town, including its homes, hospitals, schools, government buildings and electrical, telephone, and water capabilities. St. Theodore’s Syriac Orthodox Church and a number of the 4,000-year-old Assyrian town’s 14 other churches and a monastery have been desecrated.

Some 2,500 Sadad families have fled so far and ten others are missing.

Syriac Orthodox archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh remarked that this was the deadliest single attack against Syria’s Christian community of the civil war and ranks close to the massacre at Baghdad’s Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic church by jihadists during Sunday Mass on October 31, 2010, when 58 were killed.  

 According to international media reports, rebel shelling has increasingly hit several majority-Christian districts in Damascus. Together with a devastating siege on Maalula that Lela Gilbert reported on last month, this has heightened fears among Syria’s Christians that they are being targeted for religious reasons by Islamist extremists in the rebellion.

ATTACK ON MAALOULA (SYRIAN CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY) WAS RELIGIOUS CLEANSING, NOT A MILITARY TARGET

And the U.S. is supplying arms to these "moderates"!  Full report here.

RAYMOND IBRAHIM - ATTACKS ON CHRISTIAN CHURCHES NEAR DAMASCUS

Today Kathryn Jean Lopez interviewed Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again.    He is the "go-to" guy for information on Islamic persecution of Christians in the Middle East.  On his website, Raymond Ibrahim, he posted a video of what appear to be Islamic extremists attacking Christian churches in Syria — St. Elias Church and St. Grace Church in the Christian village of Maaloula near Damascus – where villagers still speak Aramaic, the language Christ spoke.

Some excerpts from the interview:

KJL: . . . .  Do we have any idea how many churches have been attacked in Syria and Egypt recently?

IBRAHIM: In Egypt, in just the last few weeks, approximately 80 churches and monasteries and other Christian institutions were attacked, many set aflame and/or destroyed.  In Syria, I am not sure of the exact number, but nary a month goes by when I compile my monthly Muslim persecution of Christians series, that an attack on at least one Syrian church or monastery does not take place. A recent report says that a decade after the U.S. “liberated” neighboring Iraq, some 70 churches have been destroyed. That appears to be the fate of the ancient churches of Syria should the Obama administration get its way in Syria.  .  .

 

KJL:  Are Syrian Christians better off if the U.S. does not strike against Assad?

IBRAHIM: Absolutely. That is not because Assad is a great guy, but because the alternatives — the same alternatives we saw in Libya and Egypt, that is, the Islamists and jihadis — are hostile to “infidel” Christians, a fact with ample doctrinal, historical, and current-affair proof. . .

KJL: How can the U.S. help? Specifically the Christians and minorities under fire?

IBRAHIM: It is sad to say, but the days when Mideast Christians called for U.S. help are gone.  Today, all that Copts, Christian Syrians, and others want from the U.S. is for it to not get involved — since apparently every time it does get involved it’s to help those who persecute Christians, Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and now al-Qaeda in Syria. Watching Mideast media, it’s clear that millions of Egyptians and Syrians — both Christians and moderate Muslims and others — want nothing more from the U.S. than for it to stop supporting terrorists, under the guise of “freedom” and “democracy.”  [more . . .]

THINKING CLEARLY ON SYRIA - Bill Muehlenberg

Bill Muehlenberg, one of the most perceptive Christian bloggers writing today, offers a helpful analysis of the Middle East Syria crisis. He titles his piece simply "On Syria" and writes:

One thing that can be said with some degree of certainty is that the situation in Syria is a mess. Then again, that largely describes things in all of the Middle East as well. This is one messed up part of the world, and no easy solutions present themselves to any number of problems found there.

But the situation has just been ratcheted up a notch – indeed, a huge notch – by Obama wanting to take America into war again. His insistence on taking some sort of action – no matter how ill-conceived or little thought through – makes this whole scenario now the stuff of front page news.

Indeed, with all the sabre-rattling going on now from a number of players, talk of WWIII erupting is not mere rhetoric. So this is serious stuff which needs sober analysis. And that is largely lacking in so many quarters. There seems to be far too much sloppy thinking and confusion about all this.

While I do not claim to be an expert on the matter, I am happy to draw upon the expertise of others as I very briefly examine a number of relevant points in this debate. They are by no means the only considerations here, but they are some crucial ones nonetheless.

Where is the anti-war left?

Given the fact that at any moment Obama may have military strikes being launched against Syria, one of the most obvious questions to be asked is just where are all the peaceniks and lefties? Just imagine if this were Bush in office: all hell would have broken loose by now, and there would be rioting in the streets.

Every lefty in the nation would be doing mass protests with all the usual lame rhetoric: “Stop US imperialism,” “End the occupation,” “No blood for oil” etc. Yet all we seem to hear at the moment is crickets chirping. So evidently American aggression overseas is not wrong in itself – only if Republicans do it. But if Obama is behind it, then it must be just fine. Yes, I understand how the left thinks here. What was that word starting in ‘h’ and ending in ‘ypocrisy’?

ANDREW C. McCARTHY - THE U.S. SHOULD STAY OUT OF SYRIA

I totally agree with McCarthy, who writes:

I don’t often disagree with my good friend Cliff, but we continue to see things very differently when it comes to Syria. Five thoughts.

1. It is not certain that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons. I heard Defense Secretary Hagel, who is not the clearest fellow in any event, say our intel community had “some degree of varying confidence” that Syria had twice, on a “small scale,” used sarin. That is a hedge if ever there was one. Coming days after it seems the government had a uniform degree of strong confidence that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was nothing to be concerned about, it’s not exactly something I’d bet the farm on.

2. Let’s assume Assad did it. This would not change the underlying problem: Assad’s opposition is rife with assorted Islamic supremacists and jihadists. These include elements of al-Qaeda, the organization with which we are at war, and whose ardent pursuit of chemical and biological weapons has not only been noted but formally alleged in indictments for years. I am not saying we have no friends in the opposition. But, as in Egypt, they are a weak part of an opposition led by Muslim supremacists who hate the West. That is not going to change, no matter what weapons Assad uses.

On this score, Cliff’s argument repeats the standard interventionist narrative: Obama failed to act in support of the pro-American (or, at least, anti-Islamic-supremacist) faction(s) of the opposition, creating a void that allowed “well-funded jihadist and Islamic forces [to] take the lead on the battlefield.” I wrote about this narrative in a recent column. There is no evidence in Syria, any more than there was in Egypt or Libya, that there was, at any point, a thriving, pro-American faction that was capable of taking the lead against the dictatorial regime. The most virulent opposition to the Assad regime has, for decades, been the Islamic supremacists — the Muslim Brotherhood and its allied violent jihadists. There is no void. This is the dynamic in the Muslim Middle East: You rationalize U.S. aid and sacrifice by telling yourself you are only helping the good guys, and then, once the regime is toppled, it turns out there aren’t enough good guys — so you end up with the Muslim Brotherhood. If Assad is replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood, that is not progress for America.

Syrian Muslim Brotherhood Says “Decisive Battle” Has Begun In Damascus…

The big question:  If/when Assad falls, will the Muslim Brotherhood come to power as they have in Egypt?  Christians in Syria tremble.  Weazel Zippers says: "Expect an Alawite/Christian bloodbath once the Sunni rebels overrun the Assad regime."   

Elizabeth Kendal, Christian researcher of worldwide persecution of Christians, says the media has given an entirely false story regarding Syria.   She reports:

SYRIA: CHRISTIANS' PLIGHT LOST UNDER MOUNTAIN OF PROPAGANDA

Without a doubt, the greatest lie being told about the Syrian conflict is that it is being waged by President Assad against 'the Syrian people'. This is pure propaganda. In December 2011, just three months into the crisis, the Qatar Foundation conducted a major poll inside Syria to assess the level of support for Assad. (This was before al-Qaeda and other international Salafi jihadists started flooding in, making the crisis worse.) As an advocate of regime change in Syria, Qatar was embarrassed by the results and so buried them. When eventually leaked, the results revealed that 55 percent of Syrians supported President Assad and 68 percent of Syrians disapproved of Arab League sanctions. This makes perfect sense, considering that religious minorities make up 25 percent of Syria's population (Christians are 10 percent) and at least one-third of all Sunni Muslims would be nominal or secular urbanites who likewise do not want to live in an Islamic State. So the main division in Syria is not between Assad and the rest, but between Sunni fundamentalists (including foreign Salafi jihadists) and the rest, i.e. the majority of Syrians.

CHUCK COLSON WARY OF WESTERN INTERVENTION IN SYRIA

- (Update 2/25/12 - Daniel Pipes, Middle East expert, expresses a similar take in his short commentary, "Syria: Arguing for U.S. Inaction."

- (Original post) - Why?  Because of the liklihood of the "unintended consequence" of a horrific civil war.  Colson writes:

While it may be good politics to want to go after the bad guy, but folks are acting as if the past decade never happened. Set aside the fact that arming the rebels will only prolong the killing. Once again, our leaders and opinion elites are urging the use of military force without thinking about what happens after the “bad guy” is gone.

Syria is a divided nation. The Alawites, who rule the country, are a minority. The majority of Syrians are Sunni Muslims. There are also substantial Christian and Kurdish minorities.

Sound familiar? Actually, there are differences between Syria and Iraq: Many Sunnis don’t consider the Alawites to be Muslims at all, and they resent them for the way the Assad regime has treated Sunnis. Because of this, one human-rights activist predicts that a Syrian civil war would be “more destructive in terms of human lives, losses and regional instability” than the Iraqi civil war.   [more..]