Syrian Christians Under Attack - KHouse News

As the world watches for President Obama’s next move to execute a strategic strike on Syria, little media attention has been focused on the plight of the Syrian Christians, until now. Al-Qaida backed rebels have seized control over Maaloula, a small ancient village outside of Damascus. It is one of the three locations in the world where Western Aramaic is still spoken. Scholars believe the Christians living in Maaloula provide them a linguistic bridge to the dialect spoken during the first century. Many of the Christians living in Maaloula are Antiochian Orthodox and Melkite Greek Catholics. The village barely has 2,000 residents set in the Qalamoun Mountains, making this a strategic position for the Syrian rebels between Damascus and the other prominent city of Homs. Maaloula holds many of Sryia’s oldest monasteries and churches, including Mar Thecla that predates the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. The attack began last Wednesday when an al-Nusra suicide bomber blew up a military checkpoint in Maaloula. This attack allowed the rebels to enter the village and take control of a mountain-top hotel and used it as their center of operations for the duration of the battle. The al-Nusra rebels posted a You Tube video stating “Soon we will withdraw from this city not out of fear but to leave its homes to their owners. They were not our target. Our target was mainly military,” according to Reuters. Nearly 1,500 Syrian rebels surrounded the Christian village led by Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-affiliated group, and the Qalamon Liberation Front. The latter group has been described as “Moderate Rebels” by Secretary of State John Kerry. A Maaoula resident reported rebels shouting “Allahu Akbar” attacked Christian homes and churches shortly after moving into the village on September 8th. Gunshots were fired and other eye witnesses reported three bodies lying in the middle of the street in the old quarters of the village. Many Christians have fled the village for safety. Another Maaoula resident reported Syrian rebels were forcing some Christians to convert to Islam. “I saw the militants grabbing five villagers and threatening them: ‘Either you convert to Islam or you will be beheaded,” the resident said. The Syrian Army began coordinating attacks against the Syrian rebels on Monday. The Syrian rebels released a video stating they have achieved their objective of taking an army post and will pull out of the village. Other reports confirmed that two nuns were videotaped to assure that they were well-treated by the rebels. “They [rebels] behaved well with us and they did not harm us,” said one of the nuns at the rebels’ prompting. Christians living near the Turkish-Syrian border were reportedly murdered earlier in August by radical German Islamists. Experts have reported an increase of German Islamists entering Syria in the past six months. Reports came from two western intelligence agencies that the number of German Muslims migrating to Syria has increased from 60 to 150 militants. The Sunni Salafist movement in Germany has prompted the Federal Republic’s interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich to issue a warning last April against German Muslims leaving for Syria to persue jihad. German prosecutors are examining whether German Muslims can be charged with participation in a terrorist organization. A former German rapper, Denis Cuspert (a.k.a. Deso Dogg), is believed to be fighting with the al-Qaida linked al-Nusra front. The German government considers Cuspert as the lead recruiter of German Muslims. He released a video prior to his departure urging Muslims to join the jihad in Syria. Gregorios III, the patriarch of the church of Antioch, reported that 450,000 of Syria’s two million Christians have been displaced since the start of the civil war. Over 1.2 million Syrians have since fled to Lebanon. Sunni Muslim extremists have many Syrian Christians worried that they will become the primary target since they are considered the weakest link that the rebels go after. Senator Rand Paul told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Assad has protected Christians for decades against Sunni Muslim attacks. According to the CIA World Factbook, 74 percent in Syria are Sunni Muslim. Assad is an Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The Shiite and the Druze make up 16 percent of the Syrian population. Syrian Christians have every right to be worried if the current authoritative secular regime is overthrown and taken over by radical Islamists. Dozens of churches and Christian buildings were attacked by Islamic extremists in Egypt last month. Coptic Christians were the primary group targeted for revenge for supporting former president Hosni Mubarek. Abu Zakham, a Christian bishop, was displaced from his home in the city of Homs last year along with 85,000 other Christians by extremist rebels. He claims that there is a plan to displace Christians, but does not understand why. Whether Syrian Christians will experience further persecution from rebel forces will hinge upon President Obama’s stance to follow through with a strategic attack against Assad’s regime. The latest news released hours ago reported the Syrian government has accepted Russia’s proposal to turn over all of their chemical weapons under international control. Final plans are underway with the U.N Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Only time will tell if Syria will follow through on their promise. Meanwhile Syrian Christians remaining in Syria are hopeful that they will be able to lead as normal a life as possible until a strike occurs from either side. Related Links: Syrian Christians Flee Homeland as Government Forces, Rebels Infiltrate City — The Christian Post Syrian army launches attack on hills around Christian village — FOX News German jihadis kill Syrian Christians — The Jerusalem Post Syrian Christians Pack Passports Fearing Islamist Onslaught — Bloomberg more from khouse news: www.khouse.org/news/