The Washington Post
October 5, 2013 Saturday
Regional Edition
Christians in Syria face growing hostility
by Loveday Morris
IN AJALTOUN, LEBANON
When radical Islamists tore down a cross and hoisted a black flag
above a church in the northern Syrian city of Raqqah last week, their
action underscored the increasingly hostile environment for the
country’s Christians.
Although Syria is majority Sunni Muslim, it is one of the most
religiously and ethnically diverse countries in the Middle East, home
to Christians, Druze, and Shiite-offshoot Alawites and Ismailis. But
the country’s conflict, now in its third year, is threatening that
tapestry.
While the primary front in the war has pitted Sunni against Shiite,
Christians are increasingly caught in the line of fire. The perception
that they support the government – which is in many cases true – has
long made them a target of rebel groups. Now, Christians say radical
Islamist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an
affiliate of al-Qaeda, are determined to drive them from their homes.
“The Christian community in Syria is stuck between two fires,” said
Nadim Nassar, a Syrian from Latakia who is director of the Awareness
Foundation, an interfaith charity based in Britain. “One fire is a
corrupt regime, and everybody agrees there needs to be a change. And
on the other hand, there’s a fragmented and diverse opposition on the
ground who can’t control jihadist forces coming from outside the
country.”
Syria is not the only place in the wider region where Christians are
being targeted. Coptic churches in Egypt have been attacked, and
Pakistan last week experienced the deadliest church bombing in the
country’s history. The militants who attacked a mall in Nairobi last
month singled out non-Muslims.
The rash of assaults has led some to question the future of
Christianity in Syria, where adherents make up about 10 percent of the
population, and in the wider Middle East.
Syria’s ruling Assad family, which belongs to the Alawite sect, has
long painted itself as the protector of Syria’s minorities. Though
leaders of Syria’s opposition have pledged to provide minorities with
equality in a new Syria, they are unable to control the growing number
of hard-line Islamist forces on the ground.
The Western-backed Syrian Opposition Coalition denounced the
desecration of the churches in Raqqah, calling it an act that showed
“complete disregard to holy sites and religious and cultural
heritage.”
But the rejection of the opposition coalition by 13 rebel factions
that announced an Islamic alliance last week highlighted the group’s
lack of influence.
In Syria’s war, bishops have been kidnapped and priests have been
killed. When the fighting last month reached the ancient town of
Maaloula – where residents still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus
– it struck at the heart of Syria’s Christian community.
Most residents have fled since rebels swept through the picturesque
town, which clings to the mountains northwest of the capital,
Damascus.
“Maaloula is like Jerusalem to Syrian Christians,” said Ibrahim
Doushi, a Syrian Christian shop owner who moved to neighboring
Lebanon. “When the war reached there, it was heartbreaking for all the
Christians in the Middle East.”
The fighting in Maaloula was followed by the images from Raqqah, where
the ISIS desecrated the Greek Catholic and Armenian Catholic churches,
according to activist groups. The radical Islamist group also has
attacked Shiite shrines and mosques.
For Doushi, who fled to Lebanon last year from the town of Ras al-Ayn,
near the Turkish border, the footage of the ISIS’s black flag flying
above the Armenian church was confirmation that he and his family have
no future in his home country.
“Christians are being torn from our roots,” he said. The ISIS
militants “are proud of it. They are targeting the Christians and they
are publicizing it. The regime cannot protect us.”
Doushi said he was forced to leave Ras al-Ayn after Islamist fighters
entered the town late last year and targeted the homes and businesses
of Christians. The 61-year-old’s new, temporary residence, housing
seven members of his extended family, is St. Gabriel’s monastery in
the mountain village of Ajaltoun, 12 miles north of Beirut.
Many at the monastery say they are pinning their hopes on obtaining
European visas, citing doubts that there will ever be a day that Syria
can offer security to its minorities, at least in rebel-held areas.
“The Christians are never going back,” said Johnny Chamoun, 42, also
from Ras al-Ayn, who works at the monastery coordinating assistance
for Syrian Christian refugees.
Nassar, the interfaith foundation director, said it is the first time
in centuries that Christians in Syria have been targeted for their
faith.
“We are not imported there. Christ was not born under Big Ben or in
Paris,” he said. “This is the cradle of Christianity that we are being
pushed from.”