Syria’s Christians Risk Eradication

Syria’s Christians Risk Eradication

A post-Assad Islamist regime threatens to re-enact the Armenian genocide.

By Philip Jenkins • September 4, 2013

U.S. policy towards Syria is bafflingly inconsistent. If U.S. leaders are so concerned about regimes slaughtering thousands of their own people, did they notice what just happened in Egypt? If they are so exercised over about weapons of mass destruction, are they aware that Israel has two hundred nuclear warheads, with delivery systems? Will American warships in the region be making those other stops on their liberating mission?

Most puzzling of all, though, is why the United States seems so determined to eradicate Christianity in one of its oldest heartlands, at such an agonizingly sensitive historical moment.

Syria has always been a complex place religiously. Although the country has a substantial Sunni Muslim majority, it also has large minority communities—Christians, Alawites, and others—who together make up over a quarter of the population. Those communities have survived very successfully in Syria for centuries, but the present revolution is a threat to their continued existence.

Under its new Sunni rulers, minorities would likely face a fate like that in neighboring Iraq, where the Christian share of population fell from 8 percent in the 1980s to perhaps 1 percent today. In Iraq, though, persecuted believers had a place to which they could escape, namely Syria. Where would Syrian refugees go?

A month ago, that question was moot, as the Assad government was gaining the upper hand over the rebels. At worst, it seemed, the regime could hold on to a rump state in Syria’s west, a refuge for Alawites, Christians, and others. And then came the alleged gas attack, and the overheated U.S. response.

So here is the nightmare. If the U.S., France, and some miscellaneous allies strike at the regime, they could conceivably so weaken it that it would collapse. Out of the ruins would emerge a radically anti-Western regime, which would kill or expel several million Christians and Alawites. This would be a political, religious, and humanitarian catastrophe unparalleled since the Armenian genocide almost exactly a century ago.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/syrias-christians-risk-eradication/

Click to expand...

onus said:

Its amazing to me how the world, including America, is turning a blind eye to the mass slaughter of Christians around the world by Muslims.

The left in America was outraged over Russians recent "anti-gay" policies but the left sure isn't outraged over Muslims killing Christians everyday around the world.

Click to expand...

eye95 said:

katdung is a troll who does nothing but drive by, defecate his tin-foil encased conspiracy turds on us, and leave.

If he had half a brain, he'd engage us on stuff we care about (I dunno, OC?), and then some here might actually read some of his bilge.

Click to expand...

EMNofSeattle said:

reported for spam, this same comments been posted on numerous threads.

Click to expand...

beebobby said:

What would you have America do?

Click to expand...