The Problem for Christians in Syria

May 25, 2012 By

If you have not been hiding under a rock, you will have noticed that a lot of bad things have been going down in Syria in the last year. Lots of innocent persons killed, lots of mayhem and destruction. Most of it inflicted by governmental forces of President Bashar Assad. One of the great neglected subjects when it comes to American media coverage (see the article in U.S.A. Today May 11 by Stephen Starr, however, which is an exception), is the plight of Christians. Also MIA in American media coverage is an explanation of who exactly the resistance fighters are in Syria. As it turns out, some of them are Al Queda partisans who want a more radical Islam in control of that nation, though some of them are simply radicalized ordinary Muslims who have been harmed by the current regime. It’s a mixed and mixed up situation, and it’s complex.

In the case of the Christians in Syria, a few facts are in order. At the beginning of the ‘Arab spring’ uprising when it reached Syria, there was a chant amongst the revolutionaries—’Christians to Beirut, Alawites (i.e. the Assad clan) to the coffin’. In other words, the revolution was religious in character to a real degree, and one of its goals was driving Christians right out of the country.

In light of this, and partly because of this we have an explanation for the second fact— Christians in Syria tend to support Assad, and Assad in turn has protected various Christian groups and churches from radical Muslims. Of course, of this fact you hear nothing on the American news. A third fact is important. Christians in Syria know their fate will always be determined by the Muslim majority. But what sort of Muslims do they want in power? Obviously those who are tolerant of Christians and don’t try to drive them into the sea.

Thus it is, that while President Assad will not soon be winning any Nobel Peace Prize Awards, and there are many reasons to critique his regime on various issues, the Christians in Syria continue to support the current status quo. While Christians there do believe democracy would be the best of all possible worlds, they do not think they live in such a world at this juncture, and see no prospect of that yet to come, especially when they see what has happened in Egypt or Libya since the Arab spring.

While I do not know this to be the case with certainty, it is presumably in part because of the plight of Christians in Syria that we have not aided the rebels in that country unlike what we did in Libya to get rid of Qaddafi. Here again we have an important reminder that blind support by Americans for either this Muslim regime or that Israeli regime in the Middle East often comes at the expense of Christians. In the Holy Land, it comes at the expense of Palestinian Christians in places like east Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth. In Syria it comes at the expense of Christians in places like Damascus or Homs. Christians have been leaving the Middle East in droves for the last five decades for a good reason….. they have been caught between a rock and a hard place again and again, and America has never really come to the rescue of these Christians in any of these countries. Never. And it is shameful.

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  • npk

    Sure…i thought long back when one of the head of Christian community went to Assad and assured his support…he brought wrath to the Christian Community…how will a person know who will rule the country next? In Bible it’s written that we need to pray for our higher authorities…if they do wrong where in Bible its written that we need to support him?..Poor Christians…this will happen and they have to suffer.

  • David Weinschrott

    As in most things – Mideast: there are no good answers – only competing levels of bad answers. In the best of times we act (publicly via the nation’s foreign policy) in our country’s strategic interest – assuming one can figure that out and depending on your foreign policy orientation. Qaddafi was a long time madman that sits astride oil and for a while nuclear technology. Moreover he is isolated – not tied to Iran and we had NATO support of sorts. All this adds up to a basis for intervention. In Assad we have just a madman, no oil and a contrary and confused tie to Iran. What side would we take – publicly. I don’t know what, if anything, we are or could do in the background. It is shameful that Christians are so badly treated – how should we as brothers come to their aid – as Paul might have asked: how can we (the church in the west if not official policy) make up their lack out of our sufficiency? Even in Israel, it seems, many evangelicals support public policies that continue to demean and marginalize Christian Arabs because it is thought that Israel today somehow represents the tripwire of the eschaton.

  • Brian Small

    To further your point, Christians in Iraq are facing greater persecution now than under the regime of Saddam Hussein.

  • Patrick

    I think there are some good answers.

    #1) Christians here need to care more for Christ and His people than US foreign policy.

    IF we had, we would not have invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein was great to the Christians. The current government is not as partial to Christians and the chaos has given the terrorists opportunities they never had to persecute Christians in Iraq.

    #2 ) The Alawite regime in Syria has always protected Christians. When it comes to Christians being persecuted in Syria, it is the opposition who are harming and threatening believers in Syria, NOT Assad. Chaos will unleash terror on the Syrian Church.

    #3 ) Christians would be wise to care more for their Christian Arab brothers in Palestine than whether or not Jews get to rule Palestine. The Arab Christians are our brothers and sisters and we belong to each other.

  • Alan (from Ireland)

    Right now there are so many lies and deceptions in the western media coverage of Syria. Thanking you for providing this honest view point.

  • Mike

    The Alawites have always been a risky bet. They are a minority that has controlled the country through force and terror and, as with all such rulers, their position is unstable. The same will be true for the next group to rule Syria. Nothing will change till this country changes which is less likely as they drive out the Christians.

  • Sally D

    I know it’s easy to say when you’re not the ones being threatened with being driven out. But if Christians are supporting the ghastly, bloodstained Assad regime because it’s in their own partisan interests, how can they be salt and light in that sad, increasingly devastated land? In what sense are they “Christian”?

    We should be careful not to confuse the Christianity that represents living faith, the faith of the apostles, saints and martyrs, with a Christianity which is little more than a cultural marker or a tradition. The same problem arose in Lebanon, here in Southern Africa in colonial times, and also in Northern Ireland. In fact, everywhere that “Christians” have exchanged the Gospel of Christ for a form of exclusive social bond that inevitably presented the narrow interests of a particular group as being the will of God for everyone else.

    I had the impression that the main thing tying the hands of the international community in Syria, is the general instability of the region and in particular the proximity of the Assad regime to Iran. I also wonder what ordinary Iranians feel when they see this terrible news, night after night, from Syria and know that their Government sides with the tyrants in their name….

    Egypt may be similar to Syria in some ways but without the Sunni/Shi’ite conflict. About the same proportion of Christians in the population? But there, the Army would not fire on the people as Assad’s troops have been doing. Libya is very different – there are few Christians in Libya, probably even less since the Revolution drove migrant workers out. Previously, relations between Christians and Muslims were good in Libya, I’m not sure about now. There was at one point, some warmth towards the West because of the role played by NATO in defeating the tyrant Gaddaffi and his rapacious clan, but it may not have lasted and in any case might not extend to Christian minorities resident in Libya. After watching them fight for every inch of their freedom, I have a great respect for the Libyans and hope that they will achieve a democracy where all can live together in peace.

    It is such a tragedy that secular Governments in the Middle East, though often promoting religious tolerance to some extent, have been so repressive, greedy and corrupt. Ordinary people see Islam as a purifying force, secularism as identified with corruption and oppression, and other religions as anti-Islamic. Too often, Western Governments turned a blind eye to the gross human rights abuse, because it suited their interests to have strong and pro-Western people in charge. Now the innocent, both Muslim and Christian, pay the price.

  • http://www.recession911.com Constantine B

    My response to Sally D is this. You have made a very common error in you opinion stated as fact. You said, “We should be careful not to confuse the Christianity that represents living faith, the faith of the apostles, saints and martyrs, with a Christianity which is little more than a cultural marker or a tradition.” How do you know if these Christians area any less Christian than you? How to you know that The Orthodox Church is less Christian than say Baptists? Is it because you have never experienced a true Christian Worship service as the Apostles knew (The Divine Liturgy, given to use by Christ and a historical fact, unless history is a mute point here). Is your marginalization of you brothers and sisters in Christ based on your own private interpretation of what Church, Divine Worship, and really what does or doesn’t make a community Christian?

    I get very offended by the lack of critical thinking, common sense, and a real laziness in doing personal research. Unless you live there and understand that part of the world, you need to make sure you do you homework, especially with you marginalization of those YOU deem less than Christian because of your noetic challenge of Church history.

  • Rhinestone Suderman

    Yes, I know, Constantine.

    One does get tired of this, “Oh, those third world Christians aren’t real Christians!” attitude. (The unspoken assumption being that “Real” Christians are, of course, all Westerners—preferrably “Murricans”—who approve of Islam as a “Purifying force”, and who are properly tolerant, compassionate, liberal, blah, blah, blah, unlike those narsty third-world pretend Christians.)

    You know something, Sally D.? You’re not the one threatened with being killed, tortured for your faith or driven out of your homeland—so maybe you should try studying history, and the current world situation a bit more, before you start pontificating about what other Christians should, and shouldn’t do. As for Islam being seen as a liberating, pure ideology—Give. Me. A Break. The Arab spring turned into winter; Saddam, Qaddafi, assad, etc. were, and are, bad buys—but do you really think the Islamists will be an improvement? Have you not been following what’s been going on in Indonesia? Darfur? The Philippines?