Syrian Christians are likely to pay the price of Massacres

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The international community has condemned the massacre of dozens of women and children in Houla, Syria by pro- government forces.

But as I learned on my visit to Lebanon – to which many Syrian activists and refugees have fled – there’s a growing danger that atrocities like Houla will spark reprisal killings. Those minorities, including Syrian Christian (ten per cent of the population) who are seen as supportive of President Bashar Assad’s regime, are at particular risk.

I traveled over a winding mountain road to this Lebanese Christian town in the Bekaa Valley, not far from the Syrian border, where the Catholic charity Caritas, is helping Syrian Catholics who have fled the fighting in the Homs region. Figures are hard to come by, and many rural Christians are fleeing to relatives in Damascus, but Caritas has had 14 new cases in the last two weeks.

Mira Shalzhanian, a Caritas caseworker, told me that frightened families come walking across the border, mostly from mixed villages such as Qusayr, that are part of Homs province, and have a majority of Sunnis and a minority of Christians; often the refugees walk across the border with little but some clothes.

“All the Christians are coming from Qusayr because they are with the regime and they are scared,” Shalzhanian said. “President Bashar (Assad) was protecting them.”

What she meant was that, as a member of a minority (Alawite Shiite) sect, which has controlled the country for forty years, Assad has looked favorably on members of the Christian minority. They, in turn, saw the regime as a safeguard against any threat of Muslim fundamentalism, or an uncertain future under any post-revolution government.

But the number of atrocities perpetrated by Assad’s Alawite forces and militias against rebellious Sunnis is rising, and the Sunnis’ desire for revenge against his supporters is likely to grow. Houla villagers, all Sunnis, had the misfortune to live on a faultline near rural Alawite villages, and the killers are believed to be Alawite militiamen.

If Sunnis were seeking revenge for the killing of their civilians, their main target would be Alawites, but Christians could also be targeted because they are seen as supporters of Assad.

That’s why an extended family of Syrian Greek Catholics whom I visited decided to flee their homes.

This extended family of farmers and government employees were so fearful they ask me not to describe their jobs, use their names, or take photos. Several small children ran in and out of the bare two rooms they had rented, which were furnished only with sleeping mats and a couple of cots.

Their family residence in Qusayr was caught in a cross fire between rebels and the army, which was a major reason they left. But what finally drove them to flee was the kidnapping of Christians; several relatives were taken by masked men, some of whom had local accents, others not. One relative was killed and others were tortured by beatings with wooden sticks from which nails protruded.

The survivors were told they’d been taken because they were Christians and not with the revolution. No one can be certain whether the kidnappers were revenge-seekers, or simply thugs taking advantage of the chaos. In revolutionary times, criminals often masquerade as patriots.

“We hope we can go back, but we don’t know the situation” said one young mother of four, as drank coffee, the only thing they could offer.“ By next month the family will run out of money, and jobs are hard to find in Zahle. But if the Assad regime keeps encouraging massacres like the one in Houla, Syrian Christians are likely to pay the price.

philly

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29 responses to “Syrian Christians are likely to pay the price of Massacres”

  1. Hannibal Avatar
    Hannibal

    Here is a thought send all the Shia and Alaouites to Iraq… All the Sunnis to Syria… and all the Christians to Lebanon… and finish with it.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Gee Hannibal .. you’re dreaming again. 😉 You looking for the perfect solution or something?
      I thought the French tried that once …

      1. Hannibal Avatar
        Hannibal

        The French are wise… he he

      2. MeYosemite Avatar
        MeYosemite

        If the french tried it and failed I guess we are done for. Sometimes I wonder if they runaway not having to deal with it. I presume foreign occupations measure their success as the ratio of problems to the occupation surface area. Probably in Lebanon the ratio went off the chart.
        During the civil war I wondered why the US never invaded Lebanon. But I know on many occasions the sixth fleet shot the Syrian artillery when they were bombing Beirut. It was a great relief and we drunk to it as the Syrians bombing will go quiet afterwards.

    2. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Gee Hannibal .. you’re dreaming again. 😉 You looking for the perfect solution or something?
      I thought the French tried that once …

    3. dateam Avatar

      who says thats not what they want to do? maybe not to that extent? i read an article once that said palestinians to lebanon south,sunnis get lebanon, and christians relocate to france,canada,usa and australia??????

      1. Hannibal Avatar
        Hannibal

        They already left… Christians from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have been leaving for better life for a while now. The Mid-East without Christians is a pile of SHIT! Let them swim in it. Bunch of backwardly stupid nomads.

        1. dateam Avatar

          humour me for a minute here….look what has transpired and this is just a thought…..tunisia i believe genuine…..yemen genuine but too strategic to lose for west and saudia arabia….egypt unexpected especially being such an american and saudi ally…has been hijacked by brotherhood and now ex mubarak group trying to maintain power along with army….a spate of coptic muslim incidents to keep the world on notice…depending how elections go these incidents will spark up again….libya they allowed it to happen yet all sunni and all killing each other….bahrain i believe genuine they made itt sectarian in order to make it political nothing will come of it because too many usa and saudi interests their….syria it was innevitable that it would reach their after the other countries….assad would have had no choice but to sit down with his people and reform…there is a genuine opposition their who are against arms and foreign intervention….ask yourselves why in such a short period of time it became armed unlike the rest of the revolts??? why are all the above tyrants now? were they not tyrants before? when the world was funding all these regimes and doing business with them hugging and smiling with them were they not tyrrants? how many times did mubarak stand with usa presidents and european leaders and speak of democracy and how we should be? even telling us lebanese how we should be in when inspite of all our differences and disagreements we are still the most democratic country in the middle east even more democratic that israel? these tyrants NOW  who used to hypocritaclly preach democracy play the sectarian line when it suits them and turn us on one another yet saudia arabia supports saleh who is a zaidi which is shia ???? who play the sectarian lines on us yet these so called sunni leaders who are now tyrants have watched their fellow breatheren in palestine for 70 years and done absolutely nothing for them? who preach to us how to be yet leave their sunni breatheren in refugee camps all over the arab world? who have preachers preaching hate in the mosques kill shia and drive out the christians from the middle east and holy lands? YET  i dont see any christians in palestinian refugee camps? and i only here iran and hezbollah and syrians voice and support the palestinian cause? we live in a world that is bought and sold on the cheap and that is how how the arabs have always been…the west knows how weak we are as a PEOPLE …they have labelled us and we in turn label ourselves…..we claim causes to benefit certain agendas…..my point is they have us where they want….always to the sectarian lines….it is so embedded in us now that we have made life easy for them…israel is cheering…egypt will begin turning on itself…..israel will claim sinai has become a threat and retake it….they will end up splitting it between the coptics and muslims as they have done with sudan ( bashir was wanted for war crimes but they end up giving him half a country….they give the oil fields in the south to the christians and the north to the muslims however the oil needs to pass thru the north hence they maintain a permanent arena for conflict)….syria will eventually besplit up and unfortunately lebanon included along sectarian lines only they want to leave us to battle it out for them on the ground and when we finish pounding each other for 20 years like last time and we say stop after 500000 people have been killed they will call us in to draw maps up for us….just a thought….god bless all

      2. Hannibal Avatar
        Hannibal

        That is why my formula works… Give every sect a country since we are incapable to go beyond that… Just leave Lebanon for the Christians. he he and watch the Christians kill each others and the Sunnis and Shiites as well… Everyone loves conflict regardless…

        1. MeYosemite Avatar
          MeYosemite

          You will end up with Sudan 2. They will invade each other on basis of historical rights.

    4. bs244846 Avatar
      bs244846

      well this is one of the american plans going on and hizbollah as well as assad are executing scrupulously; what we need is a new christian leader; the moron aoun and the maffiosi criminal geagea do not represent the christians; i think all the countries of the middle east will be subdivided and lands will be redistributed on basis of religion……. i still believe that our ennemy is saoudi arabia and the sunna and that druze alawis and shia’s are minorities like us and have one common ennemy with us: the sunna. Israel is now stupidly allying itself with saoudi arabia for money…… one last word: christians will pay the price in syria whatever happens if muslum brotherhood comes to power; i certainly do not believe the regime in syria is so stupid to commit such a massacre which will help nobody except a bad propaganda

  2. Here is a thought send all the Shia and Alaouites to Iraq… All the Sunnis to Syria… and all the Christians to Lebanon… and finish with it.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Gee Hannibal .. you’re dreaming again. 😉 You looking for the perfect solution or something?

      1. The French are wise… he he

      2. MeYosemite Avatar
        MeYosemite

        If the french tried it and failed I guess we are done for. Sometimes I wonder if they runaway not having to deal with it. I presume foreign occupations measure their success as the ratio of problems to the occupation surface area. Probably in Lebanon the ratio went off the chart.
        During the civil war I wondered why the US never invaded Lebanon. But I know on many occasions the sixth fleet shot the Syrian artillery when they were bombing Beirut. It was a great relief and we drunk to it as the Syrians bombing will go quiet afterwards.

    2. dateam Avatar

      who says thats not what they want to do? maybe not to that extent? i read an article once that said palestinians to lebanon south,sunnis get lebanon, and christians relocate to france,canada,usa and australia??????

      1. They already left… Christians from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have been leaving for better life for a while now. The Mid-East without Christians is a pile of SHIT! Let them swim in it. Bunch of backwardly stupid nomads.

        1. dateam Avatar

          humour me for a minute here….look what has transpired and this is just a thought…..tunisia i believe genuine…..yemen genuine but too strategic to lose for west and saudia arabia….egypt unexpected especially being such an american and saudi ally…has been hijacked by brotherhood and now ex mubarak group trying to maintain power along with army….a spate of coptic muslim incidents to keep the world on notice…depending how elections go these incidents will spark up again….libya they allowed it to happen yet all sunni and all killing each other….bahrain i believe genuine they made itt sectarian in order to make it political nothing will come of it because too many usa and saudi interests their….syria it was innevitable that it would reach their after the other countries….assad would have had no choice but to sit down with his people and reform…there is a genuine opposition their who are against arms and foreign intervention….ask yourselves why in such a short period of time it became armed unlike the rest of the revolts??? why are all the above tyrants now? were they not tyrants before? when the world was funding all these regimes and doing business with them hugging and smiling with them were they not tyrrants? how many times did mubarak stand with usa presidents and european leaders and speak of democracy and how we should be? even telling us lebanese how we should be in when inspite of all our differences and disagreements we are still the most democratic country in the middle east even more democratic that israel? these tyrants NOW  who used to hypocritaclly preach democracy play the sectarian line when it suits them and turn us on one another yet saudia arabia supports saleh who is a zaidi which is shia ???? who play the sectarian lines on us yet these so called sunni leaders who are now tyrants have watched their fellow breatheren in palestine for 70 years and done absolutely nothing for them? who preach to us how to be yet leave their sunni breatheren in refugee camps all over the arab world? who have preachers preaching hate in the mosques kill shia and drive out the christians from the middle east and holy lands? YET  i dont see any christians in palestinian refugee camps? and i only here iran and hezbollah and syrians voice and support the palestinian cause? we live in a world that is bought and sold on the cheap and that is how how the arabs have always been…the west knows how weak we are as a PEOPLE …they have labelled us and we in turn label ourselves…..we claim causes to benefit certain agendas…..my point is they have us where they want….always to the sectarian lines….it is so embedded in us now that we have made life easy for them…israel is cheering…egypt will begin turning on itself…..israel will claim sinai has become a threat and retake it….they will end up splitting it between the coptics and muslims as they have done with sudan ( bashir was wanted for war crimes but they end up giving him half a country….they give the oil fields in the south to the christians and the north to the muslims however the oil needs to pass thru the north hence they maintain a permanent arena for conflict)….syria will eventually besplit up and unfortunately lebanon included along sectarian lines only they want to leave us to battle it out for them on the ground and when we finish pounding each other for 20 years like last time and we say stop after 500000 people have been killed they will call us in to draw maps up for us….just a thought….god bless all

      2. That is why my formula works… Give every sect a country since we are incapable to go beyond that… Just leave Lebanon for the Christians. he he and watch the Christians kill each others and the Sunnis and Shiites as well… Everyone loves conflict regardless…

        1. MeYosemite Avatar
          MeYosemite

          You will end up with Sudan 2. They will invade each other on basis of historical rights.

    3. bs244846 Avatar
      bs244846

      well this is one of the american plans going on and hizbollah as well as assad are executing scrupulously; what we need is a new christian leader; the moron aoun and the maffiosi criminal geagea do not represent the christians; i think all the countries of the middle east will be subdivided and lands will be redistributed on basis of religion……. i still believe that our ennemy is saoudi arabia and the sunna and that druze alawis and shia’s are minorities like us and have one common ennemy with us: the sunna. Israel is now stupidly allying itself with saoudi arabia for money…… one last word: christians will pay the price in syria whatever happens if muslum brotherhood comes to power; i certainly do not believe the regime in syria is so stupid to commit such a massacre which will help nobody except a bad propaganda

  3. master09 Avatar
    master09

    They have been persecuted a hundred times before and is getting worse as we move from freedom, to well what ever the ME is moving forward to, or is it backwards 1600 years..

  4. master09 Avatar
    master09

    They have been persecuted a hundred times before and is getting worse as we move from freedom, to well what ever the ME is moving forward to, or is it backwards 1600 years..

  5. dateam Avatar

    the shitest people on earth are all in syria now
    youtube  slaughter slant: houla massacre sparks media blame game    we are all being manipulated we need to think logically and sensibly otherwise we will all pay the price

  6. dateam Avatar

    the shitest people on earth are all in syria now
    youtube  slaughter slant: houla massacre sparks media blame game    we are all being manipulated we need to think logically and sensibly otherwise we will all pay the price

  7. Adam Yonatan Ben Yoel Avatar
    Adam Yonatan Ben Yoel

    Arameans, the indigenous inhabitants of the area always pay the price for everyone else’s pride.

  8. Arameans, the indigenous inhabitants of the area always pay the price for everyone else’s pride.

  9. The Iranian government is the most evil in the world, and if there is to be peace in the Middle East, three things need to happen. Wipe out the Iranian leaders. Wipe out Bath Assad. Wipe out Hassan Nasrallah and HizbShai’toun. Very simple and needs to be done. Once that happens, the Iranian people will rejoice, so will the Syrian people, so will the Lebanese people and so will the Israeli people. Anyone with half a brain, who looks back on the past 35 years, clearly knows the leaders of what two countries have caused so much trouble and killed so many people, not only in the Middle East, but elsewhere? Iran and Syria, and their proxy Hizbollah. End of story.

  10. The Iranian government is the most evil in the world, and if there is to be peace in the Middle East, three things need to happen. Wipe out the Iranian leaders. Wipe out Bath Assad. Wipe out Hassan Nasrallah and HizbShai’toun. Very simple and needs to be done. Once that happens, the Iranian people will rejoice, so will the Syrian people, so will the Lebanese people and so will the Israeli people. Anyone with half a brain, who looks back on the past 35 years, clearly knows the leaders of what two countries have caused so much trouble and killed so many people, not only in the Middle East, but elsewhere? Iran and Syria, and their proxy Hizbollah. End of story.

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