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offsite link News Round-Up Wed Dec 25, 2024 00:32 | Richard Eldred
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offsite link Starmer Doesn?t Have a Feel for Politics and His Team Lacks the Skills to Run the Country, Says Vete... Tue Dec 24, 2024 19:00 | Will Jones
Keir Starmer "doesn?t have a feel" for the Labour Party or politics in general and his team lacks the skills to run the country, veteran Labour MP?Diane Abbott?has said.
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offsite link Church of England Tells Clergy to Edit Christmas Carols to ?Avoid Unnecessary Offence? Tue Dec 24, 2024 18:00 | Will Jones
The Church of England has told clergy in Birmingham to watch out for "problematic words" in Christmas carols that imply Jesus is the "true Messiah" or other religions aren't valid. And they wonder why the pews are empty.
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offsite link Best-Selling Hybrids Face Net Zero Ban From 2030 Tue Dec 24, 2024 15:42 | Will Jones
Some of Britain?s best-selling hybrid cars will be banned from sale after 2030 under a?Net Zero crackdown?proposed by Ministers, including the mild hybrid versions of the Ford Puma, Range Rover Evoque and VW Golf.
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offsite link Experts Call For Return of Lockdown-Style Social Distancing as Flu Surges, Claiming ?a Fifth of Thos... Tue Dec 24, 2024 13:46 | Will Jones
Experts?have issued an urgent call for lockdown-style social distancing ahead of Christmas Day amid surging flu infections, claiming that a fifth of those infected have no symptoms but can spread it.
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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en

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offsite link How Washington and Ankara Changed the Regime in Damascus , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 17, 2024 06:58 | en

offsite link Statement by President Bashar al-Assad on the Circumstances Leading to his Depar... Mon Dec 16, 2024 13:26 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?112 Fri Dec 13, 2024 15:34 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Minority Christians fear fall of Assad could usher in Sunni tyranny

category international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press author Thursday September 29, 2011 12:49author by pat c Report this post to the editors

An interesting article about the genuine and well founded fears of the Christian community in Syria. The possibility of a sectarian bloodbath is all too real. Just look at the example of Iraq. Also look at the Irish example: when loyalist demagogues in the six counties were rousing up Protestants against Catholics they also made sure that Protestant Socialists suffered in the pogroms. The same threat hangs over Syria.

This is not a statement of support for Assad rather a reminder that if Assad goes and power falls into the hands of fundamentalists there is a risk of sectarian butchery.

Christians in Syria are afraid that if President Assad is ousted, it would spark sectarian bloodshed, a SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT writes in Saydnaya, Syria

ABU ELIAS sat beneath the towering stairs leading from the convent of Our Lady of Saydnaya, a church high up in the mountains outside Damascus, where Christians have worshipped for 1,400 years.

“We are all scared of what will come next,” he said, turning to a man seated beside him, Robert, an Iraqi refugee who escaped the sectarian strife in his homeland.

“He fled Iraq and came here,” said Abu Elias, looking at his friend, who arrived just a year earlier. “Soon, we might find ourselves doing the same.”

Syria plunges deeper into unrest by the day. On Tuesday, government troops attacked the rebellious town of Rastan with tanks and machine guns, wounding at least 20 people. With the chaos growing, Christians visiting Saydnaya on a recent Sunday said they feared a change of power could usher in a tyranny of the Sunni Muslim majority, depriving them of the semblance of protection the Assad family has provided for four decades.

Syria’s Christian minority is sizable, estimated at about 10 per cent of the population, although some say the share is actually lower these days. Although their sentiments are by no means monolithic – Christians are represented in the opposition and loyalty to the government is often driven more by fear than fervour – the group’s fear helps explain how President Bashar al-Assad has held onto segments of his constituency, in spite of a brutal crackdown aimed at crushing a popular uprising.

For many Syrian Christians, Assad remains predictable in a region where unpredictability has driven their brethren from Iraq and Lebanon and where others have felt threatened in post-revolutionary Egypt.

They fear that in the event that the president falls they might be subjected to reprisals at the hands of a conservative Sunni leadership for what it would see as Christian support of the Assad family. They worry that the struggle to dislodge Assad could turn into a civil war, unleashing sectarian bloodshed in a country where minorities, ethnic and religious, have for the most part found a way to co-exist.

The anxiety is so deep that many ignore the opposition’s counter argument: that the government has actually made divisions worse as part of a strategy to ensure the rule of the Assad family, which itself springs from a Muslim minority, the Alawites.

“I am intrigued by your calls for freedom and for overthrowing the regime,” wrote a Syrian Christian woman on her Facebook page, addressing Christian female protesters. “What does freedom mean? Every one of you does what she wants and is free to say what she wants. Do you think if the regime falls (God forbid) you will gain freedom? Then, each one of you will be locked in her house, lamenting those days.”

Related Link: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0929/1224304933925.html
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