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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53549
"Christians flee Iraq, find Syria 'ruthless'
Ministries say believers have no Mideast refuge"
Posted: December 29, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Christians may be fleeing war-torn Iraq and the fighting Islamic factions there to Syria, but that nation also holds "ruthless" positions against Christianity which range from life in prison for talking about your beliefs to death for a Muslim who converts, according to a ministries working there.
"It's better than Iraq, but it's no bed of roses there for sure," Jim Jacobson, president of Christian Freedom International, told WND. "The Christians (there) are stuck between a rock and a hard place."
While Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Iran and other Middle East nations are well-known for persecuting Christians, Syria's actions are of a lower profile. But it is listed among those nations around the world that persecute Christians by everyone from Jacobson's organization to the U.S. government.
In Syria, the constitution requires the president to be a Muslim and specifies that Islamic jurisprudence is a principal source of legislation. And sharing your Christian faith with someone – anyone – is discouraged as "posing a threat to the relations among religious groups" and carries a penalty of up to life in prison, he said.
"For Christians, one of the core tenets is the ability to share your faith, but in Syria that can lead to arrest (and) persecution," Jacobson said. "We list Syria as one of the top … countries where Christians are facing real persecution.""