Syria's minorities drawn into conflict

As the fighting in Syria intensifies and grows more sectarian in nature, a journalist in Damascus tells how the country's many ethnic and religious minorities are being drawn into the conflict.

One evening in Bab Touma, a Christian area in the Old City of Damascus, Abu George had to wait all night at the front door of his house waiting for his son to come back.

"It was a crazy night. There was a lot of shooting going on in the area," the 60 year old says. "My son went out, as he wanted to join the fight. He is a teenager and I can't control him."

Over the past few weeks, there has been rising concern within the capital's Christian community about its young men joining the fight against President Bashar al-Assad's opponents.

Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote They were told Salafists were coming to kill them” End Quote Priest in Bab Touma "The young, unemployed Christians in Damascus responded to regime appeals to take up arms to defend themselves," says a local priest.

"They were told Salafists were coming to kill them," a reference to ultraconservative Sunni Islamists who are a growing influence on Syria's uprising.

"The regime is trying to inflame sectarianism and get the Christians involved in the battle."

This is a slyly written article, attempting to spin the story. An alternative headline might be "Syrian Christians Fighting for their Lives." But no - we are being told that the Saudi backed rebels in Syria are really nice guys. If the Christians feel threatened by them, then they must be duped. Those Christians in Syria, they would not be able to read the situation for themselves - of course not.

The problem here is with the unconcious and never-examined assumption of those in the West that majority rule and freedom, in the sense of individual/minority rights, inherently go together.

The Assad dynasty is a member of a rather smallish minority in Syria. His oppressive rule by definition is most oppressive to those who threaten it, obviously the Sunni majority. So it lays less harshly on the various minority groups: Shia, Druze, Kurds, Christians.

The majority, reasonably and accurately enough, sees this as the Assad being on “their side,” and by extension the miniroties as supporting Assad. Not being idiots and well aware of this dynamic, it is entirely possible many of the minority group members actually have supported Assad. So when Assad goes and the majority gains power, you can expect bad things to result for the minorities, as they did in Iran, Iraq and Egypt. “Kill the traitors!” has always been a popular song.

This happens in just about every third world toilet where a dictatorship is replaced, even briefly, by something resembling democracy, but the media is surprised by it every time.

This is a slyly written article, attempting to spin the story.

"They were told Salafists were coming to kill [the Christians],"

Could this be because, in fact, the Salafists Sunni Islamists were coming to kill the Christians?

Oh no, apparently not. Why there is a spokesperson quoted right there in that article, saying that the rebels have no sectarian agenda.

In other forums, the same rebels state that they wish to impose Sharia law and get rid of all non-believers from Syria. But I suppose that must be a joke!

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