Bitter Split Among Syria's Christians Over Loyalty to Assad

Hudson Inst. ^ | Apr 2018 | Lela Gilbert

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Since 2011, a devastating civil war has pitted Syrian, Russian, and Iranian armies against Sunni jihadis. Turkey has often weighed in as well.

The Syrian conflict has also turned Christians against Christians.

Some of Syria’s Christians persistently defend Bashar Assad as their lifelong protector. Others believe he is not only a ruthless dictator, but a pawn of Iran — the radical Islamist Revolutionary Shiite regime that has no place for Christians in its ideology.

Historically, both tyrannical kings and modern dictators have used Christian minorities as useful instruments in their political toolbox. Notably, Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq long included Tarik Aziz — a Christian who served as foreign minister, deputy prime minister, and was a close adviser to Saddam.

And indeed, even in Saddam’s brutal regime, most Christians lived in relative peace and enjoyed a modicum of protection.

I asked my colleague Nina Shea, the director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Hudson Institute, for her thoughts.

“Assad’s big attraction for a portion of Syria’s Christian population is that he is a secularist who does not force them to ‘convert to Islam or die.'

“These Christians are not free to criticize his dictatorship. And, in the face of an existential threat from the jihadists, many are willfully blind to his atrocities...

Syria’s Christians are in an untenable position and, since 2011, two-thirds of them have reportedly fled.”

[PGR88]

The die were cast by American Governments against Christians in majority Muslim lands as early as Kissinger and Nixon, but really picked up speed with Clinton, and then bottom completely dropped out with Bush and Obama.