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  • Civil war leaves Syrian minorities stuck between brutal regime and f

    The Province, BC, Canada
    March 8 2013



    Civil war leaves Syrian minorities stuck between brutal regime and
    fears of rebel Islamism

    By Ben Hubbard And Steve Negus, The Associated Press


    Photo:
    In this Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 photo, broken glass over a religious
    mosaic, is seen on the top of a church that was damaged by mortars, at
    the Christian village of Judeida, in Idlib province, Syria. Yacobiyeh
    and its neighbors, Judeida and Quniya, are some of the first Christian
    villages to be taken by the rebel Syrian Army. The rebels stormed
    these hilltop villages in late January, after the army used it as a
    base to shell nearby rebel-controlled areas. The villages are largely
    empty due to the fighting, with a few mostly elderly Christians --
    including Roman Catholics and Armenian Orthodox _ living among Sunni
    Muslim refugees who have moved up here from the plains. They still
    face sporadic artillery bombardment from below. (AP Photo/Hussein
    Malla)

    YACOUBIYEH, Syria - During the battle over this hilltop village in
    northern Syria, many of its residents fled, leaving behind empty
    homes, damaged churches and a large statue of the Virgin Mary in the
    deserted town square - all relics of its Christian population.

    Now Yacoubiyeh is one of the few minority-dominated communities
    captured by Syria's rebels in the country's nearly 2-year-old
    uprising, making it a key gauge of how the opposition fighters mainly
    from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority deal with the country's broad
    patchwork of religious and ethnic minorities.

    The Muslim commander of the local rebel garrison appears to be trying
    to allay any fears among the around 2,500 Christian residents who
    remain in the village since the fighting in January, saying he won't
    impinge on anyone's rights. But, like many rebel leaders now in charge
    of Syrian villages, he is making decisions according to a version of
    Islamic law that, though not strict, Christians could find
    constrictive.

    "To each his freedoms," said the commander, who goes by the nom de
    guerre Hakim, suggesting that Christians could drink alcohol in their
    homes, but not in public. "Personal freedom stops where the freedom of
    others begins."

    As the regime of President Bashar Assad battles a rebellion capturing
    increasing swaths of the country, the old order that governed
    relations between the country's myriad sects and ethnicities is
    fraying.

    Many of Syria's minorities find themselves stuck in the middle, unsure
    which side poses the greatest danger. While outraged by the regime's
    brutal efforts to quash the opposition, many find equally frightening
    the Islamist rhetoric of many rebels, and their heavy reliance on
    extremist fighters.

    Christians, one of the largest religious minorities at about 10 per
    cent of Syria's 23 million people, have tried to stay on the
    sidelines. However, the opposition's increasingly outspoken Islamism
    has kept many leaning toward the regime.

    "I am not convinced that these people want freedom and democracy,"
    said Fadi, a Christian civil engineer from Damascus, voicing a common
    view that the rebels are led by extremists. "I sympathized with them
    at the start, but after all the destruction, killing and kidnapping, I
    prefer Bashar Assad."

    Like other Syrians interviewed for this article, he spoke on condition
    that only his first name be published for fear of retribution.

    Syria's population hails from a mix of ethnic and religious groups, a
    diversity reflecting their position at the crossroads of the Levant.

    Some three-fourths of Syrians are Sunni Muslims, but the country is
    also home to other Muslim groups like Shiites, Druze and Alawites, as
    well as Christians and ethnic communities of Kurds, Armenians and
    others.

    All coexisted with varying degrees of ease under Assad's regime,
    founded more than four decades ago by his father, Hafez, and inherited
    by Bashar in 2000. The Assad family is Alawite, a Shiite offshoot sect
    that makes up about 13 per cent of the population, and the community
    is the backbone of his regime, holding many senior posts. But the
    Assads also made sure to bring Sunnis and members of other groups into
    some prominent positions in the government and military, and let them
    carve out lucrative sectors of trade.

    But the uprising against Bashar Assad's rule that began in March 2011
    quickly became an outlet for long-suppressed grievances, mostly by
    poor Sunnis from marginalized areas. It has since escalated into an
    outright civil war.

    So far, rebels have mainly taken control in Sunni majority areas.
    There, most commanders do not appear to be aggressively imposing
    religious puritanism, as insurgents in Afghanistan or Iraq have.
    Still, they fall back on Islamic law as the default way of resolving
    disputes and keeping order.

    Sectarian violence is increasingly common. Recent weeks have seen
    clashes between Sunni and Shiite villages in central Syria, hundreds
    of sectarian kidnappings in the north and damage to Christian and
    Shiite religious sites after their capture by rebels.

    Many rebels increasingly describe their cause in religious terms.
    Calls for freedom have been replaced by chants declaring Islam's
    Prophet Muhammad "our leader forever." Online videos have shown rebels
    smashing truckloads of alcohol bottles and mocking executed government
    soldiers as "rafideen," a derogatory term for Shiites and Alawites.
    Many hardline Sunnis consider Shiites infidels.

    In Taftanaz, a Sunni town near two government-held Shiite enclaves in
    a rebel-dominated region, graffiti on a wall shows an ayatollah with a
    Grim Reaper's head, labeled "The Truth of Shiism."

    Further stoking minority fears, Islamic extremists have risen in the
    rebel ranks. Jabhat al-Nusra, which the United States considers a
    terrorist group, has been at the forefront of most recent rebel
    victories.

    Activists from minority sects who support the uprising have found
    themselves sidelined, sometimes by both the opposition and their own
    communities.

    An activist from the city of Salamiyeh, where most residents belong to
    the Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam, said he had been organizing and
    filming anti-regime protests since early in the uprising but found
    that rebel websites preferred videos featuring the black flags
    associated with militant Sunni Islam.

    Instead of joining the armed opposition, he and other activists struck
    deals with local officials to allow protests as long as they remained
    peaceful, he said. That worked well until Jan. 22, when a bomb attack
    on a carpet factory killed 36 people. Two weeks later, a second blast
    struck a military factory nearby, killing some 50 Salamiyeh residents,
    he said.

    Jabhat al-Nusra claimed the first bombing, though many suspected that
    the regime planned the bombings to turn the Ismailis against the
    uprising. Indeed, many residents blamed the local activists for
    bringing the war to what had been a peaceful city, he said.

    The activist still supports the uprising. But, he said, "I'm afraid
    that in the future we could get rid of Alawite dictatorship and get a
    Sunni dictatorship." He spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of
    retribution.

    The Kurds, Syria's largest ethnic minority, have tried to use the
    security vacuum to increase their independence, often clashing with
    rebels who seek to "liberate" their areas.

    The opposition's political leadership, the Syrian National Coalition,
    has failed to build ties with minorities. It has few minority members,
    and those it does have are not considered leaders in their
    communities. The group also has no control over fighters on the
    ground.

    "To Syria's Christians, Assad is no saviour, but he is seen by many as
    the gatekeeper holding back the floodwaters of sectarian retribution
    and religious persecution by Sunni militants," said Ramzy Mardini,
    Middle East analyst at the Jamestown Foundation.

    "For minorities, life after Assad looks gloomier and the political
    opposition is neither strong nor credible enough to make any genuine
    reassurances to them," he said.

    Rebels moved in to capture Yacoubiyeh and two neighbouring villages,
    Judeida and Quniya - which together are home to several thousand
    Christians - in part because regime forces were shelling rebel-held
    areas from the communities. Those who fled appear to have done so
    mainly to escape the battle, though worries over the approaching
    rebels may have played a role.

    Last month, residents met with Muslim clerics to discuss the status of
    Christians under the Islamic courts that rebels have organized. One
    villager said he didn't want to be a "dhimmi" - a second-class citizen
    under Islamic law - but a Syrian with equal rights, said Mouaz
    Moustafa of the Washington-based Syrian Emergency Task Force, who
    organized the meeting.

    The clerics responded that the courts were a "service" they provide in
    the absence of any other government, Moustafa said. They said stricter
    Shariah punishments, like amputation of hands and stoning, have been
    suspended during wartime, and the courts would try to enlist civil
    judges to partner with the clerics. Democratic elections after the
    regime's fall, the clerics said, would ultimately determine the laws.

    Analyst Yezid Sayigh of the Carnegie Middle East Center cautioned
    against assuming that all members of sectarian groups think alike.
    Even among Sunnis and Alawites, there is a range of views: Many want
    what they see as best for Syria not just for their own sect - whether
    that means Assad or the rebellion. It is also premature to talk of a
    Sunni takeover in Syria, he said, noting that many Sunnis don't follow
    the extreme views held by some rebel fighters.

    What is more likely, he said, is national fragmentation that leaves no
    structure able to handle tasks like rebuilding the economy and
    repatriating refugees.

    "These are going to be massive issues," he said.

    ____

    Hubbard reported from Beirut. A Syrian reporter in Damascus, Syria,
    contributed reporting.

    http://www.theprovince.com/news/Civil+leaves+Syrian+minorities+stuck+between+bruta l+regime/8063178/story.html




    From: A. Papazian
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