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Syrian Christian leaders call on U.S. to end support for anti-Assad rebels
15:54 01.02.2014
The Swampland.time.com presents the stories told by five top Syrian
Christian leaders about the horrors their churches are experiencing at
the hands of Islamist extremists, which are biblical in their
brutality. Excerpts of the Article are presented below:
Bishop Elias Toumeh, representative of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of
Antioch and All the East, tells of the funeral he led ten days ago for
the headless body of one of his parishioners in Marmarita. Rev. Adeeb
Awad, vice moderator of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and
Lebanon, explains how the rebels blew up his church and then pointed
the finger at the regime.
Bishop Armash Nalbandian, primate of the Armenian Church of Damascus,
says he received word on Facebook from a fellow bishop in Aleppo that
two congregants were traveling when opposition fighters stopped their
bus, made them present their Armenian IDs, and then took them away.
The fighters, Nalbandian recounts, returned to the fellow passengers a
few hours later with a box, which they said were cakes. Inside were
the two Armenian heads.
The bishops' stories are difficult to independently verify, and the
war's death toll goes far beyond just Christian communities in
Syria-more than 130,000 people have been killed since the fighting
began, and at least two million others have fled the country. But they
are emerging as part of a concerted push by Syrian Christians to get
the U.S. to stop its support for rebel groups fighting Syrian
president Bashar al Assad. "The US must change its politics and must
choose the way of diplomacy and dialogue, not supporting rebels and
calling them freedom fighters," says Nalbandian.
The group is the first delegation of its kind to visit Washington
since the crisis began three years ago, and its five members represent
key different Christian communities in the country. Awad, Toumeh, and
Nalbandian were joined by Rev. Riad Jarjour, Presbyterian pastor from
Homs, and Bishop Dionysius Jean Kawak, Metropolitan of the Syrian
Orthodox Church. The Westminster Institute and Barnabas Aid, two
groups that focus on religious freedom and relief for threatened faith
communities, sponsored their trip.
Given the United States' increased support for non-terrorist rebel
groups in the wake of the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons, the
religious leaders' mission is a long shot. The bishops are asking the
United States to exert pressure on countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
and Turkey to stop supporting and sending terrorist fighters to Syria.
"The real problem is that the strong military opposition on the ground
is a foreign opposition," Awad explains, arguing that US support of
opposition groups means support for foreign terrorist fighters. "They
are the ones killing and attacking churches and clergy and nuns and
burning houses and eating human livers and hearts and cutting heads,"
Awad says.
The Syrian Christian churches are not publicly calling for outright
support of the Assad regime. Doing so would further endanger their
followers and hurt the moral component of their case, given the
regime's alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians. Instead,
they're meeting privately with law makers, diplomats and think tanks.
The bishops' stories are similar to other grim instances of violence
against Christians during the war. Christian schools in Damascus were
shelled in November. The next month, a dozen Greek Orthodox nuns were
taken from Mar Takla Monastery in Maaloula. Rebel groups abducted two
bishops near Aleppo last April. Jesuit priestPaolo Dall'Oglio, whom
TIME wrote about in 2012 when he visited the United States on a
similar lobbying trip, has been missing and feared dead since July.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/02/01/syrian-christian-leaders-call-on-u-s-to-end-support-for-anti-assad-rebels/
15:54 01.02.2014
The Swampland.time.com presents the stories told by five top Syrian
Christian leaders about the horrors their churches are experiencing at
the hands of Islamist extremists, which are biblical in their
brutality. Excerpts of the Article are presented below:
Bishop Elias Toumeh, representative of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of
Antioch and All the East, tells of the funeral he led ten days ago for
the headless body of one of his parishioners in Marmarita. Rev. Adeeb
Awad, vice moderator of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and
Lebanon, explains how the rebels blew up his church and then pointed
the finger at the regime.
Bishop Armash Nalbandian, primate of the Armenian Church of Damascus,
says he received word on Facebook from a fellow bishop in Aleppo that
two congregants were traveling when opposition fighters stopped their
bus, made them present their Armenian IDs, and then took them away.
The fighters, Nalbandian recounts, returned to the fellow passengers a
few hours later with a box, which they said were cakes. Inside were
the two Armenian heads.
The bishops' stories are difficult to independently verify, and the
war's death toll goes far beyond just Christian communities in
Syria-more than 130,000 people have been killed since the fighting
began, and at least two million others have fled the country. But they
are emerging as part of a concerted push by Syrian Christians to get
the U.S. to stop its support for rebel groups fighting Syrian
president Bashar al Assad. "The US must change its politics and must
choose the way of diplomacy and dialogue, not supporting rebels and
calling them freedom fighters," says Nalbandian.
The group is the first delegation of its kind to visit Washington
since the crisis began three years ago, and its five members represent
key different Christian communities in the country. Awad, Toumeh, and
Nalbandian were joined by Rev. Riad Jarjour, Presbyterian pastor from
Homs, and Bishop Dionysius Jean Kawak, Metropolitan of the Syrian
Orthodox Church. The Westminster Institute and Barnabas Aid, two
groups that focus on religious freedom and relief for threatened faith
communities, sponsored their trip.
Given the United States' increased support for non-terrorist rebel
groups in the wake of the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons, the
religious leaders' mission is a long shot. The bishops are asking the
United States to exert pressure on countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
and Turkey to stop supporting and sending terrorist fighters to Syria.
"The real problem is that the strong military opposition on the ground
is a foreign opposition," Awad explains, arguing that US support of
opposition groups means support for foreign terrorist fighters. "They
are the ones killing and attacking churches and clergy and nuns and
burning houses and eating human livers and hearts and cutting heads,"
Awad says.
The Syrian Christian churches are not publicly calling for outright
support of the Assad regime. Doing so would further endanger their
followers and hurt the moral component of their case, given the
regime's alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians. Instead,
they're meeting privately with law makers, diplomats and think tanks.
The bishops' stories are similar to other grim instances of violence
against Christians during the war. Christian schools in Damascus were
shelled in November. The next month, a dozen Greek Orthodox nuns were
taken from Mar Takla Monastery in Maaloula. Rebel groups abducted two
bishops near Aleppo last April. Jesuit priestPaolo Dall'Oglio, whom
TIME wrote about in 2012 when he visited the United States on a
similar lobbying trip, has been missing and feared dead since July.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/02/01/syrian-christian-leaders-call-on-u-s-to-end-support-for-anti-assad-rebels/