The estimated 40,000 Christians in Aleppo are not among the
civilians who are dreading the fall of the city to the Russia and Iran-backed
regime of dictator Bashar al Assad, according to a charity group that helps
persecuted Christians.
These Christians instead
reportedly fear the return of the rebels to Aleppo, particularly the jihadi
coalition known as Jaish Al Fatah, or ‘Army of Conquest,’
that includes the likes of the Syrian al-Qaeda branch formerly known as the
Nusra Front before it became Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (Front
for the Conquest of the Levant).
Jaish Al Fatah has been
“heavily involved” in the battle for Aleppo and the persecution of Christians
in the city, claims the charity group Barnabas
Fund.
Until recently, Aleppo city
had been roughly divided between
Assad regime control in the west and rebel control in the east since 2012.
The Russian government and
the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights, which uses a network of ground sources to monitor
the ongoing civil war in Syria, have declared that the Assad regime is now in
control of Aleppo.
Russian-backed Assad forces
and their Iranian-allied counterparts operating on the ground have been accused
of “genocide”
against civilians in the former rebel stronghold of eastern Aleppo.
Nevertheless,
the Barnabas Fund reports:
Christians
fled the persecution that the rebel fighters brought to that area [eastern
Aleppo] of the city long ago. On Saturday (6 August) rebel forces succeeded in
breaking the Syrian army’s stranglehold on the main supply route into Aleppo,
but as a result the bombing has only intensified.
The
Christians now have to face a new fear: that Islamist rebels will gain ground
and they will again find themselves in rebel-held territory, where they will
become targets, both for their faith and their support of the Syrian
government.
Christians and Muslims in
the Middle East lived peacefully with
each other for hundreds of years. However, when jihadist groups such as the
Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and al-Qaeda invaded Iraq and Syria in 2014, the
terrorists ordered Christians to either leave, convert, or pay a subjugation
tax.
ISIS has been accused of carrying
out genocide against
the Christians and other ethno-religious minorities in Iraq and Syria.
“It is like going back
1,000 years seeing the barbarity that Christians are having to live under. I
think we are dealing with a group which makes Nazism pale in comparison and I
think they have lost all respect for human life,” explained
Patrick Sookhdeo, founder of Barnabas Fund in 2015. “Crucifying
these people is sending a message and they are using forms of killing which
they believe have been sanctioned by Sharia law. For them what they are doing
is perfectly normal and they don’t see a problem with it. It is that religious
justification which is so appalling.”
“We are facing terrorist
action in the whole geography of Syria,” Rev. Ibrahim Nseir, pastor of the
National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon and the Presbyterian Church in
Aleppo, told Fox
News from the ISIS de-facto Syrian capital of Raqqa in May.
“They are destroying our churches, killing and kidnapping Christians, stealing
our homes and our businesses.”
Iraq and
Syria are considered the cradle of human civilization and the Christian faith.
“It was on
the road to Damascus that the Apostle Paul experienced his conversion to
Christianity, and Syria remains one of the few sacred locales where the
language of Aramaic – the language of Jesus – can still be heard,” noted Fox
News.
“In the
1920s, Christians — mainly Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox — made up nearly a
third of the Syrian population,” it added. “By the time civil war erupted in
2011, Christians in Syria numbered just 2.2 million, or less than 10 percent of
the nation’s population. Experts now estimate that the Christians make up less
than five percent of the population.”
After crumbling earlier in
the day, a shaky ceasefire between the Syrian regime and rebels in war-torn Aleppo
had reportedly begun
to take hold
again late Wednesday.
Civilians pleaded
for help when the Syrian regime airstrikes resumed after the
truce fell apart, imploring the international community to put an end to the
carnage.
Iran’s proxies on the
ground, which include the Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah from Lebanon, have
been accused of violating the ceasefire and carrying out execution-style
massacres of civilians, including women and children, points out the Guardian.
The news
outlet acknowledges that it remains unclear whether Iran is onboard with the
new agreement.
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/12/15/report-40000-pro-assad-christians-aleppo-fear-return-rebels/
