Jon Stewart On Red Lines and Syria

BBC Posts Picture Of Syrian Victims? Actually, Victims of Saddam Hussein's Gas attacks.

This photo run by the BBC is supposed to be victims of Assad's gas attacks in Syria. It is in fact a photo of Kurds gassed by Saddam Hussein in 2003. So gas attacks in Syria must meet a response. So says those who opposed toppling SAddam who did the same thing in greater numbers. The hypocrisy of politics that redefines humanitarianism.

Islamist Ultimatum to Syrian Christians: Convert, Leave, or Die

From: AINA

Syria's Christians fear an Islamist takeover should the current government be overthrown. During the ongoing civil war there has been a well-documented rise in the number of salafi-jihadist groups operating in Syria that pose a direct threat to Syria's Christian community.¹ These militant opposition forces espouse an Islamist ideology, which incorporates elements of Wahhabism² and Salafism³ and whose stated goals and objectives are by definition hostile towards Christians. Firsthand accounts from Syrian Christian refugees in Lebanon reported by award winning investigative journalist Nuri Kino detail the horror in which they described kidnappings, rapes, harassment, theft and other violent reprisals at the hands of Islamist groups.

Those who survived reported "just being Christian is enough to be a target,"⁴ disproving theories that violence and kidnapping directed towards Syrian Christians is purely incidental or for economic reasons. One individual openly declared "We're not poor. We didn't run from poverty [...] we ran from fear."⁵

There are several dozens of armed Salafi-jihadist groups both foreign and domestic currently operating in Syria that explicitly advocate Islamist agendas and possess the intentions and capabilities to commit violent persecution towards Syria's Christians. Most notably from the global Sunni jihadist milieu is al-Jabhat al-Nusra lil-Ahl al-Sham min Mujahedin al-Sham fi Sahat al-Jihad (The Front for

Supporting the People of Greater Syria by the Mujahedin of Syria on the Battlefields of Jihad) A.K.A.

Jabhat al-Nusra, which in December 2012 the U.S. government officially listed as a terrorist organization.⁶ Also, on April 9 of this year the leader of Tanzim Qai'dat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (Organization of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia) A.K.A. al-Qaeda in Iraq released an audio announcement that officially declared the unification of al-Qaeda in Iraq and Jabhat al-Nusra including the establishment of an Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, effectively expanding the threat to Syria's Christians.⁷ The other notable militant Islamist group is al-Jabhat al-Islamiya al-Suriya (Syrian Islamic Front), a large armed coalition force comprised of several interdependent blocs and alliances organized throughout Syria.⁸ Even the relatively less hardline al-Jaysh al-Suri al-Hurr (Free Syrian Army) and al-Majlis al-Watani al-Suri (Syrian National Council) are by no means monolithic entities, rather both exist as umbrella organizations comprised of several independent and competing ideological currents and sub-currents including Islamism.

Indeed, regardless of the means employed whether violent or non-violent to achieve the stated goals and objectives of these Islamist movements, the future is unfortunately no less hostile towards Christians. Within an Islamic State governed by Shari'a (Islamic Law), Jews and Christians, known colloquially as ahl al-Kitaab (People of the Book), are afforded a certain protected status called dhimmi, but only if they willingly submit to a tribute or coercive tax known as jizya.⁹ Based on Islamist interpretation, which is strictly literal and employs the "doctrine of abrogation" promulgated by the 13th century Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyyah,¹⁰ the later and more belligerent suras (chapters) of the Qur'an take precedence over the earlier and more tolerant suras.¹¹ As a result, the salafi-jihadists frequently reference Sura al-Tawba (The Repentance) otherwise known as Sura al-Bara'a (The Ultimatum), which is the 9th chapter of the Qur'an, to justify their violent actions. Numerous internationally recognized translations of Verse 29 of Sura al-Tawba explicitly state,

Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.¹²

Ultimately, Syria's Christians as well as Jews will be forced to suffer persecution at the hands of Islamists unless they convert to Islam, submit to Shari'a and pay the jizya, emigrate or die.
Guilt by Association: Syria's Christians Labeled Pro-Assad

The question of who would protect the Syrian Christians after the fall of Assad has historically led many Christians to support the status quo out of fear.¹³ A Congressional Research Service report from August 2012 accurately portrays the dilemma of Syrian Christians who are "caught between their parallel fears of violent change and of being associated with Assad's crackdown."¹⁴ According to a September 2012 report by the Institute for the Study of War, President Assad has "used the threat of jihadists within the opposition to galvanize support for the regime among the Alawite and Christian communities."¹⁵ Similarly, the U.S. State Department's 2011 International Religious Freedom Report for Syria also recognizes the rising level of animosity towards Syria's Christians as well as Assad's attempts to translate their fears into political support by sponsoring pro-government demonstrations in predominantly Christian neighborhoods and violently rebuffing those viewed as undermining this effort.¹⁶ Consequently, even individual Christians who have neither professed nor shown any inclination of support for the regime may still be identified as pro-Assad and thereby targeted for violent persecution by the Islamists and other opposition forces, or by government security forces for being perceived as unsupportive.

"Arab Spring" is "Christian Winter" -- Persecution of Christians is a Regional Issue

Christian persecution is prevalent not only throughout Syria but also the entire region. Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Virginia) has consistently published reports testifying that Christians throughout the Middle East, specifically in Syria, Egypt and Iraq, have been suffering persecution at an alarming rate, including a sustained campaign of violence, discrimination, mass emigration and internal displacement -- all of which too often go unrecognized and unreported.¹⁷

In an urgent attempt to bring attention to and spur action from policymakers, Congressman Wolf recently traveled to the region and met firsthand with Christian refugees from several Arab nations, including Syria, and reported "In fact, it often appears that there is an anti-Christian bias at the State Department. For years the department refused to recognize that Iraqi Christians were being targeted, insisting instead that they were simply victims of generalized violence."¹⁸ Unfortunately, the same can now be said of Syria's Christians, as Western naivety falsely assumes that anti-Assad opposition forces are automatically pro-democracy, pro-secular, and pluralist and Christians are merely victims of incidental violence. However, a recent report from the British newspaper The Guardian reveals that until recently hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians sought refuge in neighboring countries like Syria, but now they are once again forced to flee due to rampant religious persecution. The report continues by stating the majority of Christians have been emptied from the broader Middle East, and while the "Arab Spring" may have sprung new life for Islamists in the region, it has most certainly brought death to Christianity in places like Syria.¹⁹

US Foreign Policy: Abandoning Middle Eastern Christianity

From: AINA

The US State Department has quietly ceased cataloging violations of religious freedom in its "Country Reports on Human Rights." Of course, it's just a coincidence that this comes at a time when Washington is allying with radical Islamists in Libya, Syria, and Iraq. As CNS reports:

"The U.S. State Department removed the sections covering religious freedom from the Country Reports on Human Rights that it released on May 24, three months past the statutory deadline Congress set for the release of these reports.

"The new human rights reports--purged of the sections that discuss the status of religious freedom in each of the countries covered--are also the human rights reports that include the period that covered the Arab Spring and its aftermath.

"Thus, the reports do not provide in-depth coverage of what has happened to Christians and other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East that saw the rise of revolutionary movements in 2011 in which Islamist forces played an instrumental role.

"For the first time ever, the State Department simply eliminated the section of religious freedom in its reports covering 2011 and instead referred the public to the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report -- a full two years behind the times -- or to the annual report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which was released last September and covers events in 2010 but not 2011."

Part of the reason could be that the state of religious freedom in the US isn't all that great since the Obama administration tried to force Catholic institutions -- hospitals, clinics, etc. -- to provide the "full-range" of contraceptive services, including abortion, to their employees. Then there's the Chick-fil-a controversy, where the city governments of Chicago, New York, and San Francisco want to punish the company whose CEO opposes gay marriage on religious grounds.

Hostility to organized religion -- unless you're a Unitarian, or one of these guys -- has long been a feature of contemporary American liberalism, but the kind of radical anti-clericalism that has roiled Europe (and Mexico) hasn't reared its ugly head in this country until now. The Catholic Church is a favorite anti-clericalist target, but the State Department isn't discriminating on sectarian grounds: they've simply eliminated accounts of all anti-Christian measures taken by foreign governments from their Country Reports.

This makes sense, if you think about it: after all, if you're allying with radical Islamists in order to overthrow the government of Syria -- which has long been a bulwark against Islamic jihadists in the Middle East -- then official propaganda has got to reflect this strategy.

In Egypt, where we're trying to retain some influence in the wake of longtime ally Hosni Mubarak's ouster, the Islamists have gone on a rampage, burning Coptic Christian churches, murdering churchgoers, and making it impossible for a public Christian presence to exist alongside the Muslim majority. As the Muslim Brotherhood takes the presidency and the parliament, with US support, the country's Christians have plenty of reason to worry -- or emigrate.

In Libya, where a supposedly "secular" party won a plurality in the elections after US-backed rebels took power, one of their first public pronouncements was to disavow the secular label -- and reinstate polygamy.

You're only allowed four, but hey, don't be a hog. And in an economic reform that may resonate in certain quarters in Washington, the charging of interest by banks is controversial if not yet forbidden. Persecution of Libya's Christians has remained the one constant since the fall of Gadhafi, and vigilante violence is on the uptick.

In Syria, the anti-Christian jihad is well underway, churches are being occupied and ransacked by the rebels and Christian communities targeted in a sectarian "cleansing" campaign:

"Asked whether it was the Free Syrian Army that was telling Christians to get out, Agnes Miriam, Mother Superior of the Monastery of St. James at Qara in the Diocese of Homs, said, 'Yes … it was the commander on the ground, Abdel Salam Harba, who decided that there was to be no more negotiations with Christians.'

"She said Christians refused to back the rebels, so the rebels used them as human shields."

The Vatican has echoed the Mother Superior's human shields charge, but the Obama administration is an unlikely source of sympathy for the plight of Syria's Catholics, given their war on the Church here on the home front. Indeed, anti-Catholicism is back in fashion in this country, particularly among the sort of secular liberals likely to be strong supporters of the President. Why should the Obamaites be concerned about the fate of Syrian Christians at the hands of US-backed jihadists rebels? There's no political pay-off.

I know this argument isn't going to be popular with my liberal-lefty readers, of which there are plenty, but listen: this is a deadly dangerous geopolitical game our grand strategists in Washington are playing. From North Africa to the mountain passes of Afghanistan, this administration is linking up with radical Sunni Islamists, some of which are openly associated with or sympathetic to Al Qaeda, as a prelude to their coming showdown with the Iranian Shi'ite theocracy. Their regime-change operation in Syria is but a dress rehearsal for a much wider and more devastating conflict.

Washington's playing the Sunni card condemns the peoples of the Middle East to the tyranny of sharia law: it means the utter destruction of ancient Christian communities from Tripoli to Chaldea. This has been a consistent pattern of US foreign policy since the Bush administration, which, after all, launched our disastrous invasion of Iraq and thus condemned its heretofore safe and relatively free Christian community to death.

It is undeniable that the Obama administration's strenuous efforts to attach itself to the coattails of the "Arab Spring" have radically accelerated the threat: indeed, it is fair to say that one of the main consequences of our "successful" policy has been and will continue to be a regional Christian pogrom. The only question is whether this is the inevitable albeit inadvertent consequence of a broader policy, or an intentional campaign to eradicate Christianity from the Middle East.

So where are the much-vaunted and politically powerful "Christian" groups in the US, who are supposed to exert so much influence over the Republican party and its candidates? While the Christians of the Middle East are sinking beneath an Islamist wave, as Washington cheers (and funds the jihadists), such Christian "leaders" as the Rev. John Hagee are too busy anticipating World War III and supporting Israel to notice.

As this administration pursues a policy that puts the Christians of the Middle East and North Africa in mortal danger, where oh where is the so-called Religious Right? They're carrying the banner of Mitt Romney, who wants the US to openly arm the Syrian rebels. Being a former Mormon bishop and all, Romney no doubt knows about the existence of the tiny Mormon community in Syria: is he concerned about their fate when the jihadists come to town? From the tone of this Mormon propaganda -- no.

In Syria, and throughout the region, it is the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches that will be razed to the ground as radical Sunnis backed by the US take power and impose sharia law. If these groups have any lobbying power in the US, I have yet to see them exercise it on behalf of their beleaguered co-religionists. The mainstream media in the Western world, no friend of organized religion of any sort, is content to close its collective eye to the pogrom, whilst cheerleading and covering up for the supposedly heroic rebels. This BBC reporter doesn't hesitate to ask a nun reporting rebel atrocities if she knows "many people consider you a liar." Imagine some reporter -- particularly one from the BBC -- saying that to a Kosovar during the Balkan war. It would never have happened.

If the Obama administration is trying to reinforce the wacky idea that the President is really a secret Muslim, then they are certainly doing a bang-up job of it. As for me, my view is that, like all statists, the Obamaites are hostile to all religion, just on general principles. The church, after all, is a rival power center to the State. In any case, sympathy for the plight of Christians in the Middle East is not likely to be found in those quarters -- but, Christ Almighty, what about the rest of the country? Have we completely lost our moral compass, or is the triumph of militant secularism so complete that we can comfortably ignore our own government's war on Christianity in the Middle East?

Arab Apartheid Against Palestinians

From: Gatestone Institute

The plight of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and other Arab countries has received little attention from the mainstream media in the West. Lebanon's apartheid laws deny Palestinians access to the majority of white collar positions in areas such as banking, medicine, management, law and education. Though born and raised in the country, they are denied political, economic and social rights.

The Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are considered the worst in the region in terms of poverty, health, education and living conditions, according to a report published this week by the American Near East Refugee Aid [ANERA], one of the largest American not-for-profit organizations working in the Middle East.

This does not mean, of course, that Palestinians living in refugee camps in Jordan and Syria or other Arab countries are happy. But when it comes to Lebanon, the living conditions of the Palestinians are appalling.

The ANERA report coincided with news about mounting tensions between Palestinian residents of refugee camps in Lebanon and the Lebanese army.

The tensions reached their peak last week when Lebanese soldiers shot and killed a young Palestinian man in Nahr El Bared refugee camp. Later Lebanese soldiers prevented residents from going to the cemetery to attend the funeral.

In 2007, the Lebanese army destroyed most of the camp's houses during fighting with militiamen belonging to Palestinian armed groups and radical Islamic groups.

Two-thirds of the camp's 36,000 residents fled the fighting and found shelter in surrounding fields and valleys. Many set up new homes in the nearby Baddawi refugee camp.

Since 2007, the Lebanese army has imposed a strict siege on the camp: residents are allowed to enter and leave only after obtaining permission from Lebanese security authorities. According to the Palestinian residents, they have since been living in a ghetto.

The Lebanese authorities have also banned the residents from rebuilding the houses that were destroyed or damaged in 2007.

Palestinians are convinced that Lebanon has been trying to get rid of them for many years. Lebanon's apartheid laws deny Palestinians access to the majority of white collar positions in areas such as banking, medicine, management, law and education.

Like many Arab countries, Lebanon has always been treating Palestinians as third-class citizens. Nearly half a million Palestinians live in Lebanon's 12 camps. Though born and raised in the country, they are denied political, economic and social rights.

Palestinians cannot attend Lebanese public schools or own property. They do not have access to national health services or the social security system. Checkpoints restricting access to most of the camps, according to the ANERA report, thwart trade and commerce with neighboring counties.

"The refugees live in overcrowded camps and have to deal with discrimination, isolation and social exclusion," the report states. "The refugees often refer to themselves as 'forgotten people' and feel they are living in a hostile environment where their basic human rights are not represented or protected."

The plight of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and other Arab countries has received little attention in the mainstream media in the West. Although many international aid organizations have been working to assist the Palestinians in the Arab world, Western journalists often turn a blind eye to the misery of these refugees.

The unconscionable condition of the Palestinians in the Arab world will end the day the Arab governments and Palestinian leaders stop lying to them and confront them with reality, namely that they need to get along with their lives and secure a better future for their children. Arab and Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, continue to deceive these people by promising them that if they wait a little longer they will one day "return to the homeland."

Victor Sharpe: “Never Again” is now “Again and Again”

From: Canada Free Press

When, after the end of World War Two, the extent of Nazi Germany’s systematic extermination of the 6 million Jews of Europe became horribly apparent, including the slaughter of 1.5 million babies and children, there arose the cry: “Never Again.”

It was assumed that a unique horror of such magnitude must never again occur in the world. The Holocaust resulted in one third of the world’s Jewish population being systematically murdered - perpetrated as it was by millions of Adolf Hitler’s obedient and willing executioners using all the tools of the central state and of perverted science. But the cataclysmic lesson of that genocide has been shamefully ignored.

After the war the United Nations was founded – a body designed to create world peace and primarily at first consisting of democracies along with a few autocratic regimes, which nevertheless acted in rational ways. And as delegates entered the UN building they passed by the wall on which they could read the biblical words of the Jewish prophet, Isaiah:

“They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they learn war anymore.” - Isaiah 2:4.

But now the UN has become a cesspool of competing blocs of nations that are not always concerned about justice and peace between nations but more interested in pushing narrow and hostile agendas. And few, if any, delegates ever bother to read that inscription on the wall of the United Nations. Instead the world body has become a veritable Temple of Hypocrisy filled with a cynical priesthood.

And so much of humanity becomes more and more inured to the present day horrors that increasingly proliferate around the globe and whose ghastly images are daily flashed on our television screens.

Civilians are routinely butchered, and genocide in South Sudan continues as it does in Somalia and, in particular, throughout the ever violent Middle East. As I write, butchery on a grand scale is taking place throughout Syria, governed as it is by Bashar Assad; a scion of the minority Alawite tribe.

According to Ammar Abdulhamid, a member of the Free Syrian Army, which is one of the rebel groups battling the regime, Bashar Assad’s strategy is to create a de facto partition of Syria. This is, he says, taking place with the ethnic cleansing of factions and populations deemed hostile to the regime.

Syria may degenerate into dozens of fiefdoms, each one at its neighbor’s throat, or an Alawite state will emerge along Syria’s coastline, incorporating other areas of the country. This state, if it emerged, would include the strategic city of Homs, which straddles all the main Syrian highways and communication routes.

Of immense concern should be Assad’s warehouses in which are stored Syria’s weapons of mass destruction consisting of thousands of missiles tipped with Sarin and Mustard gas and God knows what other hellish ingredients.

In the present internecine conflict that is tearing Syria apart, these missiles – some already in silos – may well fall into the hands of a host of Islamic terrorist groups - including Al Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood - fighting inside the country. If they do, a Pandora’s Box will open and the entire world will lurch further into a nightmare scenario almost unbearable to contemplate.

And behind the ethnic cleansing, the massacres, and the butchery of thousands of civilians, lies the dread hand of Iran, with its fanatical Mullahocracy and its evil clown president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ever spinning their web of terror and fear.

Since 1979, when Americans during the failed Carter presidency were taken hostage at our embassy in Teheran, Iran has been involved in anti-American activities and crimes against humanity including complicity in the 9/11 atrocities. Iran, through its Hezbollah proxy, was also directly responsible for the deaths and maiming of hundreds of our marines in Beirut. And Iran’s bloody fingerprints were all over the killings of scores of Jewish children in the bombing of the Jewish Community Center in Argentina.

Iran produced the infamous IEDs provided to Iraqi insurgents that have killed hundreds of U.S. troops and the Iranian regime has directly supported terrorism throughout the Middle East and beyond. The United States has ample cause to target the mullahs. As Lee Smith from the Weekly Standard recently opined. “Iran is the problem.”

Putin Lectures Obama At Tense Meeting

Report: Obama's Muslim Advisers Block Middle Eastern Christians Access to the White House

From: Big Peace.com

From a Middle East correspondent:

Beirut Arab news agency al Nashra reported on Saturday November 22, that [White House Muslim envoy] Dalia Mogahed has succeeded in canceling a meeting between the Maronite Patriarch of Lebanon and President Barack Obama. Writing in al Nashra, the reporter said “an unnamed US source told the news agency, that those who sought canceling a visit of (the spiritual head of the Maronite Church) Patriarch Beshara Rahi to the White House are Dalia Mujahid (Mogahed), the highest adviser on Arab and Islamic Affairs in the State Department, who is from Egyptian origins. And that,” according to al Nashra, “heeding a request by the higher leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, who consider that US Administration must support the Islamist Sunni current facing the Iranian current in the region.”

The al Nashra report, circulating now widely in the Middle East, but also in the United States and across the Lebanese Christian Diaspora confirms what was already known about the impact the so-called “advisors on Arab and Islamic Affairs” in the White House on Middle East issues in general and on US policies regarding the Christians in the Middle East.

Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rahi

The anti-Middle East Christian lobbying in Washington, attributed to Muslim Brotherhood front groups and sympathizers is not limited to the Maronites, who form the bulk of the two million Lebanese Americans.

According to research showing the links between Presidential adviser Dalia Mogahed and the Muslim Brotherhood, and to NGOs representing Middle East Christian groups in the US, blocking Middle East Christian meetings at the White House and the State Department have been associated with the work of the “advisors” and their allies in the Islamist camp in Washington such as CAIR and MPAC.

Coptic Solidarity International which has been trying to obtain meetings at the White House or with Secretary Clinton at State to expose the horrors committed against the Christian Copts of Egypt, were not granted such access. “Probably because of fear that American Copts will expose the role of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists in Egypt” said an official with Coptic NGOs.

Also and despite the many massacres against Christians in Iraq over the past two years, representatives from the Assyro-Chaldeans of the US were not received in the Oval Office or by Secretary Clinton, at a time Islamist linked groups are on the roaster of invitations to the White House. Indicatively, Administration officials declined invitations to speak at the annual Assyrian Christian convention this year, few months from the start of the withdrawal from Iraq.

US official attitudes towards the Middle East Christians are, according to this behavior, dictated by the “Muslim Brotherhood friends” now very influential in the Obama Administration. Of late, CAIR and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) are pushing to eliminate any intelligence analysis focused on Islamist and Jihadist violence in general and directed against the Christian communities in the Middle East in particular.

This could explain why Maronites, Copts and Chaldo-Assyrians have been cut off the Administration.
Observers believe that the campaign against Americans from Middle East Christian descent has also reached Terrorism experts and congressional advisers and NGO leaders whose field focuses on the Islamist and Jihadist movements. Indeed, in a report published this year, John Esposito, the chair of the Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University (and an associate to Mogahed) endorses sharp attacks against experts and analysts, always charging “Islamophobia.”

Blocking the Maronite Patriarch from the White House is a move that is directed to all Middle East Christians in the United States and can have significant effects in the region and even on US politics. Brooklyn Bishop for the Maronites in the US, who are part of America’s Catholic Church criticized President Obama for not meeting the Patriarch during his visit. Bishop Mansour wrote:

Patriarch Rai’s warning about the future of Christians in Syria is not taboo. Christians are in a state of peril in the same way that Christians of Iraq were a few years ago when two-thirds of them migrated out… A new day is dawning in the Middle East. The Arab Spring is happening with little vision for the summer that will ensue.

However, for advisors in the Administration to rebuke the spiritual head of a main Middle East Christian community, and engage in a witch hunt against Middle East Christians, including US citizens, for the benefit of the Muslim Brotherhood is a serious matter the American public should not tolerate.

The Maronites are Middle Eastern Christians who count about a million people inside Lebanon with more than 10 millions in the Diaspora. There are about one and a half million Americans who are Maronites and five millions in Brazil. There are Maronite members of the US Congress such as Congressman Charles Boustany of Louisiana or former Congressman Ray Lahoud, current secretary of transportation. Maronites are among the 25 millions of Christians in the Middle East, including the 15 million Copts in Egypt, the one million Assyrians and Chaldeans in Iraq, another million Syriacs and Orthodox in Syria as well as Iranian Christians and African Christians in Sudan. Americans who are from Middle East Christian ancestry are about 86% of all Americans from Arab or Middle East Christians and count two times the size of American Muslims.

At least 109 killed today in Syria’s Hama, activist group says

From: NOW Lebanon

CNN said on Thursday that Avaaz, a global activist group, said that at least 109 people died in and around the Syrian city of Hama today, adding that Avaaz cited a medical source.

"The brutality continues in Hama on the fourth day of Ramadan. Communication with the city and surrounding area is very difficult as the electricity supply has been cut off," Avaaz said.

"However, Avaaz has been in touch with a medical source who confirms that 109 people have been killed since the early hours of the morning. Avaaz has been told that more have been injured and bodies are lying in the streets as ambulances and private vehicles are unable to get through."

One resident who spoke to CNN by satellite phone said injured people have died in hospitals because there is no electricity in the facilities.

Residents reported a breakdown and cutoff in communications and electricity accompanying the siege, and said the military was bombing the city.

The resident said entrances of the city are blocked, with no one getting in or out, adding that snipers are deployed across the city.

“People who try to leave the city are being shot,” he also said, adding that “he was told there was ‘genocide’ in one particular area of the city.”

Analysis: Hezbollah may fight Israel to Save Assad

From: Jerusalem Post

Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group is preparing for a possible war with Israel to relieve perceived Western pressure to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, its guardian ally, sources close to the movement say.

The radical Shi'ite group, which has a powerful militia armed by Damascus and Iran, is watching the unrest in neighboring Syria with alarm and is determined to prevent the West from exploiting popular protests to bring down Assad.

Hezbollah supported pro-democracy movements that toppled Western-backed leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, but officials say it will not stand idly by as international pressure mounts on Assad to yield to protesters.

It is committed to do whatever it takes politically to help deflect what it sees as a foreign campaign against Damascus, but it is also readying for a possible war with Israel if Assad is weakened.

"Hezbollah will never intervene in Syria. This is an internal issue for President Bashar to tackle. But when it sees the West gearing up to bring him down, it will not just watch," a Lebanese official close to the group's thinking told Reuters.

"This is a battle for existence for the group and it is time to return the favor (of Syria's support). It will do that by fending off some of the international pressure," he added.

The militant group, established nearly 30 years ago to confront Israel's occupation of south Lebanon, fought an inconclusive 34-day war with Israel in 2006.

Hezbollah and Syria have both denied that the group has sent fighters to support a military crackdown on the wave of protests against Assad's rule.

Hezbollah believes the West is working to reshape the Middle East by replacing Assad with a ruler friendly to Israel and hostile to itself.

"The region now is at war, a war between what is good and what is backed by Washington... Syria is the good," said a Lebanon-based Arab official close to Syria.

He said the United States, which lost an ally when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February, "wants to shift the crisis" by supporting protests against its adversary.

"For us this will be confronted in the best possible way," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Lebanese official says Syria not alone

Analysts rule out the possibility of a full-scale regional war involving Syria, Iran and Lebanon on one side against Israel backed by the United States. A war pitting Hezbollah against Israel was more likely, they said.

"There might be limited wars here or there but nobody has the interest (in a regional war)," said Lebanese analyst Oussama Safa. "The region is of course heading towards radical change... How it will be arranged and where it will leads is not clear."

Hezbollah inflicted serious damage and casualties by firing missiles deep into Israel during the 2006 conflict, and was able to sustain weeks of rocket attacks despite a major Israeli military incursion into Lebanon.

Western intelligence sources say the movement's arsenal has been more than replenished since the fighting ended, with European-led UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon powerless to prevent supplies entering mostly from Syria.

Syria, which borders Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Jordan, has regional influence because of its alliance with Iran and its continued role in Lebanon, despite ending a 29-year military presence there in 2005. It also has an influence in Iraq.

"If the situation in Syria collapses it will have repercussions that will go beyond Syria," the Arab official said. "None of Syria's allies would accept the fall of Syria even if it led to turning the table upside down -- war (with Israel) could be one of the options."

The Lebanese official said: "All options are open including opening the fronts in Golan (Heights) and in south Lebanon."

Palestinian protests last month on the Lebanese and Syrian frontlines with Israel were "a message that Syria will not be left alone facing an Israeli-American campaign", he said.

Israel and Syria are technically at war, but their frontier had been calm since the war in 1973, when Israel repelled a Syrian assault to recapture the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Lebanon forms new government dominated by pro-Syrian parties

For Syria's allies in Lebanon, the first step to support Damascus has already been taken. After months of delay, Prime Minister Najib Mikati formed a new Lebanese government last week dominated by pro-Syrian parties, including Hezbollah.

That followed five months of political vacuum after Hezbollah and its allies toppled Western-backed Saad al-Hariri's coalition in a dispute over a UN-backed tribunal investigating the killing in 2005 of statesman Rafik al-Hariri, Saad's father.

The tribunal is expected to accuse members of the Shi'ite group in the killing, and some Lebanese had believed that the delay in forming a government was deliberate, to avoid the crisis a new government might face when indictments are issued.

"Our people thought at first the vacuum would be in our interest but after the events in Syria we have noticed that the vacuum is harmful," said the Lebanese official.

Syria Christians fear for religious freedom

From: Jerusalem Post

Syria's minority Christians are watching the protests sweeping their country with trepidation, fearing their religious freedom could be threatened if President Bashar Assad's autocratic but secular rule is overthrown.

Sunni Muslims form a majority in Syria, but under four decades of rule by Assad's minority Alawites the country's varied religious groups have enjoyed the right to practice their faith.\

Calls for Muslim prayers ring out alongside church bells in Damascus, where the apostle Paul started his ministry and Christians have worshipped for two millennia.

But for many Syrian Christians, the flight of their brethren from sectarian conflict in neighboring Iraq and recent attacks on Christians in Egypt have highlighted the dangers they fear they will face if Assad succumbs to the wave of uprisings sweeping the Arab world.

"Definitely the Christians in Syria support Bashar al-Assad. They hope that this storm will not spread," Yohana Ibrahim, the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo, told Reuters.

Protests erupted in Syria two months ago, triggered by anger and frustration at widespread corruption and lack of freedom in the country ruled with an iron fist by the Assad family for nearly half a century.

Although some Christians may be participating in the protests, church institutions have not supported them.

Christians contacted by Reuters said they backed calls for reform but not the demands for "regime change", which they said could fragment Syria and give the upper hand possibly to Islamist groups that would deny them religious freedom.

"The Christians in Syria -- whether Orthodox, Armenians, Maronites, Anglicans, Assyrians or Catholics -- consider themselves first (Syrian) citizens, the sons of the land," said Habib Afram, president of the Syriac League.

"The general atmosphere from the churches' positions and from Christian figures is fixed on stability and security because religious freedom is absolutely guaranteed in Syria," he said.

Syrian Christian: Minority "ruled by the military or the turban of a cleric"

Why Are We Protecting Syria?

From: YID With LID

Here’s an unavoidable question: Why is it that when a relatively moderate Middle East state is threatened by demonstrations—Egypt and Tunisia—the Obama Administration calls for their instant departure while when it is a radical, anti-American, terrorist-supporting state—Iran and Syria—it refuses to act at all.

However you explain that paradox it nonetheless, undeniably, exists. And it is totally contrary to the U.S. national interests. Some people think that this sabotage is deliberate; others, like myself, think it is being caused by incompetence, ignorance, and an ideology totally out of touch with reality.

But here's what's really important: If you can't tell the difference between the deliberate destruction of U.S. interests and the inadvertent but systematic destruction of U.S. interests, doesn't that show how serious the situation is?

Syria's military shows signs of division amid crackdown

From: Christian Science Monitor

Cracks may be emerging in Syria's military as more soldiers appear to be taking a stand against firing on protesters six weeks into the popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian security forces launched an offensive against several flashpoint towns at dawn today, closing the border with Jordan and using tanks and live ammunition to clear streets and arrest suspected protesters, according to opposition activists and eyewitnesses. But Syrian military units reportedly clashed with each other in Deraa when soldiers refused to open fire.

The report follows numerous other refusals as well as a spate of assassinations of military officials said to be sympathetic to the protesters, according to opposition activists.

Any split that emerges in the Army, which together with the intelligence services forms the state's principle means of enforcing its will, would present an unprecedented challenge to the Assad regime's four-decade rule and cast serious doubt on its ability to survive.

Today's intensified crackdown came after the worst protest violence yet witnessed, with more than 120 people killed since Friday. The sudden surge of casualties appears to have spurred the United States into considering sanctions against Syrian officials, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The report comes a day after Human Rights Watch called for sanctions against Syrian officials found responsible for using violence to suppress the anti-regime protests that have swept the country since mid-March.

Showdown in Deraa

At dawn today, as many as 3,000 Syrian troops backed by armored vehicles entered the southern town of Deraa, where the uprising first took root, and opened fire, killing anywhere between five and 20 people, according to various eyewitness accounts. The border with Jordan, which lies just 2.5 miles south west of Deraa, was closed and telephone lines and electricity in the area around the town were cut.

Death Warrant of Ancient Christianity

From: Real Clear Religion

Ever since the wave of popular movements started sweeping the Middle East, Western media have rarely found much good to say about the authoritarian regimes under attack. Few observers deny that the last generation or so of Arab rulers were indeed greedy despots, and it seems desirable for Western powers to intervene as forcefully as they can on behalf of what are commonly billed as pro-democracy movements.

The arguments against intervention are obvious enough, most obviously that it is much easier to begin a military intervention than to end it, while we rarely have much idea about the political character of the supposed democrats we are trying to aid. But in one case above all, namely Syria, debates over intervention have missed one overwhelming argument, which is the likely religious catastrophe that would follow the overthrow of the admittedly dictatorial government. Any Western intervention in Syria would likely supply the death warrant for the ancient Christianity of the Middle East. For anyone concerned about Christians worldwide -- even if you believe firmly in democracy and human rights -- it's hard to avoid this prayer: Lord, bring democracy to Syria, but not in my lifetime.

Why is Syria so critical to the religious geography of the region? From ancient times, the territory had a complex mixture of religious traditions, and one that was far too complex to reduce to a simple Christian-Muslim divide. Under the long centuries of Ottoman power, Syria retained its sizable Christian minority, but other minority populations also flourished, groups that originated within Islam, but which orthodox believers condemned as heretics and apostates. Particularly important were the Alawites, a group that certainly includes Christian and even Gnostic strands in its esoteric world view. In fact, they were long known locally as Nusayris, "Little Christians" The Druze are no less secretive in their beliefs, and are equally loathed by strict Islamists. Although estimates are shaky, a reasonable estimate is that Alawites make up around ten percent of Syria's population of twenty million, with the Druze at another three percent.

hristian numbers are still harder to determine. Over the past century century, Syria regularly served as the last refuge for Christian communities who had been largely destroyed elsewhere in the Middle East -- for Christians fleeing massacre in Turkey after 1915, or in Iraq after 2003. A standard figure for the number of Syrian Christians is ten percent, or around two million believers, but that omits an uncertain number of thinly disguised crypto-believers, not to mention the recent arrivals from the wreck of Saddam's Iraq. A fifteen percent Christian minority is quite probable.

On Libya,Syria,Yemen,Bahrain,Ivory Coast,Christian Minorities and A Humanitarian Foreign Policy

It is ever so obvious that Barack Obama's heart is not in Libya, but like every President since Jefferson he has come to recognize the harsh contradictions as the nation's chief executive and campaigning for the office. His predicament is nothing new. Principle meets the real world.

In the midst of the BP oil spill, I wrote that the President seemed "detached". This entire administration can now aptly described as "detached", but more importantly it can now be held accountable for gross contradiction in selectively determining "humanitarian" intervention.

Obama dithered for three weeks on Libya, missing a window of opportunity as rebels converged upon Tripoli. Only after a brutal counter attack and a prospective slaughter of rebels in Benghazi was a "No fly zone" approved. Not by Congress mind you, but the United Nations. Oh and the on again off again endorsement of the Arab League. Too little, too late. The morale of the rebels is shot.

Then there are the contradictory statements. Obama says "Khadafy must go", but the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs says his removal is not the objective. Hillary Clinton says Libya is a vital national interest, but Robert Gates says it's not. Isn't the first rule of governing to make sure you're all on the same page? Certainly, if you're sending young men into a conflict you might want a consistent front. As the Commander in Chief, Obama has a responsibility to tighten up the message so as to avoid confusion. Is there any evidence of a coordinated effort?

Like many I'm forced to ask a question:Why Libya? Why are they the beneficiaries of our newly discovered humanitarianism? We receive two percent of our oil from Libya and it has no strategic value. Contrasted to Bahrain, which has been claimed by Iran which houses the 7th Fleet. Our base in the Persian Gulf could be endangered by regime change in Bahrain, which alters the balance of power. Did we come to the aid of the rebels being spurred by Iran and suppressed by Saudi troops? Nope. I guess being a humanitarian only matters if the object of rebellion provides greater than two percent of our oil or if you base a carrier task force.

Why not Yemen? A brutal regime in a country strategically located and the home of Anwar al Awlaki of Fort Hood inspiration fame. But the government is cracking down. The response? For all intents and purposes it has been to shrug their shoulders and say "Yemen, what's Yemen"?

Why not Syria? The Assad's are one of the most brutal regimes on the planet. Bashir Assad is ruthlessly suppressing rebels and stands defiant. The response? Hillary Clinton calls him a "reformer". Yeah, he's a regular Martin Luther.

Then there's the Ivory Coast? The what you say? Ivory Coast? A brutal war being fought. The response? Well, if you listen carefully for any word from the Obama Administration you can hear a pin drop on a cricket. That is if all the crickets haven't been killed in the fighting. At any moment I expect someone from the White House to say "Ivory Coast?, I really do like their soap".

Of course in our politically correct, post 9/11 world where "Islamophobia" is the new catch word and all Muslims are victims we have the persecution and murder of Christians. Iraqi Christians are fleeing the country. Coptic Christians murdered and beaten in Egypt. Churches and synagogues burned in Pakistan and subjecting religious minorities to "blasphemy laws". Maybe if we coined the term "Christianaphobia" we might get a humanitarian response.

Personally, I think Obama was reaching for a reason and picked "humanitarian" out of a hat. Bad choice. Can you be a humanitarian on a case by case basis? Pick and choose whose humanity means more to your human sensibilities? Compassion by definition is not selective, but in the world of "realpolitik" natural selection is more often the rule.

Humanitarianism as a policy is a fraud, because there are logistical limitations in its application. Let's just be honest, let's just admit that this move in Libya was done for strategic reasons or to placate our allies. The larger issue is that we don't know the outcome and don't know anything about our Libyan rebel allies. Contrary to popular belief, the "enemy of our enemy is not our friend".

If Barack Obama doesn't believe in intervening in foreign conflicts, I'm ok with that, but to intervene on the fallacy of compassion is absurd. The Obama administration is engaging in a policy of "Selective Humanitarianism". Who would've guessed that such a populist as Obama would employ "Darwinian" tactics in the deployment of America's sons and daughters? How long before his "selectivity" comes back to bite us in the ass? 

President Assad Defiant

From: Christian Science Monitor

Beirut, Lebanon
 
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad struck a defiant stance Wednesday, blaming “conspiracies” for two weeks of unprecedented antiregime protests and stopping short of offering a widely anticipated reform package.


The content of Mr. Assad’s first address since the unrest began dismayed the opposition, which had hoped that the president would reveal details of how he plans to reform the tightly policed state. Despite the government earlier this week dismissing the ruling cabinet and hinting at lifting the emergency law, Assad failed to announce concrete changes or meet any of the protesters' expectations.

Syria

From:The Economist

Road to Damascus

Mar 26th 2011, 11:13 by The Economist | DAMASCUS

AS RECENTLY as Thursday, few were willing to predict whether protests in Deraa would spread across the rest of Syria. Security forces have killed at least 37 people in the city, which is at the heart of a farming region in the south, about an hour's drive from the capital, since people there took to the street a week ago. The protests had been triggered by the detention of a group of teenagers who had been caught drawing anti-government graffiti, but the protesters' demands have since grown to calls for freedom—though not, at this point, for an end to the presidency of Bashar Assad.

Yesterday their calls were joined. Large crowds once again took to the streets in Deraa and the nearby town of Sanamein. More significantly, they spread: smaller protests were reported in the cities of Homs, Hama, Latakia and Damascus. Once again the police used force to put them down. As many as 20 people may have been shot dead by security forces in Sanamein, apparently after they had set fire to a statue of the former president, Hafez Assad, Bashar's father. Three protesters were reported to have been killed in a district of Damascus and at least two more in Latakia.

Less than 24 hours before, the government had pledged not to use violence. The Syrian government's confused response to these unprecedented protests has involved dangling a small carrot or two, as well as swinging its heavy truncheon. On Thursday evening it announced concessions that were supposed to quell the unrest: a pledge to look into lifting emergency law, which has been in place since 1963, and promises to draft new laws governing the media and political parties.

But the lack of concrete reforms only added fuel to the fire. New laws have long been on the table. Syrians—and the international community—are rightly outraged at the use of force. Yesterday Amnesty International said the death toll had climbed to at least 55; scores more have been injured.

Until now, many young Syrians had been willing to tolerate widespread corruption and suppression of basic freedoms in exchange for a “pro-resistance” foreign policy and vague talk of reform. But that bargain is starting to lose its appeal. Distressing, graphic video footage emerging from Deraa and Sanamein are casting Mr Assad’s rule in a different, more brutal light.

His regime is usually regarded as being canny, and relatively nimble. That is not the way it looks this week. No one outside its inner circle knows exactly what is going on. Unlike some of the region's monarchs, Mr Assad is finding it harder and harder to project an image of himself as being above the fray. Some critics are casting him in the same mould as his father, who crushed the last major domestic uprising, staged by the Muslim Brotherhood, with a massacre in Hama in 1982 in which perhaps 20,000 died. Other figures, including the main presidential adviser, have tried to exculpate Mr Assad. This has in turn led to rumours that Bashar is being countermanded within the regime, possibly by his brother Maher.

Meanwhile, the protests are getting more organised. The Syrian Revolution 2011 page on Facebook, not itself a spark for the protests, has become a focal point. Run predominantly by expatriate Syrians, it has disseminated tips for holding a successful demonstration. By posting videos of the dead and injured and promoting a show of national unity, it is building the rallying power that Syrian opposition figures had long struggled to find.

What happens next? Some fear it will be a race to the bottom, with the protests escalating in step with the state’s violence. Some citizens of Latakia, the home to Mr Assad's minority Alawite sect, have started packing up. The Syrian pound’s value on the black market has dropped. There are certainly many outside the country who would like to see Mr Assad go.

But Syrians may still step back. For a country of 22m people, turnout at the protests has till now been relatively low. Huge pro-Assad rallies have been charging round the capital for the past few nights. Few believe their noisy declarations of love for the regime to be spontaneous, but Mr Assad undoubtedly enjoys support. Rising sectarian chants emanating from Deraa, an orthodox Sunni area, have provoked fear elsewhere. Syria is home to large groups of Christians and Druze, as well as Alawites, and these minority groups tend to see Mr Assad as their best insurance against chaos. They eye with fear the long borders that divide their country from Iraq and Lebanon and their well-armed militant groups.

Still, it has become clear that there is widespread dissatisfaction with a government that has failed to provide jobs and an acceptable standard of life for its citizens. Fear of speaking up is dissipating. Confusion at the top is giving the unrest a chance to grow. There will be more funerals and more crowds this weekend. If there is also more bloodshed, yet more Syrians may join the protests, and their demands may grow.

Syrian troops murder protestors: Where's the UN?

FROM: American Thinker

Apparently, Bashar Assad has not murdered enough innocents to deserve the scrutiny of the "Responsibility to Protect" crowd. The New York Times:

Military troops opened fire during protests in the southern part of Syria on Friday and killed peaceful demonstrators, according to witnesses and news reports, hurtling the strategically important nation along the same trajectory that has altered the landscape of power across the Arab world.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators in the southern city of Dara'a and in other cities and towns around the nation took to the streets in protest, defying a state that has once again demonstrated its willingness to use lethal force.

It was the most serious challenge to 40 years of repressive rule by the Assad family since 1982, when the president at the time, Hafez al-Assad, massacred at least 10,000 protesters in Hama, a city in northern Syria.

Human rights groups said that since protests began seven days ago in the south, 38 people had been killed by government forces - and it appeared that many more were killed on Friday. Precise details were hard to obtain because the government sealed off the area to reporters and would not let foreign news media into the country.

Apparently, there is a super-duper secret threshold of dead civilians that must be crossed before our humanitarian president springs into action, along with the pious hypocrites at the UN. Clearly, there's a difference between murdering a couple of hundred protestors and a couple of thousand. Perhaps it's a matter of the volume of blood spilled. No doubt there are Official Counters of the Dead working in the basement of the UN building keeping score of how many demonstrators Baby Assad murdered today.

The question is simple; why not intervene in Syria? Good God! Getting rid of Assad would be a huge plus. It might even change the balance in the Middle East if we can kick the dictator out and substitute someone more to our liking. Syria might move away from Iran's orbit, or at least, not be as obedient to the mullahs in Tehran in doing their bidding.

Alas, there is one reason why we would never intervene in Syria as long as Barack Obama is president; it would be in America's interest to do so. Such action would fail John Kerry's international test that intervention should occur only when it damages our interests or doesn't impact them at all.

Meanwhile, the bombs continue to fall on Gaddafi's forces while Bashar Assad spills almost as much innocent blood. When you figure it all out, let me know.

Syria's security forces fire on protesters

From: Christian Science Monitor

Syria

Syrian protesters staged a "Day of Dignity" Friday, holding demonstrations across the country, including the capital of Damascus. Al Jazeera reports that about 200 people turned out there to show their support for protests that have been taking place all week in the southern city of Deraa, where security forces opened fire on protesters today and dozens have already died in clashes. Meanwhile, the government began making concessions, including lifting the state of emergency that has been in place since 1963.

Libya

NATO has taken control of implementing Libya's no-fly zone, while French and British forces retain responsibility for carrying out strikes against military targets. France announced that Libyan airspace was "under control" of allied forces. Meanwhile, after nearly a week of international support, rebels are still struggling to retake the eastern city of Ajdabiya. Allied forces attempted to give some breathing room to the rebels by striking Qaddafi's troops that are shelling the city.

Yemen

Protesters in Sanaa took a rare step back Friday in order to give room for political negotiations to progress. Negotiators are attempting to work out a transfer of power from President Ali Abdullah Saleh that could see him step down within days, though the transition could well take longer. On Friday, President Saleh said he would be willing to transfer his power on the condition that it went into "safe hands."

Bahrain

Protesters in Bahrain are planning to hold protests Friday – the first large protests since Saudi Arabia sent in troops to help put down the demonstrations and the Bahraini government declared a state of emergency. In response to the plans, security was ramped up in Shiite villages and in and around the capital of Manama.