by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
Stonegate Institute<\/em><\/p>\n What is the alternative to Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria? A simple if indirect way to find out is to consider which groups in Syria are especially for or against Assad \u2014 and why.<\/p>\n Christian minorities, who, at 10% of the Syrian population, have the most to gain from a secular government and the most to suffer from a Sharia-state, have no choice but to prefer Assad. They are already seeing aspects of the alternative. A recent\u00a0Barnabas Fund report<\/a>\u00a0titled “Christians in Syria Targeted in Series of Kidnappings and Killings; 100 Dead,” tells of how “children were being especially targeted by the kidnappers, who, if they do not receive the ransom demanded, kill the victim.” In one instance, kidnappers videotaped a Christian boy as they\u00a0murdered<\/a>\u00a0him in an attempt to frame the government; one man “was cut into pieces and thrown in a river” and another “was found hanged with numerous injuries.”<\/p>\n Accordingly, it is understandable that, as an\u00a0earlier report<\/a>\u00a0put it, “Christians have mostly stayed away from the protests in Syria, having been well treated and afforded a considerable amount of religious freedom under President Assad’s regime.” After all, “Should Assad fall, it is feared that Syria could go the way of Iraq post-Saddam Hussein. Saddam, like Assad, restrained the influence of militant Islamists, but after his fall they were free to wreak havoc on the Christian community; hundreds of thousands of Christians were consequently forced to flee the violence. Many of them went to Syria.”<\/p>\n In short, should “rebels” get their way and topple the Assad regime, the same brutal pattern experienced by\u00a0Iraq’s Christian minorities<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u2014 who have been liked to, and killed off like, dogs, to the point of\u00a0nearing extinction<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u2014 will come to Syria, where a preacher recently urged Muslims to “tear apart, chop up and feed<\/a>” Christians who support Assad “to the dogs.” From last week alone, some 70 additional Christian homes were\u00a0invaded and pillaged<\/a>, and “for the first time in the history of the conflict in Syria, an\u00a0armed attack has been made on a Catholic monastery<\/a>,” partially in search of money.<\/p>\n And who are these “rebels” who see and treat Christians as sub-humans to be exploited and plundered to fund the “opposition” against Assad? In fact, many of them are\u00a0Islamists<\/a>, internal and external, and their “opposition” is really a jihad; moreover, they are acting on anti-Christian\u00a0fatwas<\/em>\u00a0that justify thekidnapping, ransoming, and plundering<\/a>\u00a0of “infidel” Christians.<\/p>\n As in Libya, it is a fact that\u00a0al Qaeda is operating among the Syrian opposition<\/a>;Ayman al-Zawahiri<\/a>\u00a0himself “urges the Syrian people to continue their revolution until the downfall of the Assad regime, and stresses that toppling this regime is a necessary step on the way to liberating Jerusalem.” Even the influential\u00a0Yusif al-Qaradawi<\/a>\u00a0and Hamas, the latter supported by Iran \u2014 Assad’s ally \u2014 both back the “rebels.” All these facts should place the “opposition” \u2014 who they are, what they want \u2014 in better context.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, US President Obama, who was remarkably reticent when Iranians seeking Western-style freedom tried to revolt against the oppressive Islamist regime of Iran, made it a point to single out Assad by name as needing to go at his recent State of the Union Address (not that the Republican presidential candidates\u00a0seem to know any better<\/a>; see\u00a0Andrew McCarthy<\/a>‘s recent article where, drawing on America’s other misadventures in Islamic nations, he shows how the US has little to gain and possibly much to lose by supporting the anti-Assad opposition).<\/p>\n The lesson here is clear: while it is true that not all of Assad’s opposition is Islamist \u2014 there are anti-Assad Muslims who do not want a Sharia state \u2014 the Islamists are quite confident that the overthrow of Assad equates their empowerment. And why shouldn’t they be confident? Wherever Arab tyrants have been overthrow \u2014 Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, etc. \u2014 it is Islamists filling the power-vacuums. Just ask Syria’s Christian minorities, who prefer the dictator Assad remain in power \u2014 who prefer the devil they know to the ancient demon their forefathers knew.<\/p>\n \u00a92012 Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Raymond Ibrahim Stonegate Institute What is the alternative to Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria? A simple if indirect way to find out is to consider which groups in Syria are especially for or against Assad \u2014 and why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[127,227],"tags":[12,249,192,419,239,250,1041],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-ey","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6949,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/kerry-boasts-of-pluralistic-syria-once-assad-gone\/","url_meta":{"origin":902,"position":0},"title":"Kerry Boasts of ‘Pluralistic’ Syria Once Assad Gone","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com\u00a0 U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, was recently\u00a0interviewed\u00a0about Syria. \u00a0While many of his assertions can be debated, one especially requires a response. Throughout the interview, he repeatedly insisted that, if Bashar Assad would only leave power, everything would go well \u2014 especially for all of Syria\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Syria"","block_context":{"text":"Syria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/syria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/11769416185_50193bfa40-300x240.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6393,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-crosses-red-line-by-supporting-jihadi-terrorism\/","url_meta":{"origin":902,"position":1},"title":"Obama Crosses Red Line by Supporting Jihadi Terrorism","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0Jihad Watch By now it should be obvious that whenever the U.S. interferes in another nation\u2019s politics in the name of \u201chuman rights,\u201d that that is only a pretext. So it is in Syria, as Obama prepares to plunge America in a war with that nation, and,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6840,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/muslim-cleric-incites-children-to-slaughter-christians-and-alawites-in-syria\/","url_meta":{"origin":902,"position":2},"title":"Muslim Cleric Incites Children to ‘Slaughter’ Christians and Alawites in Syria","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com\u00a0 A video recently appeared of an Islamic Sunni cleric in Syria inciting Muslim schoolboys, most of whom appear \u00a0to be between the ages of five-twelve, to hate and kill Christians and others. According to a\u00a0reportin Arabic (scroll down for video), among other things, the sheikh calls\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Syria"","block_context":{"text":"Syria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/syria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7182,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/muslim-cleric-urges-poor-women-to-become-sex-slaves\/","url_meta":{"origin":902,"position":3},"title":"Muslim Cleric Urges Poor Women to Become Sex-Slaves","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com\u00a0 Within the context of keeping the Syrian jihad alive, it seems there is no end to the attempts of some Islamic clerics to legitimize otherwise forbidden behavior in order to\u00a0gratify the sexual urges of the jihadis\u00a0and keep them fighting Syrian president Bashar Assad. 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