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Gulf News (United Arab Emirates)
January 17, 2013 Thursday
Syrian Christians are Syrians first
by Joseph A. Kechichian | Senior Writer
If misguided Christian religious leaders attempted to portray the 2011
revolution as a conflict that did not concern them, and if they stood
by the Baath regime to protect their respective communities from
alleged "terrorists," most of their flocks finally rejected the
official propaganda that drowned them in the rhetoric of victimisation
so dear to the regime of President Bashar Al Assad. What triggered
the transformation and will this radical shift accelerate the fall of
the Baath?
Inasmuch as fear, intimidation, bigotry, putative financial gains, and
latent racism coloured much of the oratory that was uttered by a few
company clerics, Christian civilians were not only perceived as mere
victims but became casualties as well. To be sure, some were kidnapped
and killed as extremists gained ground, although many more were fodder
in the hands of state authorities. Several prelates counselled
prudence as they positioned themselves on the side of the powerful
with the likes of Greek Orthodox Bishop Louqa Al Khoury or the Syriac
priest Gabriel Dawood participating in pro-government demonstrations
that supported Bashar Al Assad.
Such mixed messages confused masses, who believed that their leaders
rejected the revolution, though most quickly became victims of the
dreaded Mukhabarat. Indeed, some Christians were prosecuted, arrested
and sometimes executed by revolutionaries, but not because they were
Christians. Rather, as was the case with others, they died and
continue to perish because they collaborated with the regime, engaged
in spying activitiess, or otherwise assisted Damascus.
Christians were also caught between Free Syrian Army and Al Shabiha
confrontations, which eliminated any neutrality they professed, and
that translated into deaths and mayhem. Of course, and this was worth
repeating, such casualties were not the result of belonging to any
particular community, for deaths befell on all without discrimination.
If churches were destroyed, so were mosques and, it may be safe to
write at this stage that many more mosques were razed than chapels and
monasteries.
If many Christians were forced to abandon their homes, many more
Muslims were in similar situations, as looting was widespread and
indiscriminate. If about 200,000 of the estimated 3.5 million Syrian
Christians were displaced, it was also critical to note that their
forced departures were not related to their religious affiliation, but
the evolution of fighting on the ground, especially in Aleppo.
Several million Muslim Syrians became refugees and were also forced
out of their homes.
Naturally, Damascus successfully presented its quest for order, as
well as its justification on the use of extreme violence during the
past two years, as a posse effort to protect Christian communities.
The latter were "victims of the revolution," everyone was told, as the
state played its "protection of minorities" song time and again. Yet,
and though Christian clerics polarised their communities by labelling
revolutionaries "rebels" or "bandits," such erroneous sentiments were
corrected by intellectuals who gradually restored their tarnished
reputations as they insisted that Syrian Christians were Syrians
first.
Starting in March 2011, Christians questioned church authorities, as
they informed the clergy that the uprising was not about a class,
community or a particular religion. They insisted on freedom,
diversity, respect for life and property, all majestically commended
in the Gospels. Most important, intellectual voices cautioned the
clergy not to become a tool for the moribund political system that,
regrettably, failed to register. Leading political activists
intervened to tell the leaders of their communities to desist from
regurgitating the state's arguments.
A 30-years old Jesuit priest, Nibras Chehayed, the `poet' of the
revolution on account of his carefully drafted missives against the
blatant use of weapons to destroy Syria, was perhaps the most
eloquent. He replaced Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, the Italian-born cleric
who served at the Mar Mousa monastery for three decades, and who was
expelled by the regime in October 2012.
They were not alone. A Canadian-Syrian attorney, Hind Aboud Kabawat,
promoted interfaith tolerance and cooperation, while Marie Mamarbachi
Seurat, the Syriac faithful whose parents were forced out of Anatolia
during the 1915 Armenian massacres and whose erudite Middle East
scholar husband, Michel Seurat, was brutally murdered in 1986 (his
remains were found in Beirut's Southern suburbs), fought to restore
Christian credibility in the country.
Ayman Abdul Nour, who ran the online news site All4Syria, as well as
the popular singer Lina Chamamyan, along with the president of the
Syrian National Council, Georges Sabra, all added their voices to the
chorus. None has been as eloquent as Michel Kilo, who insisted on his
patriotic stances irrespective of faith, and whose eloquence in logic
and word remained unparalleled.
As civilians warned priests, bishops and patriarchs against the
machinations of the intelligence services, it was gratifying to
finally note that, after much soul-searching, a few bold clerics
changed their discourse and literally sanctioned members of the clergy
whose actions aroused many months of faithful irritation. Those who
routinely appeared on official television were asked to end their
activities since they did not reflect the positions of the
overwhelming majority of Christians who aspired towards a civil
society.
Interestingly, the newly elected patriarch of the Greek Orthodox
Church of Antioch and all the East, joined the intellectual voices
that called for a careful reappraisal. During his first press
conference after his appointment in late December 2012, Bishop Yuhanna
Yaziji insisted that what happened to Christians happened to all other
Syrians and that Syrian Christians were "in the same situation as
any". This was a breath of fresh air.
It illustrated that not all were mesmerised by cheap rhetoric and that
a new reading to realities on the ground showed the way for the
future.
Dr Joseph A. Kéchichian is the author of Legal and Political Reforms
in Saudi Arabia.
January 17, 2013 Thursday
Syrian Christians are Syrians first
by Joseph A. Kechichian | Senior Writer
If misguided Christian religious leaders attempted to portray the 2011
revolution as a conflict that did not concern them, and if they stood
by the Baath regime to protect their respective communities from
alleged "terrorists," most of their flocks finally rejected the
official propaganda that drowned them in the rhetoric of victimisation
so dear to the regime of President Bashar Al Assad. What triggered
the transformation and will this radical shift accelerate the fall of
the Baath?
Inasmuch as fear, intimidation, bigotry, putative financial gains, and
latent racism coloured much of the oratory that was uttered by a few
company clerics, Christian civilians were not only perceived as mere
victims but became casualties as well. To be sure, some were kidnapped
and killed as extremists gained ground, although many more were fodder
in the hands of state authorities. Several prelates counselled
prudence as they positioned themselves on the side of the powerful
with the likes of Greek Orthodox Bishop Louqa Al Khoury or the Syriac
priest Gabriel Dawood participating in pro-government demonstrations
that supported Bashar Al Assad.
Such mixed messages confused masses, who believed that their leaders
rejected the revolution, though most quickly became victims of the
dreaded Mukhabarat. Indeed, some Christians were prosecuted, arrested
and sometimes executed by revolutionaries, but not because they were
Christians. Rather, as was the case with others, they died and
continue to perish because they collaborated with the regime, engaged
in spying activitiess, or otherwise assisted Damascus.
Christians were also caught between Free Syrian Army and Al Shabiha
confrontations, which eliminated any neutrality they professed, and
that translated into deaths and mayhem. Of course, and this was worth
repeating, such casualties were not the result of belonging to any
particular community, for deaths befell on all without discrimination.
If churches were destroyed, so were mosques and, it may be safe to
write at this stage that many more mosques were razed than chapels and
monasteries.
If many Christians were forced to abandon their homes, many more
Muslims were in similar situations, as looting was widespread and
indiscriminate. If about 200,000 of the estimated 3.5 million Syrian
Christians were displaced, it was also critical to note that their
forced departures were not related to their religious affiliation, but
the evolution of fighting on the ground, especially in Aleppo.
Several million Muslim Syrians became refugees and were also forced
out of their homes.
Naturally, Damascus successfully presented its quest for order, as
well as its justification on the use of extreme violence during the
past two years, as a posse effort to protect Christian communities.
The latter were "victims of the revolution," everyone was told, as the
state played its "protection of minorities" song time and again. Yet,
and though Christian clerics polarised their communities by labelling
revolutionaries "rebels" or "bandits," such erroneous sentiments were
corrected by intellectuals who gradually restored their tarnished
reputations as they insisted that Syrian Christians were Syrians
first.
Starting in March 2011, Christians questioned church authorities, as
they informed the clergy that the uprising was not about a class,
community or a particular religion. They insisted on freedom,
diversity, respect for life and property, all majestically commended
in the Gospels. Most important, intellectual voices cautioned the
clergy not to become a tool for the moribund political system that,
regrettably, failed to register. Leading political activists
intervened to tell the leaders of their communities to desist from
regurgitating the state's arguments.
A 30-years old Jesuit priest, Nibras Chehayed, the `poet' of the
revolution on account of his carefully drafted missives against the
blatant use of weapons to destroy Syria, was perhaps the most
eloquent. He replaced Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, the Italian-born cleric
who served at the Mar Mousa monastery for three decades, and who was
expelled by the regime in October 2012.
They were not alone. A Canadian-Syrian attorney, Hind Aboud Kabawat,
promoted interfaith tolerance and cooperation, while Marie Mamarbachi
Seurat, the Syriac faithful whose parents were forced out of Anatolia
during the 1915 Armenian massacres and whose erudite Middle East
scholar husband, Michel Seurat, was brutally murdered in 1986 (his
remains were found in Beirut's Southern suburbs), fought to restore
Christian credibility in the country.
Ayman Abdul Nour, who ran the online news site All4Syria, as well as
the popular singer Lina Chamamyan, along with the president of the
Syrian National Council, Georges Sabra, all added their voices to the
chorus. None has been as eloquent as Michel Kilo, who insisted on his
patriotic stances irrespective of faith, and whose eloquence in logic
and word remained unparalleled.
As civilians warned priests, bishops and patriarchs against the
machinations of the intelligence services, it was gratifying to
finally note that, after much soul-searching, a few bold clerics
changed their discourse and literally sanctioned members of the clergy
whose actions aroused many months of faithful irritation. Those who
routinely appeared on official television were asked to end their
activities since they did not reflect the positions of the
overwhelming majority of Christians who aspired towards a civil
society.
Interestingly, the newly elected patriarch of the Greek Orthodox
Church of Antioch and all the East, joined the intellectual voices
that called for a careful reappraisal. During his first press
conference after his appointment in late December 2012, Bishop Yuhanna
Yaziji insisted that what happened to Christians happened to all other
Syrians and that Syrian Christians were "in the same situation as
any". This was a breath of fresh air.
It illustrated that not all were mesmerised by cheap rhetoric and that
a new reading to realities on the ground showed the way for the
future.
Dr Joseph A. Kéchichian is the author of Legal and Political Reforms
in Saudi Arabia.