Syria’s Christians Fear Collapse of the State - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/culture/2013/05/syria-christians-fear-collapse-of-state.html
If the revolutionaries’ main goal is to overthrow the regime and depose President Bashar al-Assad, that is not how it looks to the Syrian Christians. What really matters to the Christians is the Syrian state’s identity and the nature of its social, judicial, political and economic order, where the state would be religiously neutral. What the Syrian Christians want is not power but a genuine Syrian state that is democratic, pluralistic, civil, and provides security, justice and equality for all its citizens and ensures their full citizenship and true partnership in governance.
Unfortunately, the stand of the Syrian opposition, in its various intellectual and political trends, is ambiguous on these key issues, and that is weakening the Christians’ trust in the opposition regarding a civil state and citizenship, which the Christians aspire to. The Syrian Christians’ “dissociation” policy toward what is happening in Syria does not mean that most Christians support Assad’s rule and his dictatorship, as some have suggested.
In the same vein, I do not agree with Kilo’s view that “the Christians who continue to support the Syrian regime are either ‘Shabbiha themselves’ or ‘misguided by the church.’” Such ideological and unfair reading of the Christians is not objective. I admit that some Christians are benefitting from the regime and wish it remains in power, but they are few and their examples are present in all Syrian sects in even higher proportions.
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Unlike most Syrian minorities, the Christians are unarmed. They have no “armed militias” to protect themselves if the security situation falls apart. Also, the Christians have no regional or international ally to protect them. They fear falling victim to either the political and sectarian agendas of the forces battling for power or to regional and international interests. They fear that their fate will be that of the Christians in Iraq: kidnappings, killings and displacement.