| New York Times | - |
By ANNE BARNARD and HWAIDA SAAD. Published: September 10, 2013. BEIRUT, Lebanon - For Syrian
rebels fighting in recent days around the ancient Christian town of
Maaloula, any gains made in battle could be wiped out in the war of
perceptions.
Assault on Christian Town in Syria Adds to Fears Over Rebels
Anwar Amro/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The funerals on Tuesday of three Christian Syrians who were killed over the weekend in the town of Maaloula.
By ANNE BARNARD and HWAIDA SAAD
Published: September 10, 2013
BEIRUT, Lebanon — For Syrian rebels fighting in recent days around the
ancient Christian town of Maaloula, any gains made in battle could be
wiped out in the war of perceptions.
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SANA, via Associated Press
In a photo released by the Syrian official news
agency, a Syrian soldier fired a heavy machine gun during clashes with
rebels over the weekend in the Christian town of Maaloula.
Their incursion into the town, led by extremist Islamists, reinforces
the worst fears of Syrian Christians and could bolster President Bashar
al-Assad’s claims that he is the Christians’ protector. It may also
complicate President Obama’s task as he struggles to convince Americans
that a military strike against Mr. Assad will not strengthen Islamic
extremists.
Some of the rebels, apparently aware of their public relations problem,
said in interviews that they meant Christians no harm. They filmed
themselves talking politely with nuns, instructing fighters not to harm civilians or churches and touring a monastery that appeared mostly intact. They said they had withdrawn from most of the town, posted videos of shelling
there by Mr. Assad’s forces and argued that the government had given
the fight a sectarian cast by sending Christian militiamen from Damascus
to join in.
But the damage was already done. Most of the town’s residents have fled, and Maaloula, one of the last places where Aramaic, the language of Jesus,
is still spoken by Christians and some Muslims, has become a one-word
argument against Western support for the rebels — at the worst possible
time for Mr. Obama and the opponents of Mr. Assad.
Syrian-Americans lobbying against the proposed American missile strike
flooded Congressional message boards with appeals for Maaloula. A common
refrain was that Mr. Obama was throwing Syria’s Christians “to the
lions.”
It was a powerful accusation in a region where a decade of unrest and
rising sectarianism, from Iraq to Egypt, has threatened and displaced
large sectors of the Middle East’s Christians, a population that had
already shrunk significantly through emigration over the past century.
Reached by telephone on Monday night, Mother Pelagia Sayaf, who is in
charge of Mar Taqla, a monastery in Maaloula that is among the country’s
oldest, said that the 53 nuns and orphans staying there had not been
harmed and that the principal damage was shattered windows. Another nun
said some of the fighters were local men who promised to protect the
monastery.
But the encounter with the rebels had done little to reassure the nuns
that in the long run Syria’s Christians would retain the peaceful
existence they had long enjoyed.
“If Maaloula survives, it will be a miracle,” Mother Sayaf said. “Maaloula is empty. You see ghosts on the walls.”
The situation in Maaloula underscores the core problems that bedevil the
movement against Mr. Assad: the opposition, rooted in Syria’s Sunni
majority, has failed to win over enough Christians, who make up 8
percent to 10 percent of the population, or other religious minorities.
More than 450,000 Christians have fled their homes, church leaders say,
during more than two years of war.
On the battlefield, well-armed radical Islamist groups, including
foreign fighters, show little inclination to coordinate with local
battalions, and sectarian killings and references to non-Muslims as
infidels further intimidate Christians. In Maaloula, according to
fighters, the rebel attack was led by members of the Nusra Front, a
group with ties to Al Qaeda in Iraq, even after local fighters
affiliated with the Western-backed Free Syrian Army tried and failed to
dissuade them.
Last week, as the battle began, opponents of American military action in Syria circulated a recent video
of a Syrian Christian woman accosting Senator John McCain, a proponent
of military action, accusing him of abandoning Christians. “I could
trace my family’s name to the Bible,” she said. “We refuse to be forced
to leave.”
Maaloula has long symbolized Syria’s history of diversity and
coexistence. Legend has it that as an early Christian saint, Taqla, was
fleeing persecution, the cliffs parted to help her escape, giving the
town its name, which means entrance in Aramaic. More recent lore says a
small Sunni population sprang up after a Christian man converted to
marry a Muslim.
Even after a movement for political rights morphed into a civil war,
local Sunni and Christian leaders worked to maintain calm. Local groups
of rebels have long occupied the Safir hotel on the edge of town. But
until last week, Mother Sayaf said, residents moved unmolested between
rebel and government territory.
“We don’t have any problem with Christians, they are living among us for
thousands of years,” said Abu al-Majd, a rebel from nearby Yabroud who,
like others, gave only a nickname for safety. “Before, with and after
Assad.”
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