tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21841592.post4081148018037733148..comments2022-04-27T23:07:59.833-04:00Comments on Conversi ad Dominum: Syrian Christians Prefer AssadFr John W Fentonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01283787316830250866noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21841592.post-14121074612096049582012-03-02T08:03:23.987-05:002012-03-02T08:03:23.987-05:00There are several foreign policy experts as well a...There are several foreign policy experts as well as people in and from Syria who would dispute the first sentence in the NY Times opinion above.Fr John W Fentonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01283787316830250866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21841592.post-76400114054719275682012-02-29T16:00:18.199-05:002012-02-29T16:00:18.199-05:00The argument seems to go, if Assad falls then the ...The argument seems to go, if Assad falls then the Islamists will slaughter the Christians. Not sure that justifies slaughtering so many today. It also refuses to acknoweledge that not so long ago all Middle Eastern states were "Islamist" states by today's reckoning - and there were more Christians in those countries then.123https://www.blogger.com/profile/14514075641944568806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21841592.post-73773168728439849812012-02-29T15:57:47.894-05:002012-02-29T15:57:47.894-05:00"You see in Syria how quickly the regime turn..."You see in Syria how quickly the regime turned the democracy push there into a sectarian war. Remember, the opposition in Syria began as a largely peaceful, grass-roots, pan-Syrian movement for democratic change. But it was deliberately met by President Bashar al-Assad with murder and sectarian venom. He wanted to make the conflict about his Alawite minority versus the country’s Sunni Muslim majority as a way of discrediting the opposition and holding his base. <br /><br />As Peter Harling and Sarah Birke, experts on the Middle East who have been in Syria, wrote in a recent essay: “Rather than reform, the regime’s default setting has been to push society to the brink. As soon as protests started ... state media showed staged footage of arms being found in a mosque in Dara’a, the southern city where protests first broke out, and warned that a sit-in in Homs ... was an attempt to erect a mini-caliphate. This manipulation of Syrians meant the regime was confident that the threat of civil war would force citizens and outside players alike to agree on preserving the existing power structure as the only bulwark against collapse.”"<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/opinion/friedman-there-be-dragons.html?_r=1&hp123https://www.blogger.com/profile/14514075641944568806noreply@blogger.com