Doonesbury on 30 Dec 2008
I am priest in a Church whose Patriarchate is headquartered in Damascus, Syria. I have found that Americans have a number of misconceptions about Christianity in Syria. Because of Syria’s classification by the State Department as a terrorist state, the assumption has been that Syria is a radical Muslim state. But, actually, that is not true. Syria is a secular socialist one-party government since 1970. Its “presidency” is a presidency that currently appears to be more hereditary than elective, given that one man held it from 1970 until his death, and one of his sons now holds it.
Because of the misconception about Syria being a radical Muslim state, most people are not aware that about 20% of the population is Christian, with the vast majority of them being Orthodox, whether Eastern or Oriental. As a result, the comic above is true, Christians can actually flee Iraq, where they have been under active persecution, and go to Syria, where they will be safe from the type of violence pictured above. It is not a picture that Americans are accustomed to thinking about.
I am not saying that Christians have it all easy in Syria. But, there is no active persecution of Christians happening in Syria, at the moment. Some of their problems are purely cultural. Friday & Saturday are the weekend in Syria because of its predominant Muslim culture. So, as a fellow Orthodox priest, who grew up in Syria, told me, it is possible for a school child to not go to Sunday morning worship during the entire school year. However, this is not due to active persecution, and government employees who are Christian are allowed to take a couple of hours of leave on Sunday morning in order to attend services. There are Christian members of parliament and ministers of government who are Christian.
Having said that, let me also say that, in some ways, no one has it easy in Syria. It is, after all, a socialist state with a one-party government and a secret police. Nevertheless, unlike some formerly Communist countries there is no insistence on a state atheism, so Muslims, Christians, and Jews can practice their religion provided that they do not use their religion to further a political agenda.
Please understand that I am not, in any way, defending the international politics of Syria, nor am I defending the Baath party which controls in Syria, nor the current president. I am not in favor of its one-party rule, nor its restrictions on free speech, etc. I am, however, saying that some of our American conceptions about Syria are not true.
I am of Syrian heritage and have been to Syria many times in my life. I come from a Greek Orthodox Village and want to attest to what Fr. Ernesto is saying. There is almost no Christian persecution in Syria. And most conceptions that the West has of Syria is usually distorted. Thank you for this post as most of us are unaware of what "truly" takes place in the world.
Syria is less of a problem to Syrian Christians than to Lebanese ones … perhaps.
In Lebanon one Muslim militia had support from Syria during civil war.
I have heard, Saddam Hussein was a Baath partist too, and Christians were not his favourite goal for gas bombings.