by WorldTribune Staff, December 8, 2024 Real World News
After his rebel army had taken Aleppo, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani appeared to reassure the city’s dwindling Christian community that it would endure.
“Aleppo has always been a meeting point for civilizations and cultures, and it will remain so, with a long history of cultural and religious diversity,” he said, according to a Dec. 6 report by AFP.
However the identity and long-term objectives of the coalition of forces that swept into power is not known.
At the start of the civil war in March of 2011, an estimated 200,000 Christians, including 50,000 Armenians, lived in Aleppo. Currently, Christian community leaders say the number has fallen to about 30,000, with only 10,000 Armenians.
Syria’s Christian community dates back to the first century AD, and it has been called the “cradle of Christianity.”
St. Paul the Apostle famously converted to Christianity on the road to Damascus, and the nation has produced three Popes: Pope Anicetus (157–168 AD), Pope Sergius I (687-701),[2] and Pope Gregory III (731–741 AD).
However, the Syrian Christian community has since undergone severe persecution, displacement, and emigration. Christians in Syria had in this century made up about 10% of the population but now comprises less than 2%, falling from 1.5 million in 2011 to just 300,000 in 2022 due to widespread persecution by Islamic terrorists and the impact of the Syrian Civil War.
The Christian community suffered greatly when the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group overran large parts of Syria.
ISIS targeted Christians, resorting to mass kidnappings and the destruction of churches, before being defeated in 2019.
A source in the Christian community told AFP that, after entering Aleppo, rebel representatives went to a convent and a hospital run by religious figures to reassure them they meant no harm.
“To our great surprise, the behavior of the new occupiers of Aleppo is completely different from what we expected,” Barron’s cited one resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying.
“All the speeches they give are to say that they are not here to make us suffer. They are here to help us. They say, ‘All we want is to overthrow Assad’s regime.’ People who were afraid are starting to go out, and life is beginning to resume.”
Jolani had also called on the residents of Mahardeh, a predominantly Christian town in central Syria, not to flee as his fighters attacked the nearby city of Hama.
“We will ensure your protection and safeguard your property,” he said in a statement.
Timely: Defund Fake News
The American Free Press is Back!
‘Religious diversity’ to endure in Aleppo, Syrian rebel leader assures Christians added by Editor Two on
View all posts by Editor Two →