Leave Syria Alone

[reprehensor]

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/chancy4.html

Every night of the year, pilgrims climb to the mountain-top Saidnaya monastery church for a vespers service. Built 1,500 years ago, for many in the Middle East it is a site second in importance only to Jerusalem. Inside the ancient Orthodox church with its golden icons, a priest monk blesses the pilgrims with a censor as the men bob up and down on prayer carpets. The women kiss icons in veneration, and light candles in prayer. This is a familiar scene, one played out in Orthodox churches all around the world. Only here there is one notable exception. At this church, located about 25 km north of Damascus, most of the pilgrims on any given night are heavily-bearded Muslim men, usually accompanied by their shrouded wives.

Syria – target of American sanctions, junior member of the "Axis of Evil," repressive dictatorship, and the best nation in the Middle East in which to live if you are a Christian.

Christianity in Syria is ancient. A Christian community was already firmly established in Damascus within a few decades of Christ’s resurrection. St. Paul was traveling there to carry out persecution of Christians when Jesus Himself appeared to him. Throughout Byzantine times, and well into the era of Islam, Damascus was a center of Christian learning and scholarship. The writings of such Syrian divines as St. John of Damascus helped define the Christian faith, and are still required reading in seminaries throughout the world.

Today, Christians in Syria comprise approximately 8–10% of the population, an estimated 1.3 million people. The majority of them are Eastern Orthodox Christians under the Patriarchate of Antioch. The historic city of Antioch, where followers of Jesus Christ were first called Christians, is actually physically located inside modern day Turkey. However, the Patriarchate fled U.S. ally Turkey in the 1930’s in order to find greater freedom in Syria, a nation the U.S. considers its enemy.

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Excellent article. Is it hard to tell that a Neocon never wrote it? ;)

[bemildred]

1. Leave everybody alone. Just leave them alone.

We'll all be better off. -- Larry Flynt