Pray for the Church in Syria

Making all the necessary allowances for skepticism considering the source, there are ongoing reports from Syria that the anti-government revolutionaries are taking every opportunity to seize property from and execute Syrian Christians. At the very least, this sort of behavior is consistent with the general trend in the much lauded march toward free and democratic societies in the Middle East.

Armed Islamist rebel groups in Syria supported by the Obama administration and Western governments seeking to oust “President” Bashir al-Assad are engaged in “ethnic cleansing” of Christians, according to news reports and human rights organizations. And as the conflict escalates, the persecution of the once-protected Christian minority is growing as well.

The Syrian Orthodox Church, which represents over half of Syrian Christians, issued a statement saying revolutionary fighters had expelled some 50,000 Christians from the embattled city of Homs. That figure is estimated to account for about 90 percent of the Christian community there. Hundreds more — including women and children — were slaughtered, according to charitable organizations operating in the area.

The Orthodox Church referred to the persecution as the “ongoing ethnic cleansing of Christians” by Muslim militants linked to al Qaeda. According to its report, the so-called “Brigade Faruq” is largely to blame, with Islamic extremists going door to door and forcing followers of Christ to leave without even collecting their belongings. Their property is then stolen by rebels as “war-booty from the Christians.”

…

“Christians are being forced to flee the city to the safety of government-controlled areas,” noted a spokesman for the Christian relief agency Barnabas Fund, which reported that over 200 Christians had been murdered by insurgents. “Muslim rebel fighters and their families are taking over their homes.”

In Other News

Yet another Muslim nation has implemented measure which will passively and unintentionally suppress Christianity within its borders. Here is the news out of Kazakhstan:

Kazakhstan’s upper house of parliament approved a bill Thursday that backers say will help combat religious extremism, but that critics call a blow to freedom of belief in the ex-Soviet nation.

The bill approved by the Senate will require existing religious organizations in the mainly Muslim nation to dissolve and register again through a procedure that is virtually guaranteed to exclude smaller groups, including minority Christian communities.

Passage of the bill marks a reversal of authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s earlier attempts to cast Kazakhstan as a land of religious tolerance. One activist estimates that two-thirds of existing religious groups could be abolished as a result of the new law.

Maybe, if they’re lucky, the Kazakh Christians will get a taste of the Arab Spring. Other Christiansseem to be thrilled about it.

In Other News

The Associated Press has made a startling revelation: text critics exist! The faith of every Jew, Christian, and Muslim is in peril.

As if that weren’t enough, the Pew Research Center has found that the rate of religious intolerance and persecution has increased over the last five years for more than one third of the world’s population. I wonder if that includes the newly free and democratic Egypt or the freshly liberated Iraq. Is it any wonder that Christians in Syriaaren’t taking up arms for the kind of peace and freedom that the Arab Spring offers?