The EU has failed to offer real political assist to Syria’s Christian neighborhood, based on abbess Agnes Mariam de la Croix
Syria’s Christian neighborhood has by no means obtained political assist from the West, significantly Europe, based on Agnes Mariam de la Croix, the mom superior on the Monastery of Saint James the Mutilated in Syria.
The abbess made the remarks whereas speaking to RT on Tuesday in gentle of the latest incident involving the burning of a Christmas tree within the Syrian Orthodox metropolis of Hama by a gaggle of Islamist fighters.
The incident has stirred anger amongst native residents, with lots of of demonstrators having taken to the streets within the Christian neighborhoods of Damascus on Monday amid fears of additional crackdowns on Syria’s non secular minorities.
Movies circulating on-line confirmed hooded figures setting fireplace to the tree at a site visitors circle within the Christian-majority city of Al-Suqalabiyah close to the town of Hama in central Syria.
Reacting to the occasions, de la Croix identified that after seizing energy the jihadist teams, significantly the Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS), have promised to handle minorities and even paid surprising visits to religious leaders in Aleppo, Hama, and Damascus.
Nonetheless, the neighborhood has been “focused by other ways of discrimination and misunderstanding of our Christian symbols, particularly on this holy realm on Christmas Eve,” she mentioned.
Requested about reviews of European help to Syria’s Christian neighborhood, de la Croix replied, “we don’t depend on safety from the West, I remorse to say it.”
She famous that Europe has by no means genuinely assisted Christians in Syria. Quite the opposite, she mentioned, there was all the time a sense it was “even forbidden for us to speak in regards to the prosecution of Christians.” She mentioned European politicians “weren’t very completely happy” when she talked in regards to the difficulty.
HTS jihadists launched a shock offensive within the northern Syrian provinces of Idlib and Aleppo late final month. After the town of Aleppo fell inside days, the group superior south on Damascus, capturing the cities of Suqaylabiyah, Hama, and Homs alongside the best way earlier than they have been joined by US-armed Free Syrian Military (FSA) militants for a last push on the capital. Former Syrian President Bashar Assad left for Russia, the place he has been granted asylum.
Below Assad, Christians and different non secular minorities have been allowed to brazenly follow their religion.
HTS chief Ahmed Al-Sharaa has vowed to steer Syria into an period of change, promising an inclusive imaginative and prescient the place all non secular and ethnic teams are represented. Nevertheless, with HTS in cost, many now reportedly concern persecutions.
“We really feel insecure, not less than,” de la Croix mentioned, noting it isn’t solely about Christians, however there had been aggression in opposition to different minorities too.
Burning a Christmas tree means “burning our rules, religion, pleasure, and fist of Christmas,” based on de la Croix, who described it as “an insult” in opposition to the neighborhood.
The abbess raised hope for enchancment of the “horrible uncertainty” state of affairs for the Syrian ethnic and non secular minorities sooner or later.
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