For Aleppo Bishop, Christians Too Have Been Caught Up in Propaganda War Between Govt and Rebels

AsiaNews ^ | 9/6/19

[marshmallow]

A report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights blames the Syrian regime for 61 per cent of attacks on churches. Between March 2011 and September 2019, 124 places of worship were hit. For Bishop Audo, the issue is "complicated and delicate", one that requires "extreme care". Both sides are exploiting the issues.

Aleppo (AsiaNews) – The propaganda war in Syria between the Syrian government and rebel groups is one of the conflict’s many battlefronts, each side with its own regional and international patrons.

For Mgr Antoine Audo, Chaldean bishop of Aleppo, this is a "complicated and delicate" issue, one that requires "extreme care", above all a cautious evaluation of the sources, as well as the groups and factions that provide the news.

The latest episode in the battle concerns a report by a Syrian NGO that suggests that Syria’s regular forces are responsible for most attacks against churches and other Christian places of worship.

For Bishop Audo, who is a former president of Caritas Syria, "it is difficult to give an objective answer” when faced with such information. “When armed groups lose ground, this kind of propaganda gets cranked up again." Hence, we must be "very careful of this" because some belligerents "have benefitted from the support of international media from the start of the conflict.”

The latest controversy is based on a recent report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) titled Targeting Christian Places of Worship in Syria is a Threat to World Heritage. The document claims that Syrian forces are responsible for 61 per cent of attacks against churches and monasteries, thus undermining the image of President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian government as defenders of minorities, especially Christians.

“The Syrian regime has always invoked good slogans, but on the ground, it has done the opposite,”......

[marshmallow]

The document claims that Syrian forces are responsible for 61 per cent of attacks against churches and monasteries, thus undermining the image of President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian government as defenders of minorities, especially Christians.

The churches were not targeted per se but had been taken over by Islamic fighters and were collateral damage.

[Mount Athos]

The source cited (Syrian network for human rights) doesn’t have any credibility.

Chaldean christians are about 16% of christians in Syria.

[Mrs. Don-o]

As always, it seems, the poor suffer for the sins of the rich, and the innocent suffer for the sins of the guilty.

The suffering of these persecuted Christians is so dreadful, one courts despair even thinking about it, let alone inquiring into it further to grasp its full dimensions.

May God bring the evil a heart-rending stroke of penitential sorrow and repentance, and wrap the suffering innocents in a mantle of glory.