Posted on 04/16/2019 10:25:40 AM PDT by Red Badger
KOBANI, Syria (Reuters) - A community of Syrians who converted to Christianity from Islam is growing in Kobani, a town besieged by Islamic State for months, and where the tide turned against the militants four years ago.
The converts say the experience of war and the onslaught of a group claiming to fight for Islam pushed them towards their new faith. After a number of families converted, the Syrian-Turkish border town’s first evangelical church opened last year.
Islamic State militants were beaten back by U.S. air strikes and Kurdish fighters at Kobani in early 2015, in a reversal of fortune after taking over swaths of Iraq and Syria. After years of fighting, U.S.-backed forces fully ended the group’s control over populated territory last month.
Though Islamic State’s ultra radical interpretation of Sunni Islam has been repudiated by the Islamic mainstream, the legacy of its violence has affected perceptions of faith.
Many in the mostly Kurdish areas of northern Syria, whose urban centers are often secular, say agnosticism has strengthened and in the case of Kobani, Christianity.
Christianity is one of the region’s minority faiths that was persecuted by Islamic State.
Critics view the new converts with suspicion, accusing them of seeking personal gain such as financial help from Christian organizations working in the region, jobs and enhanced prospects of emigration to European countries.
The newly-converted Christians of Kobani deny those accusations. They say their conversion was a matter of faith.
“After the war with Islamic State people were looking for the right path, and distancing themselves from Islam,” said Omar Firas, the founder of Kobani’s evangelical church. “People were scared and felt lost.”
Firas works for a Christian aid group at a nearby camp for displaced people that helped set up the church.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
They’d be dead in 5 MINUTES if Assad didn’t control the town.
Very credible assertions.
Not isolated in Kobani. But it is said the pastor Brunson went to Kobani shortly after ISIS was defeated there. That was one of the things that Erdogan used to show he was trying to convert the PKK. (not the local YPG/YPJ)
One of the regional NGO human rights groups has written that there have been 21,000 converts to Christianity over the past 4 years. Knowing that group, I suspect it is understated.
This is a very healthy thing if the N. Syrian region can be stabilized, all will benefit. Of course Turkey will try to destroy all such gains.
I’ve heard smaller but similar gains in Iraq after ISIS was defeated. The displaced Christians largely fled the country, but many converts have taken their place. That comes from an American contact involved there.
I consider this HIGHLY unlikely.
When I was in Jordan back in ‘99, the Muslims didn’t want me there and really only wanted the $$$ I was bringing to see Petra.
Syria is far, far worse.
Being threatened by ISIS and living under sharia law for a couple of years might change opinion of Islam...................
Hopefully Russia will protect these Syrian Christians from the local Sunni Muslim radicals.
I doubt the USA Deep State will, given that Obama, Brennan and McCain armed and supported the Islamists trying to topple Assad.
And I bet these are NOT the Syrians Canada has been letting in in the tens of thousands the last few years. Right now sadly the Syrian community has the sympathy of Canadians right now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.