No Country for Anyone -- Hania Mourtada, Foreign Policy
The Syrian rebellion is turning hard-line Islamist, squeezing out Christians, Alawites, and Kurds who also hate Assad.
BEIRUT — A small group of young opposition activists makes its way through the pitch-black streets of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, slowly approaching the Church of the Lady of the Annunciation. A few of them clamber onto the church's wall and hoist up a wooden cross, struggling under its weight, as they sing a tune from the early days of the revolution. "One, one, one. The Syrian people are one," they chant. "Syria belongs to Muslims and Christians."
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), al Qaeda's Syrian franchise, had pulled down the church's cross earlier that day and had raised the jihadi black flag in its place. The activists' act of defiance lives on in a clip uploaded to YouTube in September -- but the church does not. The following day, ISIS fighters swiftly made their displeasure known by torching Raqqa's only two churches.
In the uprising's early days, members of Syria's religious and ethnic minorities played a prominent role in the camp opposing President Bashar al-Assad, organizing peaceful demonstrations alongside Sunnis and campaigning for civil liberties. Today, the war-wracked country is a particularly grim place for these Alawite, Christian, and Kurdish activists who tried to bridge Syria's sectarian divides. Not only do they face the regime's brutality, but they are forced to contend with Islamist militias that are harassing Syrian minorities with impunity.
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My Comment: There is no turning back now .... this is a sectarian war that has irrevocably split Syria into different parts that will certainly NOT reconcile in my lifetime.
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