Thought to comprise approximately 10 per cent of Syria's population -- with a variety of sects, including Greek Orthodox, Melkite Greek Catholics, Syriac Orthodox, Armenians, Maronites, Chaldeans, and Assyrians -- the Christian community of Syria has been the subject of considerable media attention ever since unrest arose against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.

However, rather than looking at claims of incidents of anti-Christian violence and trying to verify them, articles have generally repeated the obvious point that there are concerns that the same fate could befall Syrian Christians, as with the numerous incidents of persecution of Iraqi Christians by Islamic militants and, further, as with the outflow of hundreds of thousands of Christians from the country since 2003.

So, what are the main stories of the persecution of Christians in Syria? And, further to this, how can they be verified?

Homs

This year, in March, a story circulated that 90 per cent of the Christians in the city of Homs had been ethnically cleansed by Islamic militants. The story was traced back to a report published by Agenzia Fides -- the Vatican news agency -- on 21^st March.[1] On the contrary, the claims go back to a report put out on 13^th March by the website Syria Truth (in Arabic, 'al-Haqiqa'), which is run by Nizar Nayouf, who was once imprisoned by the regime but who, since 2002, has been living in exile in Europe.[2]

Nayouf's background notwithstanding, Syria Truth, despite claiming to oppose the regime, routinely recycles regime propaganda. In this case, Syria Truth blamed the supposed mass ethnic cleansing on the 'Wahhabi' Farouq Battalion and the aid of Libyan and Iraqi mercenaries.

However, the Farouq Battalion does not have such a hard-line Islamic orientation. On the contrary, it is distinctly aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, promoting a nationalist outlook rather than a Takfiri-jihadist worldview, which would entail, first, imposing jizya on Christians, and then, of attacking and ethnically cleansing them if they failed to pay the extortionist tax. If anything, the evidence suggests that the Farouq Battalion is at odds with these hard-line jihadist types.[3] Agenzia Fides had made no independent effort to try to verify Syria Truth's story, but rather simply reproduced what had been written on Syria Truth without the proper attribution.[4] In fairness, though, the news agency did subsequently publish a report from Jesuits in Homs, who denied that there had been a campaign of mass ethnic cleansing, alleging, instead, that the Christians had had left voluntarily.[5]

Later to this, David Enders (for McClatchy) interviewed Christian refugees in Lebanon, who denied that the Farouq Battalion had forced them out in a campaign of mass persecution.[6] The reality is that Christians, like other segments of Homs' population (such as the Alawites and Sunnis), had simply fled in large numbers owing to the intense fighting between regime forces and rebels. Indeed, multiple outlets have reported on the phenomenon of Homs being turned into a virtual 'ghost town'.[7]

In an article I wrote with two co-authors for Ha'aretz, I criticized the Syria Truth report for making no reference to the impositions of jizya. In response, Syria Truth -- just days later -- issued another report claiming that the Farouq Battalion has been imposing jizya on Christians in the rural areas around Homs. The same site then put out an expos

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University.

[1] 'Abuse of the opposition forces, "ethnic cleansing" of Christians in Homs, where Jesuits remains', Agenzia Fides, March 21^st, 2012.
[2] Al-Haqiqa, March 13^th, 2012.
[3] See David Enders, 'Syria Rebels Say They Killed Leader of Extremist Group That Kidnapped 2 Journalists', McClatchy, September 7^th, 2012.
[4] Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, Phillip Smyth, & Oskar Svadkovsky, 'Syrian disinformation about Christian persecution', Ha'aretz, April 6^th, 2012.
[5] 'The Jesuits: Christians have fled from Homs, thrown out by the Islamists', Agenzia Fides, March 26^th, 2012.
[6] David Enders, 'Rare inside view of Syria's rebels finds a force vowing to fight on', McClatchy, April 23^th,2012.
[7] For example, 'Inside Homs: Syrian 'ghost town' divided and destroyed', BBC News, May 9^th, 2012.
[8] Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, 'Nizar Nayouf: al-Haqiqa and Syrian Christians', American Spectator, April 23^th, 2012.
[9] 'Syrian opposition army imposes jizya on Christians in Homs', Jihad Watch, April 10^th, 2012.
[10] Marco Tosatti, 'Christians oppressed by rebels in Syria', Vatican Insider, April 21^st, 2012.
[11] Kapil Komireddi, 'Syria's Crumbling Pluralism', August 4^th, 2012; Komireddi, 'Rebels with an Anti-Semitic Cause,' September 21^st, 2012.
[12] '80000 Christian Refugees from the Zionist War on Syria', Liveleak, June 16^th, 2012.
[13] 'Syrian rebels took bodies from hospital to stage massacre', YouTube, June 16^th, 2012.
[14] Mary Fitzgerald, "Nun on Irish visit accused of peddling 'regime lies' about crisis in Syria," The Irish Times, August 18^th, 2012.
[15] 'Syrian Christians 'targeted' by rebels', BBC News, September 7^th, 2012.
[16] Kim Sengupta, "The plight of Syria's Christians," The Independent, November 2^nd, 2012.
[17] 'Syria: At least 9,000 Christians flee their homes after persecution from Islamic supremacist rebels', Jihad Watch, June 18^th, 2012.
[18] Sam Dagher, 'Syrian Conflict Draws in Christians', Wall Street Journal, July 23^th, 2012.
[19] Sengupta, "The plight of Syria's Christians".
[20] Al-Mayadeen, August 25^th, 2012.
[21] For example, Kevine Jones, 'Thousands of Christians trapped in village', Catholic News Agency, August 25^th, 2012; cf. 'Over 12,000 Christian faithful 'starving' in the village of Rableh: humanitarian law is invoked', Agenzia Fides, August 22^nd, 2012.
[22] Syria Census 2004.
[23] Marco Tosatti, 'Christian humanitarian disaster' impending in Syria', Vatican Insider, October 19^th, 2012.
[24] 'Christians trapped in Rableh', CNEWA, September 25^th, 2012.
[25] 'Rableh: 280 Christians held hostage', Agenzia Fides, 25^th September, 2012.
[26] 'Reconciliation ceremony for the release of hostages', Agenzia Fides, September 26^th, 2012.
[27] 'Over 200 Lebanese, Syrians released by rebel group', The Daily Star, September 25^th, 2012. The motivation given comes across as rather odd too. It is claimed that the hostages were taken to teach them to be neutral in the conflict, but surely a much more plausible situation would be to take hostages for ransom money, since Rableh is apparently the site of wealthy agricultural land.
[28] Al-Haqiqa, August 24^th, 2012.
[29] Al-Haqiqa, September 25^th, 2012.
[30] Mary Wakefield, "Die slowly, Christian dog," Spectator, October 27^th, 2012.
[31] Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, 'Analyzing Aleppo', October 8^th, 2012.
[32] Michael Jansen, 'Rebels claimed to have killed 18 soldiers in car bomb', Irish Times, September 13^th, 2012.
[33] Ruth Sherlock and Carol Malouf, 'Syria: Christians take up arms for first time', The Telegraph, September 12^th, 2012.
[34] Joshua Landis, 'Many Christians Head for Tartus', Syria Comment, September 18^th, 2012.
[35] cf. 'Syrian Archbishop of Aleppo appeals for dialogue, peace', Vatican Radio, August 16^th, 2012.
[36] Clare Morgana Gillis, 'Syria's Christians Wary of Both Rebels and Assad Regime', The Daily Beast, October 17^th, 2012.
[37] "Armenian Church reportedly burnt down in Aleppo," Armenia Now, October 30^th, 2012.
[38] "Armenians kidnapped near Aleppo," Armenia Now, October 31^st, 2012.
[39] UPI.com, May 10^th, 2012.
[40] 'Syria's war is between Alawis and Sunnis, not against Christians', AsiaNews.it, May 16^th, 2012.
[41] For example, the Assyrian Democratic Movement has thrown its weight behind the opposition. c.f. on the role of Christians in protests against the regime in the town of Zabadani: 'Syria's uprising: Try to stay peaceful', The Economist, May 5^th, 2012.
[42] Most notably, the story of the formation of a Christian rebel battalion using the Islamic moniker 'Ansar Allah', YouTube, September 18^th, 2012. In fact as Ammar Abdulhamid notes Christians who become active rebel fighters join secular units: Ammar Abdulhamid, 'The Shredded Tapestry: The State of Syria Today', Syrian Revolution Digest, September 1^st, 2012.
[43] See my paper published on Syrian Christians. It provides an overview of the various Christian sects in the country and reasons why members of particular Christian communities might support the regime.

Related Topics: Anti-Christianism, Syria | Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi