ICC Note:
“The Syrian Orthodox Church is worried about ‘an ongoing ethnic cleansing of Christians’ in the embattled city of Homs, reports Agenzia Fides, the official Vatican news agency.”
3/23/2012 Syria (Los Angeles Times) – The Syrian Orthodox Church is worried about “an ongoing ethnic cleansing of Christians” in the embattled city of Homs, reports Agenzia Fides, the official Vatican news agency.
Anti-government militants have expelled 90% of Christians in Homs and confiscated their residences by force, said Fides, citing a note sent to the agency by the Syrian Orthodox Church.
The Vatican agency cited sources saying militants went door to door in the Homs neighborhoods of Hamidiya and Bustan al-Diwan, “forcing Christians to flee, without giving them the chance to take their belongings.”
Estimates vary, but Syria’s Christians, with ancient roots, are generally said to represent as much as 10% of the nation’s 23 million people.
Syria’s Christian community has generally been regarded as supportive of the secular government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which, despite its systematic repression of political dissent, has been tolerant of religious minorities.
The year-old Syrian insurgency is rooted in the nation’s Sunni Muslim majority, though the uprising has supporters from other faiths, including Christians. Assad and many of his security force chiefs are from the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
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