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The Plight of Syria's Christians
(Independent-UK) Kim Sengupta - "We left [the Syrian city of Homs] because they were trying to kill us," said 18-year-old Noura Haddad. "They wanted to kill us because we were Christians. They were calling us Kaffirs, even little children saying these things. Those who were our neighbors turned against us. At the end, when we ran away, we went through balconies. We did not even dare go out on the street in front of our house. I've kept in touch with the few Christian friends left back home, but I cannot speak to my Muslim friends any more." Ms. Haddad is among thousands who have left Syria as the prospect of reconciliation gets more remote by the day. Now it is the Christians, who have largely sought to remain neutral, who are on the receiving end of abuse and attacks. The recent bombing in Beirut that killed the head of Lebanon's domestic intelligence, and a blast in Damascus the following day killing 13 people, both took place in Christian areas. In addition, recent inroads made into Christian parts of Aleppo by rebel fighters have added to the trepidation in the community. A nun from the Homs area, Mother Agnes-Mariam de la Croix, recounts that her Greek-Melkite monastery of St James was blown up a few months ago. The culprits, she says, are Islamists. Mother Agnes-Mariam believes that opposition fighters have driven out 80,000 Christians from the Homs region alone and says she escaped after being warned that she was the target of abduction. "Aggressive, armed gangs that wished to paralyze community life are abducting people, beheading, bringing terror even to schools," she said, maintaining that many of them are affiliated to "al-Qaeda and with Muslim Brotherhood backgrounds."