They Cry in Silence Mar/Apr 2014
Editor’s Note: To read the complete story, go to RaymondIbrahim.com. There you also will find the following articles: “Christmas in Iraq: Slaughtered Christians,” “Syria: Terrorists Kill Four Children of Bishop for Preaching the Gospel?” “New Jersey: Muslim Brotherhood Attack on Coptic Bishop Denied,” “Three American Teachers Slaughtered for Christian Faith in Muslim World,” and many more.
One of the worst Christian massacres—complete with mass graves, tortured-to-death women and children, and destroyed churches—took place in Syria in 2013 at the hands of the U.S.-supported jihadi “rebels”; and the U.S. government and its “mainstream media” mouthpiece are, as usual, silent (that is, when not actively trying to minimize matters).
The massacre took place in Sadad, an ancient Syriac Orthodox Christian habitation. Most of the region’s inhabitants are poor, as Sadad is situated in the remote desert between Homs and Damascus (desert regions and, until now, apparently the only places Syria’s Christians could feel secure; 600 Christian families had earlier fled there for sanctuary from the jihad, only to be followed by it).
In late October, the U.S-supported “opposition” invaded and occupied Sadad for over a week, until ousted by the nation’s military. Among other atrocities, 45 Christians—including women and children—were killed, several tortured to death; Sadad’s 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for “subhuman” Christians).
The jihadis even made a graphic video (with English subtitles) of those whom they massacred, while shouting Islam’s victory-cry, “Allahu Akbar” (which U.S. Sen. John McCain [R-AZ] equates to a Christian saying “thank God”). Another video, made after Sadad was liberated, shows more graphic atrocities.
Here are the words of Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Homs and Hama:
What happened in Sadad is the most serious and biggest massacre of Christians in Syria in the past two years and a half;…45 innocent civilians were martyred for no reason, and among them several women and children, many thrown into mass graves. Other civilians were threatened and terrorized. 30 were wounded and 10 are still missing. For one week, 1,500 families were held as hostages and human shields. Among them children, the elderly, the young, men and women….What happened in Sadad is the largest massacre of Christians in Syria and the second in the Middle East.
It is but the tip of the iceberg of the persecution the nation’s Christian minority has suffered—including beheadings, church bombings, kidnappings, rapes, and dislocation of hundreds of thousands of Christians—since the war broke out.
A month before Sadad, another ancient Christian region, Ma’loula, one of the world’s very few regions that still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus, was besieged by the jihadis, its churches bombarded and plundered, its inhabitants forced to convert to Islam or die. The last words of one man who refused were: “I am a Christian, and if you want to kill me for this, I do not object to it.”
The archbishop is asking, “We have shouted aid to the world but no one has listened to us. Where is the Christian conscience? Where is human consciousness? Where are my brothers? I think of all those who are suffering today in mourning and discomfort: We ask everyone to pray for us.”
by Raymond Ibrahim
