While everyone acknowledges that the Bashir Regime is abject tyranny, it at least protected Christians, Alawites, Druze, and minorities.
Now that the FSA (Free Sryian Army) is in control of much of the country, Salafis (Wahabbi extremists) are taking over; and Christians are being persecuted and having to flee.
This is typical of so much of Mideastern history where Christianity has been slowly withered down throughout the ages since Islam took over.
What we may be watching is the last ethnic cleansing of Christians from the Mideast. Christians have already had to flee Iraq after Saddam was toppled. Whatever the faults of Ba’athism, it protected the Christians. As Syria’s Ba’athists are falling, Christians are now being driven out of Syria. Christians are losing their power in Lebanon. The end game is over and Christianity has lost.
This has been a long war. When Islam first took control of Egypt, Christians were the majority for centuries afterward, with only an Islamic elite in power. But Islam sets up disciminatory tax laws which unfairly burden those who refuse to convert. Moreover, any interfaith marriages must be set up where the kids will be Muslim. For ex: Muslim men can have Christian wives, but not the reverse; since religion is determined by the father. Even today in Egypt, a Christian can convert to Islam, but not the reverse.
Slowly, this tyranny erodes Christianity until Islam is demographically set.
Predatory laws like that have whittled away at Christians for centuries. It has been asserted that at the time of the Crusaders, the majority of people in the area were still Christian, and the Crusaders were seen as liberators, contrary to historical revisionism. Yes, the Crusaders acted viciously and badly; but some of the population – certainly the Maronites – preferred them to Muslim rule.
It has been a long slow process, but a determined one. Now, Islam is about to ethnically cleanse the Mideast of the remaining Christians.
There are not that many left.
Between Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, there are probably 5 million Christians left.
Maybe the West can set up funds for their flight. Latin America could easily absorb a lot of them. They already have. The USA, France, and Spain could take some more in.
These Christian Arabs would constitute 1% of the population if they all went to Latin America. Not enough to create a demographic shock.
Maybe it is time that the Christian world acted in concert to help their own, just like Jews and Muslims do.
NOTE: I am not including the Christian Copts of Egypt who are also under threat. They are eight to nine million strong and may be too many to bring out. They are also the core remnant of the original pre-Islamic Egyptians, and there is something obnoxious about surrendering to Islam in Egypt, when Egypt used to a major center of Christianity.