About Syria...good articles by Messianic Jews & some Trappist nuns.

I have found a couple of excellent articles on the tragedy in Syria. One article is by a Messianic Jew in Israel and one about and by some Catholic sisters in Syria.

The first article, “What in the World is Going on in Syria,” the “July-August 2013 Yeshua Israel Report,” gives, with several sections, some detailed history of the evolution of the crisis. For instance:

“By the time Syria regained her independence in the 1940's, the Alawites, once a detested fringe group, now had large numbers in positions of influence and the military. In 1970, one of these Alawites military members, Hafez al-Assad, took over Syria in a bloodless coup. This solidified the Alawite Muslim minority as the ruling class. Sunni Muslims who make up the majority of the country would now take a back seat in society.”

On the rebellion the authors point out that although the rebellion started with good intentions by those that the west might have backed it has now been joined by those rebels who belong to both Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. Some have estimated that up to two-hundred different groups are involved. It is truly a Muslim civil war.

The authors at the end of their article turn the problematic questions toward God and the needs of the many refugees. And their prayers are for all. Historically, practically and faith-wise this is a very helpful article.  

The other article, “A Letter from Trappist Nuns in Syria: “Blood fills our Streets, our eyes, our hearts,” is about a group of sisters in Syria who are attempting follow the legacy of the monks who befriended the Muslim population in Algeria. (A French movie “Of Gods and Men” was make about the monks several years ago.) The sisters have written a letter explaining why the west should not enter Syria's civil war. The letter is a part of the article.

The nuns write,

“We look at the people around us, our day workers who are all here as if suspended, stunned: “They've decided to attack us.” Today we went to Tartous...we felt the anger, the helplessness, the inability to formulate a sense to all this: the people trying their best to work and to live normally. You see the farmers watering the land, parents buying notebooks for the schools that are to begin, unknowing children asking for a toy or an ice cream... you see the poor, so many of them, trying to scrape together a few coins. The streets are full of the “inner” refugees of Syria who have come from all over to the only area left that is still livable...You see the beauty of the hills, the smile on people's face, the good-natured gaze of a boy who is about to join the army and gives us the two or three peanuts he has in his pocket as a token of “togetherness”...And then you remember that they have decided to bomb us tomorrow...Just like that. Because “it's time to do something,” as it is worded in the statements of the important men, who will be sipping their tea tomorrow as they watch TV to see how effective their humanitarian intervention will be …”

I pray that our President and our Congress take the right actions which should be helping the over a million refugees coming from Syria.