MENA Minorities

Maaloula nuns waiting to return to convent: Mother Superior by  Asharq Al-Awsat Beirut,  Asharq Al-Awsat —The Maaloula nuns released earlier this month by the Al-Nusra Front are being hosted by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch in Damascus and are not under house arrest, as recent reports suggested, according to the nuns’ Mother Superior, Pelagia Sayyaf. The nuns were released as part of a prisoner exchange with the government of Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad reportedly mediated by Qatar and Lebanese security authorities. There had been reports that the thirteen Lebanese and Syrian nuns based out of the convent of St. Thecla in Maaloula and held captive by the Al-Nusra Front for more than three months had been placed under house arrest by the Assad government for comments made following their release. The nuns had expressed thanks to the Emir of Qatar for his efforts to mediate talks between the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front and the Damascus government while also co...

Update: #SafeKessab got some steam on social and support from the most glamorous Armenian, who btw is not a moral authority in Middle Eastern Politics as she has demonstrated in Bahrain . Please let's not let history repeat itself!!!!!! Let's get this trending!!!! #SaveKessab #ArmenianGenocide — Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) 30. März 2014

Over the last weekend Islamist forces led by Jabhat an-Nusra and the Islamic Front attacked and finally conquered the town of Kasab, which lays in the north of Syria's Latakia province on the Turkish border. It is a strategically important town, not only because it had been the only border crossing to Turkey left controlled by the regime - but also because it's capture enables a further penetration of the Alawite heartland from the North. Tempered hope in renewed Latakia offensive by Maya Gebeily, Now. Assassination of Hilal al-Assad During the capture of the town Hilal al-Assad,  a second cousin of  Bashar   al -Assad,  was killed.   Hilal al -Assad himself was the leader of the National Defence Forces in Latakia province . He was the grandchild of Ahmad al -Assad, the older half-brother of Hafiz al -Assad. This branch of the family has a long established reputation for it's criminal activities and Hilal al -Assad was like the proto...

In Nazareth long time mayor Ramiz Jaraisi ( Hadash , Christian) finally (for the first election in autumn see here ) lost his position to his former deputy 'Ali Salam (formerly with Hadash , Muslim) after a recall election had been ordered by the Israeli Supreme Court. While some might simply argue, that after 20 years in office voters are just tired of Jaraisi, others believe the loss of the mayoralty in the so called "red city" indicates a downfall of the Communist dominated Hadash , once Israel's most important Arab party: Nazareth election beginning of end for Israel's Communist Party by Daoud Kuttab, Al-Monitor The loss of the Nazareth  mayoralty  in the March 11 recall elections marked the beginning of the end of the Israeli Communist Party in Israel. Ramez Jaraisi, the mayor for nearly four decades, lost to Ali Salam , who won more than 61% of the city’s votes.   Israeli Communist leaders in Nazareth accepted defeat and issued a stat...

At the  Syria in Crisis Blog  by the Carnegie Endowment  Nikita Malik takes a look at the implications of the civil war in Syria for Jordan and also touches the perspectives of  Jordan's  Christian population. Jordanians Split Over the War in Syria by Nikita Malik

As it was notedd in a report by Human Rights Watch , Alawite women and children had been kidnapped during the rebel-offensive in Latakia province last August. Last week some of the abductees appeared in a video aired by Al Jazeera , in which unnamed Islamist forces declared their readiness for a prisoner exchange: Al Jazeera : Syrian rebels claim Alawites' kidnapping Joshua Hersh wrote an impressing article for the Huffington Post reviewing the massacre of the Alawite population in Latakia province: 'He Knew That Death Was Coming': Survivors Mourn After A Massacre By Syrian Rebels   by Joshua Hersch, Huffington Post

At The Syrian Observer  Journalist Yahya Alous shines some light on the growing secterianism in Jaramana, a suburb of Damascus with a large Druze and Christian population. The town is currently witnessing an influx of pro-government Shiite fighters: Jaramana or Beirut's southern suburb?   by   Yahya Alous, The Syrian Observer In Jaramana, various types of Shiite songs have recently arrived from Iraq, in addition to the sounds of mournful prayers and calls, either calling for the intervention of Hussein, or for his help in seeking revenge. Decked with yellow flags, SUVs freely roam the streets of the city, bearing posters calling for the attention of Hussein and Zeinab. And in other corners of the city, people from different parts of the country wander the streets, proudly wearing sectarian symbols and slogans on their shoulders. This is the new look of the city, which has become a hotbed for these certain kinds of militant groups. This city, which is als...

Al Monitor has a nice piece up shining light on the uncommon picture of Christians taking up arms in the Middle East, which is happening now in Syria. The author, Jihad El-Zein, has some interesting points: One of the ironies in this recent Syrian phenomenon is that the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), the party that has traditionally been hostile to the Lebanese Kataeb Party, finds itself in the same position as the Kataeb. The Kataeb previously played the key role in the “fighting Christians” phenomenon in Lebanon from 1958 to 1990. And today, the SSNP is appearing as the “fighting Christians” party on the side of the Syrian regime. Of course, this phenomenon didn’t come from a vacuum. The SSNP in Syria has members of all sects, including some Sunnis. But traditionally, the party has spread among the Christian, Alawite and Druze elites (as have the Communist and Baath parties). The growing importance of the SSNP as a militia is definitely signific...

Lebanon's Druze leader Walid Junblat surprised many some weeks ago when he publicly declared his objection against a new post-doc fellowship at Georgetown University (Washington DC) in Druze and Arab Minority Studies. This comes at a surprise, not only because the fellowship is granted by the American Druze Foundation, but also because Junblat is known to have in general a positive attitude towards researchers, an attitude which is not that common among Lebanese politicians. Junblat's medial opposition to an academic fellowship for one person a year working mostly on the publication of his/her PhD thesis may sound ridiculous (it certainly is) but it reflects the wider fear of Junblat and parts of the Druze society in the face of rising militant Sunni extremism in Syria and also Lebanon. The recent bombing on February 3, which targeted the Lebanese Shia population, went off in the predominantly Druze town of Chouaifat. This act clearly indicates, that mixed areas in Lebanon ...

Swedish journalist Carl Drott, whose work for Syria in Crisis  has been mentioned here already, wrote two pieces fresh from the field about the current situation of the Syriac Christians in Qamishli and provides some background on the split of the Sutoro/Sootoro militia in a pro-Kurdish (Sutoro) and a pro-regime (Sootoro) wing. According to Drott the Sutoro is currently growing and setting up branches in other towns of Hasaka province as well. "Syriac-Kurdish Cooperation in Northeast Syria" by Carl Drott "A Syriac Militia Splits in Qamishli" by Carl Drott

 According to a report by Reuters : The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) has demanded that Christians in the city of Raqqa pay a levy in gold and curb displays of their faith in return for protection, according to a statement posted online Wednesday. The Al-Qaeda splinter group’s directive in the eastern city is the latest evidence of the group’s ambition to establish a state in Syria founded on radical Islamist principles, a prospect that concerns Western and Arab backers of other rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad. ISIS said it would ensure Christians’ safety in exchange for the levy and their adherence to restrictions on their faith, citing the Islamic legal precept of “dhimma.” It said Christians must not make renovations to churches or other religious buildings, display religious insignia outside of churches, ring church bells or pray in public. It demanded every Christian male pay a tax of up to 17 grams of gold, a levy th...