The Syrian rebels who liberated the mountain village of Maaloula apparently immediately set about converting the predominantly Christian population to Islam, using the gently persuasive techniques we have come to associate with this dynamic and expanding religion.
‘Allahu Akbar! Either you will convert to Islam or you will be beheaded,’ rebels allegedly told some villagers. Other residents were simply shot dead without all the onerous conversion palaver. It is said that the accents of the rebel soldiers were many things — Chechen, Tunisian, Moroccan, etc — but certainly not Syrian. It was further reported that, once again, the rebels were drawn from one or another al-Qa’eda franchise; as John O’Sullivan wrote here last week, we are backing the losing side of the losing side in Syria. Have you heard anything from the moderate Syrian rebels? What exactly is their disposition? Are they consensual centre-left democrats, people who don’t wish to nationalise the top 200 companies but feel a little bit iffy about the bedroom tax? Nobody seems to know.
As it happens, the enforced conversions in the village of Maaloula may be a cause for optimism.
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