{"id":1742,"date":"2011-09-26T15:33:22","date_gmt":"2011-09-26T15:33:22","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-09-26T15:33:22","modified_gmt":"2011-09-26T15:33:22","slug":"geagea-christians-must-not-support-brutal-regimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/geagea-christians-must-not-support-brutal-regimes\/","title":{"rendered":"Geagea: Christians Must Not Support Brutal Regimes"},"content":{"rendered":"
Christian Lebanese leader calls on fellow Christians in Middle East to be leaders of liberation movements, progress.
\n<\/strong><\/span>
\nADO-World.org
\n<\/strong>26-September-2011<\/p>\n

JOUNIEH (Lebanon) – Middle East Christians must be "leaders of the Arab liberation movement" not "defenders of backward and brutal regimes," a Christian Lebanese leader critical of the Syrian regime said Saturday.<\/p>\n

Samir Geagea’s comments come amid a heated debate that erupted in Lebanon over controversial remarks by the head of the nation’s Maronite Christians, who warned an end to Syria’s regime threatens Christians across the Middle East.<\/p>\n

"My brothers in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt and throughout the region, do not be afraid … immerse yourselves in the suffering of the peoples of the region, always be leaders of the liberation movements and progress," said Geagea, who has traditionally been a critic of Damascus.<\/p>\n

He said the region’s minority Christians had become "sandbags defending brutal and backward regimes."<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, during his first visit to France, the head of Lebanon’s Maronite Christians Patriarch Beshara Butros Rai urged that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — once the arch-enemy of Lebanon’s Maronites — be given a chance to implement reforms, saying the "poor man cannot work miracles."<\/p>\n

Many of Syria’s minority Christians, which include Maronites, are concerned that Islamic extremists could rise to power should the Syrian regime collapse.<\/p>\n

Rai had echoed that fear, voicing concern of a takeover by the radical Muslim Brotherhood, a movement the Syrian authorities have blacklisted for decades.<\/p>\n

Christians must not remain "spectators before the Arab spring … for us this is a matter of life or death," Geagea shot back.<\/p>\n

Lebanon’s Maronite Christians, once united against Syria’s 30-year sway over Lebanon, are now divided over the anti-regime uprising in Syria. The United Nations says more than 2,700 people have been killed in the Syrian regime’s crackdown on protests that began in mid-March.<\/p>\n

Maronites allied with Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which is supported by Syria and Iran, are backing Assad and accusing radical Sunnis of stirring the unrest.<\/p>\n

Other Lebanese Christians, allied with pro-Western former premier Saad Hariri, have voiced support for the anti-Assad protests.<\/p>\n

Christian minorities in Syria, comprising 4.1 percent of the population, live in harmony with the Alawite minority in power, while the vast majority of the 18 million Syrians are Sunnis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: Middle East Online<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christian Lebanese leader calls on fellow Christians in Middle East to be leaders of liberation movements, progress. ADO-World.org 26-September-2011 JOUNIEH (Lebanon) – Middle East Christians must be "leaders of the Arab liberation movement" not "defenders of backward and brutal regimes," a Christian Lebanese leader critical of the Syrian regime said Saturday. Samir Geagea’s comments come …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-syria"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/09\/1742_geagea.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}