DAMASCUS (AFP) – Jihadists who overran
Syria’s ancient Christian town of Maalula
last week forced at least one person to
convert to Islam at gunpoint and executed
another one, residents said Tuesday.
“They arrived in our town at dawn on
Wednesday and shouted ‘We are from the
Al-Nusra Front and have come to make
lives miserable for the Crusaders,” an
Islamist term for Christians, said a still
frightened woman who identified herself as
Marie.
She spoke to AFP in Damascus, where she
was attending the burial with hundreds of
others of three Christians from Maalula
killed in last week’s fighting, the long line
of mourners led by a brass band playing
dirges.
“Maalula is the wound of Christ,” mourners
chanted as they marched through the
narrow streets of the capital’s ancient
Christian quarter, their voices nearly
drowned out by the rattle of automatic
gunfire in honour of the dead.
There was an irony in that, as the assault
on Maalula came only a couple of weeks
before a major feast, the Exaltation of the
Cross.
Maalula, around 55 kilometres (34 miles)
from Damascus, is one of the most
renowned Christians towns in Syria, and
many of its inhabitants speak Aramaic, the
language of Jesus.
Home to around 5,000 people it is
strategically important for rebels, who are
trying to tighten their grip around the
capital and already have bases south and
west of Damascus.
Maalula could also be used as a launching
point for attacks on the highway between
the capital and Homs, a key regime supply
route.
Clashes first erupted on Wednesday, when
Al-Nusra Front fighters and other Islamists
attacked an army checkpoint at one
entrance to the town.
The advance raised fears of attacks on
churches or Christians in the town, but on
Friday, the opposition Syrian National
Coalition said rebels had withdrawn.
On Saturday, the Observatory said rebels
were fighting pro-regime militias in western
Maalula, and were also clashing with Syrian
troops on its outskirts.
Tuesday night, the Free Syrian Army said
rebels had withdrawn from Maalula to
spare its people and heritage, but only on
the condition that the regime kept its forces
out as well.
Recalling the events last Wednesday, 62-
year-old Adnan Nasrallah said an explosion
destroyed an archway just across from his
house that leads into the town.
“I saw people wearing Al-Nusra headbands
who started shooting at crosses,” said
Nasrallah.
One of them “put a pistol to the head of my
neighbour and forced him to convert to
Islam by obliging him to repeat ‘there is no
God but God.’”
“Afterwards they joked, ‘he’s one of ours
now.’”
Nasrallah, who spent 42 years running a
restaurant in the US state of Washington
named after his hometown, said he was
devastated by what happened in Maalula.
“I had a great dream. I came back to my
country to promote tourism. I built a
guesthouse and spent $2,000 installing a
windmill to provide electricity in the town.
“My dream has gone up in smoke. Forty-
two years of work for nothing,” he
lamented.
But worse, for him, was what he said was
the reaction of his Muslim neighbours
when the town was seized by the rebels.
“Women came out on their balconies
shouting with joy, and children… did the
same. I discovered that our friendship was
superficial.”
But Nasrallah’s sister, Antoinette, refused
to condemn everyone.
“There are refugees from Harasta and
Douma (in the suburbs of Damascus) that
we have taken in, and they are spreading
the poison of hatred, especially among the
younger generation,” she said.
The most tragic story was that of Rasha,
who recounted how the jihadists had seized
her fiance Atef, who belonged to the town’s
militia, and brutally murdered him.
“I rang his mobile phone and one of them
answered,” she said.
“Good morning, Rash rush,” the voice said,
using her nickname. “We are from the Free
Syrian Army. Do you know your fiance was
a member of the shabiha (pro-regime
militia) who was carrying weapons, and we
have slit his throat.”
The man told her Atef had been given the
option of converting to Islam, but had
refused.
“Jesus didn’t come to save him,” he
taunted.

Can you balance this story please. I see a civil war in Syria. The government is known to be using jets to attack people and also have been accused of using chemical weapons.
Do you want to report what the other side has been doing? Or are you interested in just calling any group of muslims fighting the government of their country jihadists?
By the way every muslim is a jihadist - when they strive against desire, speak against injustice, caution those who abandon salat etc. But not everyone of them will be involved in armed jihad

BetaThings: Can you balance this story please. I see a civil war in Syria. The government is known to be using jets to attack people and also have been accused of using chemical weapons.
Do you want to report what the other side has been doing? Or are you interested in just calling any group of muslims fighting the government of their country jihadists?
By the way every muslim is a jihadist - when they strive against desire, speak against injustice, caution those who abandon salat etc. But not everyone of them will be involved in armed jihad

good one