© Vanessa Beeley
The women fighters in the National Defence Forces of Al Sqeilbiyyeh - a Syrian Christian town at the border with Idlib.
Recently, the Syrian Arab Army swept to victory against terrorists in a number of northern Hama villages. Christian towns bordering areas of Hama and Idlib formerly controlled by Al Qaeda affiliates can breathe again.
In this article I will specifically address the persecution of Syrian Christians by the extremist, sectarian groups who have been promoted, financed and armed by governments in the West, in particular the UK. I would like to make the strong point that
Syrians fiercely defend their secular and diverse culture, that their faith or sect is secondary to their Syrian identity and patriotism.
I have focused on the fate of Christian minorities in Syria because of the
recent hypocritical claims by members of the British government - their desire to "protect" the "most persecuted religious group in modern times" as Christians globally were
described by former UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, in the run-up to the leadership battle for the Conservative party, when Hunt traded campaign punches with eventual winner, Boris Johnson, whose election led to Hunt's resignation.
In one statement prior to his leadership bid,
Hunt said, "There is nothing more medieval than to despise someone on the basis of their faith." Former British Ambassador to Syria Peter Ford gave me his response to this statement:
"Nothing more medieval? 'Medieval' is a good word to describe the ideology of these armed groups as they single out Christian villages on the edges of Idlib for merciless shelling. There must be a special place in Hell for hypocrites like Hunt and Johnson who feign concern for Christians while supporting vile jihadi groups in Syria."
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