{"id":16887,"date":"2016-08-11T06:35:16","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T06:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=16887"},"modified":"2016-08-11T06:35:16","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T06:35:16","slug":"syrian-christians-fear-persecution-by-isis-in-the-beqaa-valley-as-well-andrea-krogmann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/08\/11\/syrian-christians-fear-persecution-by-isis-in-the-beqaa-valley-as-well-andrea-krogmann\/","title":{"rendered":"SYRIA &#8211; Christians fear persecution by ISIS in the Beqaa Valley as well &#8211; Andrea Krogmann"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>SYRIA &#8211; Christians fear persecution by ISIS in the Beqaa Valley as well<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The long arm of the jihadists<\/p>\n<p>Let us call them Samir and Sabine. Let us say they are in their early 50s, Christians who have fled from Al-Raqqah, the stronghold of the terrorist militia Islamic State. They call them \u201cDaesh\u201d in Arabic. There is no word for the horrors that the self-proclaimed warriors of God have inflicted on them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo photo, no names!\u201d Samir\u2019s gesture is clear: otherwise his head will roll. Then he lets his arms fall back to his sides, in his hands a piece of paper: a receipt for the tax on Christians in the Islamic State. The amount that the jihadists levy per year and family is 3,700 euros \u2013 protection money, but no one is safe from the terror.<\/p>\n<p>Samir and his family were doing well in Al-Raqqah. And then Daesh arrived. Samir paid. When the threat became bigger, the family converted to Islam. \u201cI hated the life, the veil, and that I wasn\u2019t allowed out on the street without a male escort,\u201d Sabine explained. \u201cThat is not for us Christians!\u201d Samir prayed at the mosque for the sake of appearances \u2013 to protect his family. Then came the car with the fighters. Someone had denounced the family, saying that they had not really converted to Islam, were still praying at home to their God. Samir and his family were able to flee. They found shelter with a Muslim friend. In the night they made their way to Aleppo, cutting across country, the fear of discovery too great. The terror followed. \u201cAfter two months in Aleppo, I received a call. They told me that they would come and kill me,\u201d Samir said.<\/p>\n<p>The family fled again, to Beirut. Until the phone rang there again, \u201cWe know where you are!\u201d The implied threat drove the family to the Beqaa Valley. Samir and Sabine are happy that they no longer have to renounce their faith. \u201cWe had a picture of St. Charbel with us the entire time, that is what saved us,\u201d Sabine said. They both say that their faith is \u201cstronger than ever\u201d. And their faith is the reason why they want to leave the Middle East. \u201cWe aren\u2019t safe anywhere here,\u201d Samir said. The phone has already rung where they are now, \u201cNo matter where you are, we will find you!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We could call them Jacob and Claire. Their story is also a long story of flight in mortal fear. It started with protests. Their Muslim neighbours wanted Christian support in the fight against the government. \u201cBut we Christians <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-16891\" src=\"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/wall-God-stay-with-me-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"wall--God-stay-with-me\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/>love President Assad,\u201d Claire said. \u201cUnder him we were doing well and we were safe.\u201d The facts of their flight from Qussairare quickly told. One Friday, the Islamists were preaching death to the Christians. All men over the age of 5 fled to Lebanon. Seventy-five of them did not make it. They were executed by ISIS. The women and children remained behind. The fighters invaded their homes, destroyed, plundered and threatened them with rape. Then the women also fled with their children. No words can express the pain and the trauma.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are families here who had to climb over the corpses of their neighbours so that they could flee,\u201d said Sana, the only one to give her name. Sana is Lebanese and,with the support of <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>Aid to the Church in Need (ACN)<\/em><\/strong>,<\/span> has been helping the refugees in her city since the beginning of the Syrian crisis. \u201cTheir children are still drawing these horror scenes today.\u201d It will take time to come to terms with this trauma, but the Christian is happy that her refugees have started to talk about what they have experienced.<\/p>\n<p>She calls herself Maria. The Christian from Sadat does not want to tell her own story and talks about her neighbours instead. \u201cThat night in October 2013,\u201d she said, \u201cthe men from ISIS came. They called out \u2018Allahu Akbar\u2019 three times. Then they killed everyone: the grandmother, the grandfather, the parents, the daughter and the son. Three generations. They threw the corpses into the fountain.\u201d Maria falls silent. \u201cToo many stories have happened to the Syrian people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Andrea Krogmann<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SYRIA &#8211; Christians fear persecution by ISIS in the Beqaa Valley as well &nbsp; The long arm of the jihadists Let us call them Samir and Sabine. Let us say they are in their early 50s, Christians who have fled from Al-Raqqah, the stronghold of the terrorist militia Islamic State. They call them \u201cDaesh\u201d in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SYRIA - Christians fear persecution by ISIS in the Beqaa Valley as well - Andrea Krogmann - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/08\/11\/syrian-christians-fear-persecution-by-isis-in-the-beqaa-valley-as-well-andrea-krogmann\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SYRIA - Christians fear persecution by ISIS in the Beqaa Valley as well - Andrea Krogmann - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SYRIA &#8211; Christians fear persecution by ISIS in the Beqaa Valley as well &nbsp; The long arm of the jihadists Let us call them Samir and Sabine. 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