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Speaking from Egypt, Syriac Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan has accused the West of betraying Middle Eastern Christians. He stressed that the notion ISIS can be defeated with airstrikes is a “big lie.”

In an interview with the online Catholic magazine Le Messager on 18 November, Younan said “all Eastern patriarchs, myself included, have spoken out clearly to the West from the very beginning: Be careful, the situation in Syria is not like that of Egypt, Tunisia or Libya — it’s much more complex, and conflict here will create only chaos and civil war.” The Patriarch added “They listened and responded: No, the Assad regime will fall in a few months. As I predicted, that hasn’t happened, and five years later, innocent people, especially Christians, have no support. The West has betrayed us.”

Syria’s Christian community is one of the oldest in the world, with roots dating back at least two millennia. Christians make up about 10% of the 22 million people in Syria (in February 2015--massive scale displacement as a result of Syria’s 5 year civil war makes exact numbers difficult to obtain). Approximately 89,000 Syrians are associated with the Syriac Orthodox Church.

When the civil war first broke out between the Assad government and rebel fighters as well as the ISIS, the Christian community tried to avoid taking a side, but as the war continued, communities have tended to express support for Assad as the elected voice of Syrian people. Estimates show that more than 1,000 Syrian Christians have been killed in the fighting.

The Patriarch’s comments come on the heels of escalating airstrikes by France and the US since ISIS-claimed terror attacks in Paris left 129 dead and some 40 in Beirut. He claimed the airstrikes are ineffective because ISIS leaders are well financed and live among local populations. The West’s airstrike campaigns in Syria and Iraq have become notorious for high civilian deaths, as it is impossible from the air to distinguish an ISIS terrorist from innocents.

Patriarch Younan is a native Syrian from province of Hassake, and served as bishop of the New Jersey-based Diocese of Our Lady of Deliverance for Syriac Catholics in the United States and Canada for 14 years. In January 2009, Younan was elected patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church in January 2009 and relocated to Beirut.

He continued his accusations, saying that the West’s stated intentions of bringing democracy to the Middle East has always been a fallacy, not to mention an impossible task. “Since there’s no real separation of religion from the state, our nations do not easily accept democracy,” adding that “Western democracies have conspired against Syria and produced the destruction of the nation’s infrastructure, the demolition of houses, towns, villages, monuments and archaeological sites.” Younan cited the experience of Christians living in Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion.

In a concise description of the West’s historical complicity in uprooting the Middle East, Younan proposed the idea that Western politicians from the US and Britain truly favor “an endless conflict in Iraq and Syria.” He also criticized the media for being “silent, cowardly and complicit” in failing to “defend truth and justice.”

In recent days, US newsmedia and right-wing politicians have decried the prospect of accepting Syrian refugees, with 27 state governors vowing to close their borders completely--a violation of federal law.

Playing on tropes of xenophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment, Christian media has been citing a state department report showing the majority of Syrian refugees accepted into the US have been Muslim. The Christian right is calling to allow refugees only if they are Christian, a move denounced by President Obama as “shameful.” Having a religion-based acceptance for refugees is a travesty, though Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz has suggested that Muslim refugees be settled in Muslim majority countries, and only Christian refugees be allowed into the US.

The US is not a religious state and such a claim is severely lacking in context and historical knowledge. In addition, the majority of Syrian refugees seeking asylum are Muslim, therefore it is not surprising that more Muslims have been accepted than Christians.