By Theodore Shoebat

Over a thousand years ago, a Syrian monk by the name of John of Damascus had warned the church of a relatively new sect called Islam, and its founder Muhammad, who he had described as a heretic for following in the footsteps of Arias and denying the divinity of Christ.

“There is also the superstition of the Ishmaelites which to this day prevails and keeps people in error,” wrote the monk, “being a forerunner of the the Antichrist. …[A] false prophet named Muhammad has appeared in their midst. This man, after having chanced upon the Old and New Testaments and likewise, it seems, having conversed with an Arian monk, devised his own heresy. Then, having insinuated himself into the good graces of the people by a show of seeming piety, he gave out that a certain book [the Koran] had been sent to him from heaven. He had set down some ridiculous compositions in this book of his and he gave it to them as an object of veneration.” (1)

The critique of the old monk has never been more relevant; he had both witnessed the growth of Islam and was born and raised in Syria, the country where Islamists are now fighting to take over.

The rebels in Syria are trying to topple the regime of Arab nationalist dictator Bashar al-Assad, and replace it with an Islamic fundamentalist state, governed under the Sharia code. Reports have shown that crimes such as kidnapping, murder, and torture, have been committed with the perpetrators screaming “Allahu Akbar,” “Death to unbelievers,” and other Islamic proclamations.

Yet America is now funding them. Just this Wednesday, the State Department said that it has given $25 million the Syrian rebels; and on Thursday White House spokesman Jay Carney announced that Obama has approved of allocating another $12 million for the same opposition. If only our government, and our society as a whole, had read, and taken head to, the critique of John of Damascus, instead of tolerating its evils, would we never be helping the violence which Islam has so caused. Three thousand Americans were slaughtered on our own soil on 9/11, a butchering which was orchestrated by Osama bin Laden, a terrorist heavily influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood. The same group had even condemned the assassination of Osama.

Now the Muslim Brotherhood is providing weapoms for the rebels to end the regimen of al-Assad; in other words, we are supporting the cause of our very enemies. It was recently reported that Hossam Abu Habel, whose late father was in Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s, has raised $40-50,000 a month to provide weaponry and other aid for the Islamist rebels in the Homs province of Syria.

“Our mission is to build a civil country but with an Islamic base,” said Habel. “We are trying to raise awareness for Islam and for jihad.”

Only a modern would believe such words; for there is no civility in either Islam nor its beloved “Jihad.” It would be impossible to establish a society based on Sharia, and not have an imposition of tyranny upon its subjects. The further support the rebels are receiving from America and other Western countries are only assisting the replacing of dictatorship with the despotism of mob rule. It has been said that the rebels are for peace, and Bashar al-Assad’s regimen is the worse thing for Syria, but to such a belief numerous Syrian Christians would disagree. When Fergal Keane had visited refugees in Syria, the Christians he had encountered, to use his own words, “were the most frightened people I had encountered.”

One Christian he discussed with, Michel, said that he at first supported the initial demonstrations against al-Assad.

“Then suddenly arms were being used and there were Arabs from different countries,” said Michel. “They broke into Christian houses and accused them of blasphemy.”

While he was away from his home, rebels had tormented his wife and two children were still in the house.

“It was indescribable fear. They burned tyres in front of the house and wanted to burn the house,” he said. “[My wife] took the children and was jumping over walls from one street to another until they managed to escape.”

The Christians of Syria had in fact enjoyed religious liberty under the rulership of Bashar al-Assad, and his father Hafez al-Assad, who had almost annihilated the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s. Bashar al-Assad’s government had actually warned the Christians of the coming persecution which they would endure, if the current regime is ousted. Syria and Egypt are both going down the same road in regards to its Christian population: once Sharia is officially established in these countries, a mass persecution of the church will be commenced, and the same people in the West who are now crying out for the ousting of al-Assad will be silent.

In fact, genocide toward Christians in Syria has already begun. Within a year of the rebellion, the Islamic renegades had ridded the Syrian city of Homs of ninety percent of its Christian population, and they are said to be holding 200 hostages. Just this month, the Chaldean bishop of Aleppo had expressed his fear that the Christians of his city, and those of Damascus, will soon receive the same incursions from the Islamic rebels.

In 2011, both Amine Gemayel, former president of Lebanon, and Nicolas Sarkozy, former president of France, had broke the silence on the persecution toward Christians in Syria by the Islamic rebels. Sarkozy had even described it as “religious cleansing.”

But all of this vexing news should remind us of that Syrian monk, John of Damascus, who many centuries ago had written his critique of Islam, forewarning the church of its deception. And now the church in Syria is receiving nothing but violence from this sect, which has received the praise of politicians, and the disdain of righteous thinkers. And regardless of the praise and support these rebels are receiving, they are still nothing but a multitude of bandits.

Theodore Shoebat is the author of the book, For God or For Tyranny.

(1) St. John of Damascus, On Heresies, 101, trans. Fredrick H. Chase, Jr. Brackets mine.