Human Rights Violatioins in Syria

In syria there are many people that are being killed because they standing you for what they believe

“...I was alone-terribly alone in a world without God and without man. Without love or mercy. I had ceased to be anything but ashes, yet I felt myself to be stronger than the Almighty, to whom my life had been tied for so long” (Weisel 65). The people in Syria are alone currently. There are many countries that are not accepting refugees into their premise. This creates a sense of loneliness for them. “And in spite of myself, a prayer formed inside me…” (Weisel 91). The dehumanization in Syria is caused by the fact that Syrians are a different religion; the religion of the cruel people who are killing innocent citizens (much like the Nazis in the Holocaust), and are all thought of as being terrorists. They are mentally forced to question their own religion, because it is what is causing them to be blamed for the death of thousands of people. “The Syrians have lost their faith. In other wars, people have lost everything but their faith. Not this war. This war, the Syrians are asking us, ‘Is God still there?’ For them, God doesn’t exist anymore. It is something new we are facing” (Patterson). The fact that innocent people are questioning a belief that has helped shape who they are and made them better people is dehumanization from the fascist leaders controlling

So what is religious freedom: "Freedom of religion is to manifest or belief in teaching others." (Freedom Of Religion). Everyone knows that not every country has this, in fact there are not many that have a full religious freedom policy. Transylvania is a pure example on how to enforce this freedom: "It is not allowed to anybody to intimidate anybody with captivity for his religion." (Freedom Of Religion). Canada also has this constitutional law to protect the freedom. Syria is a country that does not have religion evenly spread, it is Islamic only. If you are a Christian or any religion except for islamic in an islamic establishment then you are doomed. ISIS is a terrible example of what could happen, they terrorize everyone that does not share any of the same beliefs that are a staple to islamic religion: "... Christians in Syria from building places of worship, ringing bells, wearing crosses... Face beheading." (Freedom Of Religion). Another terrible example would be the discrimination of one religion, the Jews in the holocaust. Europe is not all innocent either, the Roman Catholic had a very tight leash, though they were not going so far as to kill other religions they did prohibit all other religions being worshiped anywhere near a priest or a church. (Freedom Of Religion). Whatever you believe, you should consider yourself lucky that you get to live in a country like the U.S.

Over the past four years, the situation within the Syria has become more and more dangerous. As many as 6.7 million people, have been displaced from their homes within the country alone. Another 4 million have fled the country entirely, in order to get away from the incessant fighting. An estimated 200,000 people have been killed over the course of the war, but the country is so

Children in the country of Syria are being faced to think as adults would, and maturing to fast and losing the fun of being a child. these children were originally either caught in or fighting in the in the Syrian Civil War. now due to ISIS they are being executed for refusing to follow shari'ah law.

The Syrian Civil War is no different. There are two opposing views that feel strongly about what they are fighting for and the war is having a major effect on the country’s infrastructure and rate of development. However, only time will tell if any good will come out of the country’s civil war.

The Syrian war is a multi-problematic situation that started within Syrian borders. The Syrian war began in 2010 with something called the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring is a chain of events where people caused aggressive and non-aggressive situations such as protests which created harm in the Middle East. In 2011 people started a non-aggressive protest because children were being abused after spattering graffiti that stated how they agreed with the Arab Spring. The president during this time was Bashar al- Assad. Assad would torment and imprison the people of Syria who protested. The Syrian People wanted to end Assad’s brutal actions so they created a Free Syrian Army which led to a civil war (i.e. the Syrian war). There are several countries

They have suffered from cruelties that need psychological and moral support in order to live with dignity and have hope for the future. To get a true understanding of what it is like living in the Middle East as a Christian, I recently contacted Sara Touchan, a Christian who used to live in Syria. She escaped the war and ISIS and joined Ponte Vedra High School as a junior. She said that living in Syria before the war was simple and really nice. She did not have a chance to meet a lot of Muslims because she attended a private Catholic high school. However, her parent and brothers had Muslim friends through jobs or public universities. Before the war, Syria was one of the better countries for Christians in the Middle East. However, when the Syrian civil war began, it just kept getting more violent and dangerous. She said “We really were not sure if we were going to survive the next day or not. The bombs, voices, and gunshots became a daily routine. Some days were worse than others of course, and a day that was consistent of only hearing bombs without seeing any fight was considered a good day.” Their electricity, water, and Internet used to go off. They had to take showers with cold water from small bottles in the winter. Christians felt unsafe because of ISIS, who wanted to kill Christians solely based on their religion.

Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before.

Attention getter- Have you ever been forced to leave your hometown without committing any crimes or doing something wrong? Imagine yourself waking up one day, seeing that you are in the middle of the war with people running around and screaming for their lives. Such incident may seem very unlikely to happen to you however, the people of Syria have been experiencing it for almost everyday of their lives. .

Syria is currently all over the news regarding what many have to come to see as a civil war. A term like civil war needs to identify the players and the reasons for the war. In this case the players are being identified as pro government or antigovernment with a Sunni or Shia overtone. Sunni and Shia are the two major sects of Islam and both have a historical based conflict going back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad and how Muslims should be governed. This conflict has caused tensions and violence to flare up throughout Islamic history. This conflict has carried into modern times and has becoming a rallying point for Muslim people calling for change with their government and across the Middle Eastern region. The

Iraq has a democracy that is imposed by gunpoint which leads to the continuous persecution of the country’s Christian population. Because of this persecution, such as murders, kidnappings, rape, intimidation, and some even beheaded for not wanting to convert to Islam, of the 1.4 million Christians living in Iraq before the war, only 400,000 remain. Many have left to join the indigenous Christians of Syria, which there are around two million. In Syria, Christians are persecuted by the “western-supported, Saudi-financed, and Islamist-dominated Syrian rebels,” (Harris). Many Christians and secular communities fear that soon the Sunni-Islamists are going to gain control of the government, and no one will be safe (Manfreda). Non-Muslims are only tolerated if they pay the jizya tax, unless you’re a priest. In July 2013, Syrian Catholic priest, Father François Murad was murdered, but he wasn’t the first. A Syrian Orthodox priest, Father Fadi Haddad, was grabbed last December as he left his church to negotiate the release of a kidnapped parishioner. His body was found by the roadside, the eyes gouged out. Islamists react wherever they are in control, and the government doesn’t step in to stop them. The government refuses to acknowledge the maltreatment of Christians (Harris). The government is the problem of most of the things that are going on in Syria

Islamic Law governs all forms of Legislation in Syria. The country’s religious demographic is also heavily comprised of followers of the religion of Islam. These religious followers divided into different sects with 74% Sunni. Ismailis, Alawis, and Shi’a make up 13% of the population. The Druze account for 3%, and there is a small population of Christians at 10% (Unknown, “2010 Report on International Religious Freedom—Syria”, 2010). The country has attempted to make a large push for religious freedom. Religion and state have “officially” always been separate, although Muslim code is the basis for several laws and decrees. The constitution allows religious freedom but restricts some religious matters. Some religious groups are even outlawed, Jehovah’s Witness (Unknown, “International Religious Freedom Report 2010”,

Protests grow in Damascus and Aleppo over the imprisonment and several deaths of 13 young boys.

Many Syrians are leaving their country because they’re being tortured and are being attacked for no reason by the Islamist militant group that has seized a chunk of land stretching from northern Syria to central Iraq this group is called ISIS. Non-state armed groups opposing the government have carried out abuses like deliberate attacks on civilians, kidnapping, and torture in detention. Syrian refugee crisis is a violation of human rights because it defies multiple guaranteed rights from the UN Declaration of Human Rights, including articles 5,6, and 9. These articles have been violated because human beings are being tortured in Syria because of their religion, they are not seen as human beings by ISIS, and they are kept in detention