Should Syria survive the revolution ?

Ed West's blog at TheTelegraph conveys the hope that the Syrian uprising should not succeed, although we all know how Assad is an enabler of terrorist groups and how Iran sends their weapons to Syria from where they are then passed into the hands of Hamas and Hezbollah.   He gives his reasons ... and they go to strengthen the confusion we are all feeling during these uncertain times. Those moslem nations have complicated everybody's lives, including their own. Religion is extremely poisonous, when you take more than a spoonful of it.

...But whatever our sympathy for reformers, should we be so eager for regime change? Perhaps we should be sceptical. Because if the Assad family go, there’s a fair chance that the language spoken by Jesus Christ will go too. Syria is a predominantly Sunni Muslim country but it also has significant Shia and Christian minorities. The Assads themselves are Alawites, a Shia sect of Islam dismissed by hardline Sunnis as “little Christians”, who celebrate Easter and Christmas and use bread and wine in their religious services. Whatever else they’ve done, the Assads have managed to keep the country, a mix of Sunni, Shia, Druze, Alawite and Christian, free of conflict. After what happened in Iraq, especially to that country’s poor Christian minority, do we dare risk the same thing in Syria? I’m not even sure the Israelis, the Assads’ arch-enemies, want that.

Syria has an awesome Christian heritage. Damascus itself has a beautiful Christian quarter with a relaxed, slightly Gallic atmosphere, and such treasures as the house of Ananias and an Orthodox cathedral on Straight Street, where St Paul had his conversion.........