Monday morning on CNN’s Newsroom with Carol Costello, international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen gave an excellent and respectful report on a topic the media often ignores: Christians persecuted by Islamic radicals. Costello introduced Pleitgen’s report on “Syria’s most famous Christian town” by describing how “Jihadist groups” were “vowing to oust Christians from Syria, burning down Christian [towns] and destroying priceless icons.” Pleitgen then took over from Ma’loula, Syria, talking to Christian children singing a version of “Jesus loves me” in the midst of the chaos.
PLEITGEN: “Jesus loves you no matter how you feel” these children sing at a religion class in Ma'loula, Syria's most famous Christian town, occupied by Islamist militants for six months.
Pleitgen noted that “several townspeople are still missing” and all of the children he spoke to had fled their homes.
PLEITGEN: Several townspeople are still missing.
“I want things to be better, like they were before, and for the kidnapped people to come back,” 7-year-old Gabriella says. Similar words from 8-year-old Berla Damoun. “I want Ma'loula to be better and more beautiful than it used to be,” she says.
Shocking, their reaction when I asked how many of them had to flee their home. (All raise hands.) Islamist rebels led by Al-Qaeda's wing in Israel, invaded Ma'loula in late 2013.This video by one of the groups allegedly shows a suicide blast that took out the checkpoint to the village. The rebels kidnapped 12 nuns from a convent, it took more than six months of intense battles to oust them. But scars remain.
[video:
This is the shrine, or what's left of it, a warning to Syria's Christian community. While some buildings here in Ma'loula have been restored others remain exactly like this, completely destroyed and mostly burned out. Of course, many people who live in this town ask themselves whether Christianity still has a future here in Syria. Syria is home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Ma'loula is the last place where the Aramaic that Jesus spoke is still in use. Groups like ISIS has vowed to oust Christians from this land.
Pleitgen noted that the Christian community remained resilient against the persecution of Islamic jihadists, fighting to keep their history intact for their children’s sake.
PLEITGEN: As we left Ma'loula, a Christian song was playing on a loudspeaker system of the entire town, a sign of defiance in a Christian community that hopes the children learning about their long heritage in Syria will have a future in the land of their ancestors.
CNN ended their report by noting the “sad situation” of the “defiant” Christians “living in fear” in Ma’Loula. Pleitgen noted that what “really got” to him and the CNN crew was the fact that this was the last remaining place on earth that still speaks and keeps the language of Jesus, Aramaic, alive to this day. Pleitgen noted that was now at risk because of the Islamist militants.
PLEITGEN: So as you can see there quite a sad situation in that town there, Carol. It is still a very defiant Christian community in that town and generally here across Syria, but also one that has very much been decimated. There’s one little thing, that for instance, one thing that really got to us, we were saying that in that town it's the last place where the Aramaic of Jesus Christ is still the normal language in use. Well they had an institute to keep that language alive. The person who led that institute has fled the country. That's the situation of the Christian community here in Syria, really one very much living in fear. Carol?
