Why Speak?

Speak is an introduction to act. Actions have to be justified by clear reasons.

Since the Saracen conquests of Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Assyria, Chaldea and Anatolia a pattern can be observed in these lands: the native population (Christians, Jews, Samaritans, Zoroastrians and Mandeans) was and is still on the verge of extinction.

Surely this happens in all conquests. People are massacred and sometimes totally annihilated. But not all times. Many times conquered peoples are assimilated with the conquerors or the other way. What is happening on the lands conquered by Muslims is similar to what has happened before and after, but there is something different in it.

Unlike other conquerors Muslims have defined plans and reasons for their conquests. Their relation with the conquered peoples is determined by laws already practiced by their prophet Muhammad. They know what they are doing and they are doing it for a specific purpose.

In these lands, a diversity of peoples, Christians in their majority, has to deal with conquerors holding the same mentality. Whether Arabs, Berbers, Persians, Turks, Kurds, Albanians or Bosnians, all follow the same or similar principles governing their relation with the conquered peoples, the infidels.

What has befell on the conquered natives?
1. Many were killed. This happened in AD 634 and after. This happened also in many of the conflicts between Muslims where the natives fell pray to the warring sides. It happened during the Crusades. It happened in 1860 in Mt Lebanon and Damascus. It happened in 1915 in Anatolia. It happened in 1920 in Anatolia. It happened in Assyria in 1933. It happened several times in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. It is happening now in Iraq and Egypt. It is happening also in Lebanon where the leaders of the Christians are all under the threat of death and some were murdered in 2005 and 2006, last of whom two days ago was Pierre Gemayel.
2. Many converted to Islam although Islam has always been the monopoly of Arabs, Turks, Berbers, Kurds and Persians.
3. Many since AD 634 have been fleeing the lands of their ancestors. Others were deported. This is the pattern in Lebanon now.

This is a brief review of events about which it will take pages to write about. What has been characterizing these events is that two defined parties are identifiable: Muslims (servants and followers of Allah) and Infidels (Christians, Jews etc.).


Another important pattern should be noticed: some of these infidels decided to resist Jihad. Their resistance now is the cause of many of the conflicts which we have been witnessing and are still witnessing in these lands.

The Christians of Mt Lebanon were among the first to resist the yoke of Islam. Later, they united with the Druzes successfully forming the state of Lebanon.

Others were less successful. The Armenians and Assyrians were massacred for trying to resist. The Greeks were deported to prevent them from reclaiming the lands of their ancestors.

Others were less fortunate. The Copts are stuck in Egypt as anybody stuck in a pit with no air.

Origins and Background

Born in Beirut of an Orthodox Greek (Rum) family my origin is from a village in Marjeyoun, in southern Lebanon.

My oldest ancestor lived after the 16th century in Salkhad (Biblical Salcah, Deuteronomy 3:10), a town in Hauran, now in southern Syria. In the 18th century, many Druzes came from Mt Lebanon and settled in the Hauran. Some of these Druzes settle in Salkhad and as result my ancestors and a great part of the Christians of Salkhad migrated to the north and settled in the village of Khabab. These families were known as el-Şalxadiyyé ‘the Salkhadites’. Their story is told by John Lewis Burckhardt in Travels in Syria and the Holy Land (Chapter 2): “The castle of Szalkhat is situated upon a hill at the southern foot of the Szfeikh. The town, which occupies the south and west foot of the castle hill, is now uninhabited; but fifteen years since a few Druse and Christian families were established here, as well as at Oerman: the latter retired to Khabeb, where I afterwards saw them, and where they are still called Szalkhalie.”

Hauran was always under the mercy of marauding Arabs, mostly coming from the desert to the east and the south (see also Burckhardt, same source, ch. 5). Because of conflict between one of my ancestors and these Arabs, they had to migrate to the region of Marjeyoun.

My ancestor settled with his relatives in a village there. He became chief or sheikh of the village and acquired lands from the state. The story in the family says that the people of a neighboring Shiite village were annoyed by his presence there and by his ownership of lands in their territory; they complained about him to the chief of the ‘Alī al-Şağīr علي الصغير clan (the story doesn’t tell his name, but he could be Fāris al-Nāşīf فارس الناصيف son of Nāşīf al-Naşşār ناصيف النصار, famous Shiite chieftain killed by orders of Jazzār Ahmad Pasha governor of the province of Sidon). So the Shiite chieftain invited him to eat at his place, poisoned him and put his hand on his lands. This happened around 1820. The family of ‘Alī al-Şağīr was later known as the al-As‘ad family. The son of my poisoned ancestor went under the leadership of As‘ad family after 1840 when the army of Mehmet Ali Pasha was expelled from Syria and when southern Lebanon including Marjeyoun were restored to this family.

In 1860, the Christians of Marjeyoun were attacked by Druzes, Muslims, Arabs and Shiites. The people of our village were protected by the As‘ad family, and they took refuge in Taybeh, the village of the As‘ads. Our village was pillaged, destroyed and burnt. During these events, the Christians of Rashayya, Hasbayya and Damscus were massacred in an intended genocide planned by Ottoman officials and Muslims notables. My ancestors were fortunate.

In 1918, our village was released from the Ottoman yoke by the French army. As a result of the choice of our ancestors not to fell under the yoke of the Arab Islamic government of Faysal king of Syria and Husayn king of Hijaz, they fell under the attacks of the gangs of Faysal and of Shiite gangs. In 1920, the people of the village had to take refuge in Taybeh under the protection of the Kāmil bey al-As‘ad although it was the gangs of al-As‘ad that were pillaging and marauding.

In 1925, the village was again attacked when the Druzes of Hauran rebelled against the French Mandate.

Between 1975 and 1978, during the war, the village was safe from Islamic and Palestinian attacks because many of its people were members of the Communist Party and of the Syrian Nationalist Social Party. The region fell under the control of the Lebanese Army commanded by Saad Haddad, then under the control of the Israelis.