WARREN AND SYRIA.

I think there's a bit of jumping the gun here with Rick Warren and his remarks about Syria. Syria and her government are surely no fan of the Jewish people. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is prone to making anti-Semitic statements, but as far as religious freedom is concerned I don't know that Warren's statement is really that far from the truth. Here's what Warren said:

"The Syrian government has long had a bad reputation in America, but if one considers a positive action like welcoming in thousands of Christian refugees from Iraq, or the protection of freedom to worship for Christians and Jews in Syria, it should not be ignored."

According to a State Department report on U.S. relations with Syria from 2001, the Jewish community that remains in Syria is painfully small. According to the report, released earlier this year:

"Press reports in September 2000, recounting a meeting of Syrian Jewish leaders with President Bashar al-Asad, estimated that some 3,500 out of a previous total of 4,000 Syrian Jews had emigrated to the United States or Israel."

That would leave about 500 Syrian Jews. The report adds that "Some Syrian Jews hesitate to leave their relatively prosperous lives in Syria, especially since the liberal decrees of April 1992, for a more uncertain economic future abroad, and some have remained because of age, health, or reluctance to move," and that Syria's "Christian community and tiny Jewish minority (see below) have been free to practice their religion without interference".

I don't think that justifies Warren's conclusion that Syria gets an unwarranted "bad reputation," they are after all a state sponsor of terrorism. But his statement that religious freedom in Syria is better than many other Arab countries is consistent with the State Department's findings. Now maybe this information is out of date, it's about seven years old. It certainly doesn't excuse the anti-Semitism of Syria's leaders. But it doesn't sound like Warren is factually wrong about this. He's certainly said enough offensive things that we don't need to jump down his throat for something that isn't that offensive. I mean am I crazy here? Because I just think I thought I saw Greg Sargent, Eric Kleefield and John Aravoisis link to people like Debbie Schlussel and publications like World Net Daily for the purpose of going after a guy who thinks women who have abortions are comparable to Nazis.

UPDATE/CORRECTION: I was unable to raise anyone on the phone who could talk authoritatively on anti-Semitism in Syria, but I did find the report from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor that Worldnetdaily cited, which I'll excerpt after the jump.