"The Gatestone Institute, a conservative, non-profit foreign policy think tank chaired by former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, is claiming that while the Islamic State is carrying out its ruthless persecution of Christians, they aren't entirely at fault." Also references are made to Raymond Ibrahim's reporting. Author Gregory Tomlin writes "American presidents may not like the Arab strong man, but he is all that stands between the Christian minority and those who want to kill them." Tomlin also refers to an interview of Syrian Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem Joseph III Yonan in which he said that the U.S. was "wrong in its approach to that situation in Syria ... since the beginning."

"They wanted to just change the government because they were telling people, the media, that this guy, Bashar al-Assad was a dictator, so he has to go to liberate the people of the country and to bring democracy," Yonan said.

"The Syrian patriarch has condemned this ideologically inspired foreign policy. Setting aside whatever value it may have in some nations, he doesn't see it working in places like Syria.

"You can't export Western democracy into countries where you don't have separation of church and state, where you have what we call the hegemony of religion," Yonan said. "Whatever you do, you'll be unable to implement this kind of democracy they were praising, whatsoever."

Cornelis Hulsman: this is a familiar Middle Eastern Christian voice: better an autocrat then Western democracy in countries where the majority of Muslims is not in favor of the separation of religion and state.