It was hard, if not impossible, to feel at ease in the Syria of the Assads. Secret policemen followed you, though some were decent enough to warn that they would be writing a report. The country’s past was rich, and sight-seeing was one way to escape the present. Even so, Hafez Assad spoiled the eerie majesty of Hellenistic Palmyra when he had the men in the nearby prison machine-gunned to death. Palmyra has suffered during the civil war, and so, it appears, has the equally magnificent Crusader castle of Krak des Chevaliers.

Christianity used to be a vital element of that landscape. There was a real sense of the early years of Christian faith. The 3 million or so Syrian Christians lived peaceful traditional lives as their forefathers had done. The inhabitants of several villages still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus. In the middle of nowhere stood the pillar on which Saint Simeon Stylites supposedly had sat out his life.

In Hasaka province, Islamists have burned down the historic church of Tel Hurmoz, one of the most ancient in Syria; destroyed three churches in Tel Tamor; and blown up the Virgin Mary Church in Tel Nasra. Nothing to do with the question of who will be the next dictator of Syria, this is wanton violence, evidence of bigotry and hate. The question arises naturally: How to account for this?

As far as I am aware, the Western media have reported nothing of the campaigning against Christianity in Hasaka. The one and only source of my information is Xinhua, a Chinese agency. So other questions arise: Why does the Western world close its eyes to the persecution and forced emigration of fellow-Christians? Or put another way, if our media can’t be bothered even to mention the destruction of Christian communities, hasn’t Western civilization come to a dead-end?