In December 2024, after an offensive lasting less than two weeks that swept through much of Syria, a Turkish-backed Sunni militia led by Ahmed al-Sharaa ousted the Assad regime, which had ruled the country for 54 years.
From March 6-9 – unchecked by al-Sharaa's professedly "moderate" interim government – his jihadist troops slaughtered an estimated 1,080 Syrians in 72 hours, apparently mostly civilian members of the minority Alawite religion. The Alawite sect, which split off from Shia Islam in the ninth century, is regarded by other Shiites as heretical. To people who practice Sunni Islam -- the religion of al-Sharaa and Turkey -- all non-Sunnis are infidels. Alawites are estimated to be up to 10% of Syria's population, and the deposed Assad family belong to the sect.
Al-Sharaa, on taking power in Syria in December, originally professed to be a "moderate." The Biden administration even lifted a $10 million bounty for his arrest, for previous terrorist activity linked to Al Qaeda, presumably in the hope of moderation actually being delivered. Since that time, however, al-Sharaa and his followers have appeared more as terrorists in suits and ties.
Since December, and escalating in March, Jihadist terrorist gangs have been slaughtering Alawites in coastal Syrian towns. The atrocities this month began purportedly in response to attacks on government troops by Alawite remnants of the Assad regime's security and military forces. Some Syrian Christians were also slain, but possibly not specifically targeted by the new government.
Like the Alawites, Christians were for the most part a protected minority during the Assad years. According to many Syrians, however, Christians are resented by the Sunni Syrian majority "because they are viewed as infidels."
During Syria's civil war from 2011 to 2024, jihadist enemies of the Assad dynasty would sack and burn churches. Some of these anti-Christian attackers were foreign jihadists within the anti-Assad coalition; some hailed from Chechnya and Uzbekistan.
Even though ostensibly anti-Christian actions are not approved by the supposedly interim governing Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) clique led by al-Sharaa, Syria's Christians have cause for worry. The country's new constitution, published on March 14, stipulates that Islamic Sharia jurisprudence is the sole source of judicial decision-making. This constitution also asserts that Syria's president must be a Muslim and that the executive branch has almost dictatorial powers. Moreover, the constitution includes no provision for protecting Syrian ethnic or religious minorities, which include Christians, Alawites, Kurds and Druze.
The emigration of Syria's minority populations is therefore likely to accelerate. The Christian population of Syria before the civil war totaled about 1.5 million. This number had already plummeted to approximately 300,000 when the HTS assumed power in December.
Syria's Catholic hierarchy, for now, expresses doubt that HTS leaders are officially targeting Christians. The Catholic Archbishop of Homs, Jacques Mourad, claimed that some Christians were killed in the March massacres in the region of Latakia and Tartus because they lived in Alawite-majority areas. Christian NGOs seem to be withholding definitive judgment on the alleged killing of Christians until additional details emerge of the attacks against Alawites in Latakia and elsewhere.
Syria's Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X challenges the benign view of the HTS-led regime. He cites the destruction of a church in Antioch and asserts that jihadist fighters killed many innocent Christians in the recent fighting. Additional news of violence includes a report of jihadists executing a father and son, members of an evangelical Protestant church in Latakia. Still another killing, of a father of a Christian priest in Banias was reported.
While these isolated anti-Christian incidents may not yet be officially organized efforts, the Sunni jihadist government forces are reportedly reveling in the massacre of the Alawites, and Turkey has already set up secret cells throughout Syria "to use as proxies abroad." Christians throughout Syria are afraid that after the Alawites, they will be next. It is also possible that al-Sharaa's HTS will be successful in uniting most of Syria under its control, then initiate a genocidal purge against Christians and the rest of the "infidels."
Aid to the Church in Need, a global Catholic organization with close ties to the Vatican, has already reported that there have been multiple incidents of violence against Christians in Syria.
The Vatican says it is committed to maintaining Christianity through the Middle East, where many first century churches were established by Christ's original Apostles in cities such as Antioch. The most prominent church in Syria is the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of St. Paul in Damascus. Paul, a native of Tarsus in Asia Minor, persecuted early disciples of Jesus until he was converted by a vision of Jesus on his journey to Damascus. The street where he took up residence in Damascus — "Straight Street" — can still be visited today.
Some of Syria's minorities have been seeking help from nearby Israel. Some Druze community leaders even asked Israel officially to annex their villages. Israel has established a strategic "buffer zone" in areas of Syria adjacent to the countries' shared border, to deter potential jihadist and Turkish attacks, and may yet again turn out to be threatened minorities' greatest protector.
Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
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