Syria's Christians fearful of new Islamist leaders as Christmas approaches

Record ID: 1891747

  • Title: Syria's Christians fearful of new Islamist leaders as Christmas approaches
  • Date: 23rd December 2024
  • Summary: TARTUS, SYRIA (DECEMBER 20, 2024) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CHOIR PERFORMING NATIONAL AND CHRISTMAS SONGS IN TISHREEN PARK IN TARTUS/ AUDIENCE WATCHING
  • Embargoed: 6th January 2025 13:34
  • Keywords: Assad Christians Sharaa Syria
  • Location: DAMASCUS & TARTUS, SYRIA
  • City: DAMASCUS & TARTUS, SYRIA
  • Country: Syria
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Middle East,Civil Unrest
  • Reuters ID: LVA007903823122024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Syrian church leaders are advising Christians to scale back Christmas celebrations this year, despite assurances from the Islamists who have just taken power that they are free to practice their religion.
    The self-imposed constraints highlight one of the main challenges for Syria's new Islamist rulers: establishing mutual trust among a myriad of minorities, all scarred by decades of brutal dictatorship and 13 years of pitiless civil war.
    De facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa has told Christians and other groups that they will be safe in a Syria run by his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al Qaeda affiliate.
    Although himself a former leader of the Sunni Muslim Islamist group, which sees Christians as infidels, Sharaa has quickly shed his jihadist uniform for business suits.
    And he has told the Western officials visiting him that HTS will neither seek revenge against the former regime of Bashar al-Assad, drawn mostly from the Alawite sect, nor repress any other religious minority.
    But many Christians have yet to be convinced.
    “Our position is that of monitoring (to see) what may happen in order to judge if these factions that came; the Hayat (Tahrir al-Sham - HTS) and the groups that are ruling now in Syria...are they serious about creating a civil Syrian society where all its citizens have the opportunity to live freely and especially its Christian citizens. So, we are waiting,” said Christian Bishop Andrew Bahhi of St George's Syriac Orthodox Church.
    Yet the sight of many bearded armed men patrolling the streets of Damascus does little to evoke trust among Christians scarred by Syria's recent past.
    Syria's historic ethnic and religious minorities also include Muslim Kurds and Shi'ites - who feared during the civil war that any future Sunni Islamist rule would imperil their way of life - as well as Syriac, Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christians, and the Druze community.
    Christian Emilia Katarina lost her eldest son and husband during the civil war.
    Her son, Firas Azar, had been making preparations for his wedding when he disappeared after being detained by Assad's forces at a checkpoint as he headed home on Nov. 29, 2012.
    Two years later, the Jaish al-Islam rebel group shelled the building opposite her house, blasting shrapnel into her home that killed her husband and injured her and her daughter, Mary.
    After so much trauma, Katarina cannot help harboring deep suspicion towards Syria's new rulers.
    “Many innocent (people) are gone (died). There are innocent (people), children, widows and the explosions that happened. They are all here,” she said, pointing at her head, while sitting near a portrait of her husband wrapped in the Syrian flag and clutching a photograph of her son.
    Shortly after Assad fell, an HTS representative met with Bahhi and other Christian leaders and told them not to be scared.
    Even if trust is built with HTS, Christians also fear a mosaic of other armed Islamist militant groups.
    At St George's church, as Bahhi delivered a sermon on keeping faith in challenging times, tears streamed down Katarina's cheeks.
    She rose from her seat to light a candle.
    “I prayed inside (the church) that this merry Christmas be a new birth for his (her son) return to our home among his siblings,” she said.
    (Production: Amr Abdallah Dalsh, Kinda Makieh, Firas Makdesi)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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