The Fall of Assad in Syria leaves many in the West hopeful that the disastrous conflict is finally nearing its end, but Syria’s remaining 500,000 Christians are not so optimistic about the future. In truth, many fear that this is the beginning of the end, their end. The memories of the Genocide inflict by ISIS 10 years ago are still fresh in the minds of Syrian Christians, leading many to contact their family & friends who have fled the country & are urging them not to return. Syrian Rebel Leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani who recently received international attention for successfully toppling Assad is not a hero in the eyes of many Syrian Christians. In their eyes, he is a Jihadist who seeks to fully eradicate Christianity from the country. 21-year-old Elias, a Syrian Christian refugee living in Berlin recalls the horrors that befell so many Syrian Christians who fell into the hands of the Jihadists during the 10-year Civil War. The Jihad came to Elias when he was still a child in 2014 after learning that the son of a family friend had been kidnapped by Jihadists rebels. All they ever found was the severed head of the son with his crucifix stuffed in his mouth. Over the years, Elias would lose 12 more friends to Jihad. When questioned about Abu Mohammad al-Jolani he stated “We have no reason to trust al-Jolani,” he said. “He is a terrorist.”
Abu Mohammad al-Jolani previously fought for al-Qaeda prior to cutting ties with the terrorist group in 2016 and later joined with other anti-Assad factions to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which translates to “Organization for the Liberation of the Levant.” It was this group the successfully toppled Assad. For much of the war, Christians tried to avoid the conflict, with the mentality that if they left Assad alone, he’d leave them alone, which was what happened for the most part. However, Jihadists forces were always feared as whenever they entered Christian communities they left kidnappings, desecrated churches, & murder in their wake. The war has already decimated Syria’s Christian population. Numbering 2.2 million in 2011, their numbers within Syria have now decreased to 500,000, with 200,000 fleeing the city of Aleppo alone. Many are now fearing that the 2.000-year-old Christian community could very well face extinction.
Richard Ghazal, a Syriac Orthodox Christian and executive director of In Defense of Christians who also serves in the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C. reported that al-Jolani’s followers are already destroying liquor shops in their territories (as alcohol is forbidden in Islam) & ordering Christian women to cover their hair, warning that these are early signs of coming repression. Though al-Jolani continually insists that the nation will not repression non-Islamic religions, many recall that in 2020 the Taliban promised not to prevent women from going to school after retaking control of Afghanistan. Four years later, women in Afghanistan or forbidden to speak in public or attend classes beyond 6th grade, clearly illustrating that Jihadists cannot be trusted to keep their promises. Echoing the sentiment is Dr. Martin Parson’s the Director of the Lindisfarne Centre for the Study of Christian Persecution. In a recent interview, Dr. Parson’s stated that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is motivated more so by Jihadist ideology than “revolutionary zeal.” Many religious minorities are now fleeing to Kurdish held territory, where everyone is taking up arms as the Kurds are also fearful of ethnic cleansing campaigns at the hands of the Jihadists.
In 2019, the U.S. State Department labeled Hayat Tahrir al-Sham as a dangerous terrorist organization & in 2022 the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom issued statements revealing that the group was responsible for ongoing massacres & ethnic cleansing campaigns against religious minorities in the region while also reporting that the group was receiving military support from Turkey, who has likewise long held a police of persecuting religious minorities & repressing Kurds. The future can never be certain, but one thing is for sure, the situation of Syria’s remaining Christian population is in a very precarious state.
Sources:
Bulut, Uzay. “”Turkey’s Syrian Jihadists Take Over Syria: Kurds, Half a Million Christians under Intolerable Threat.” The Middle East Forum. Dec. 16,m 2024. Accessed from https://www.meforum.org/mef-online/turkeys-syrian-jihadists-take-over-syria-kurds-half-a-million-christians-under-intolerable-threat.
Gomes, Jules. “Syrian Christians Face New Threat of Genocide from Muslim Jihadists.” The Stream. Dec. 02, 2024. Accessed from https://stream.org/syrian-christians-face-new-threat-of-genocide-from-muslim-jihadists/.
Rowley, Madeleine. “Syria’s Christians: ‘We Have No Reason to Trust Al-Jolani.” The Free Press. Dec. 13, 2024. Accessed from https://www.thefp.com/p/syrias-christians-in-limbo-assad-jolani.