Sunni Islamist terrorist gangs are still slaughtering minority Alawites in coastal Syrian towns. Thes atrocities began on March 8, allegedly in response to attacks on government troops by remnant forces of the deposed Alawite Assad regime. Some Syrian Christians were also slain, but allegedly were not specifically targeted by Ahmed al-Sharaa's new government of Hayat al-Tahrir (HTS).
During the Assad years, like the Alawites, Christians, were for the most part a tolerated minority. Syria's Christians, most of whom are either Catholic or Greek Orthodox, are viewed by Muslims as infidels and therefore resented by the Syria's Sunni majority. During the country's 14-year civil war, several churches were sacked and burned by jihadist enemies of the Assad dynasty. Some of these anti-Christian atrocities were also committed by foreign jihadists who hailed from Chechnya and Uzbekistan.
Although anti-Christian actions are ostensibly not approved by the new government, Syria's Christians apparently have cause for worry. Syria's new constitution, published on March 14, stipulates that Islamic jurisprudence is the sole source of judicial decision-making. The constitution also asserts that Syria's president must be a Muslim and that the executive branch has virtually dictatorial powers. The constitution also includes no provision for protecting ethnic and religious minorities, which include Christians, Alawites, Kurds and Druze.
The Christian population of Syria before the civil war totaled about 1.5 million. This number had already plummeted to approximately 300,000 when Sharaa's HTS assumed power last December.
Syria's Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X, citing the destruction of a church in Antioch, Syria, has challenged the benign view of the new Islamist regime. He claims that Islamists killed many innocent Christians in recent fighting. Additional violence included a report of jihadists executing a father and son, members of an Evangelical Protestant church in Latakia. Still another killing took place, of the father of a Christian priest in Banias.
While these isolated anti-Christian incidents do not yet appear to be an organized effort, Christians throughout Syria are afraid that the new regime will not be successful in uniting most of Syria under its control, if it is even trying to, and that a genocidal purge against Christians remains a serious possibility.
Aid to the Church in Need, a global Catholic charitable organization with close ties to the Vatican, has already reported to Rome that there have been multiple incidents of violence against Christians in Syria.
The Vatican appears committed to maintaining Christianity throughout the Near 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 still 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.
It is likely that Syria's minorities, especially Christians, will try seeking refuge in nearby Israel and Lebanon. Israel, which has already attacked government targets in Syria to protect the Druze minority, may, as usual, turn out to provide the greatest protection for threatened minorities – as it has for, for instance, for Baha'is, Sudanese, Ethiopians and Kurds -- for which, of course, it receives no credit at all.
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.
