Published by Premier Christianity 

10 December 2024

In days, half a century of history has been overturned in Syria. While thousands rejoice in the streets at the fall of an undoubted tyrant, the end of the Assad era leaves the country’s remaining Christians in potentially greater peril. 

 Home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, Syria’s Christian population can trace their roots to the early church and the apostle Paul. Syria’s politics since independence in 1946, though volatile, has been ideologically Arab nationalist and Christians and other minorities generally enjoyed equality and freedom to worship under Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar, who succeeded him as president in 2000. However, the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011 shattered this fragile security. After years of horrific violence, an uneasy truce had effectively existed since 2020, but in a single week, the Assad dynasty’s repressive rule of Syria collapsed.

Syria’s main liberators are the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, who are a proscribed terrorist organisation in both the UK and USA. They first emerged as an affiliate of al-Qaida, later changing their name to al-Nusra front and have been previously implicated in the targeting of Christians. In 2013, Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim, head of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Aleppo, and Bishop Boulos Yaziji, head of the Greek Orthodox Church, were kidnapped on a humanitarian trip. Neither Christian leader was ever heard from and suspicion for their kidnapping fell on al-Nusra front. 

 Within a day of the fall of Assad’s regime, Labour Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden questioned Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s terror designation, telling BBC Radio 4, ‘Obviously that's got to be considered…The leader of that group has distanced himself in a way from some of the things that have been said in the past. He is saying some of the right things about the protection of minorities, about respecting people's rights.’ Sadly, jihadist groups have a history of telling one narrative to Western media and another to audiences at home. 

 ‘Protection’ for Christians in areas under jihadist rule has historically taken the form of being given non-citizen ‘dhimmi’ status. On the basis of Quranic teaching, non-Muslim minorities are permitted to live under Islamic rule subject to a range of conditions set out in a dhimma contract – including payment of a specific tax and restrictions on worship. This policy was enforced on Christians during the Ummayad and Abbasid Caliphates (661-1258 AD) and was officially adopted by Islamic State when the group controlled parts of Syria and Iraq. Far from being ‘protected’, dhimmi status places the minorities in a position where any breach of Islamic law could instantly turn them into enemies, who are legally permitted to be killed with impunity. Those Christians who were able to, fled Mosul in 2014, rather than face living under such ‘protection’ when Islamic State took control of the Iraqi city. 

 There has so far been no clear statement from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that Christians – and indeed other religious minorities – will be equal citizens in whatever the new Syria turns out to be. Existing governmental infrastructure seems to be holding in these first days, but the potential for political tension turning into sectarian violence is high. Syria is awash with weapons and Christians are not viewed as neutrals. 

 In the northern city of Aleppo which had a significant Christian population, the community long kept their heads down, and given the choice between the extreme authoritarianism of the Assad regime and life under jihadist rebels, they unsurprisingly generally saw themselves as having more chance of survival under the former. This now leaves them particularly vulnerable to reprisals. In 2015, when the al-Nusra Front and other jihadist groups controlled parts of Aleppo, the Greek Melkite Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo, Jean-Clement Jeanbart, spoke out about the large scale murder and abduction of Christians which was happening there:

 “If nothing is done, it is not impossible that all the Christians in Syria may be wiped out…There is a fundamental threat to Christianity from Islamic State. They have killed plenty of us. There is an existential crisis.”

 Hayat Tahrir al-Sham are not Islamic State, but it is not clear what they will become. Are we witnessing a jihadist-inspired takeover which will transition to a free democratic Syria? If that were to happen, it would be a first for the region. 

 Syria is now under the control of a jihadist group with a similar ideology to al-Qaeda and a very recent record of atrocities against Christians. The country’s dwindling but faithful community of believers are now in potentially great danger.

David Charlwood is Chair of Trustees of the Lindisfarne Centre for the Study of Christian Persecution and a published Middle Eastern historian