Recently, a report appeared on the current state of Christians in Syria now that Assad is gone: “Syria’s Christians: ‘We Have No Reason to Trust Al-Jolani,’” by Madeleine Rowley, The Free Press, December 13, 2024:
And yet, in Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city and the first to fall to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, there is a strange normalcy. “Things are positive for the Christian community,” said Hadeel Oueis, a Syrian Christian living in the U.S. who grew up in Aleppo. “The Islamist rebel groups want to show the international community that they have changed. They want the West to take them off the list of terrorist organizations. So they are behaving.” Oueis was arrested in 2011 and imprisoned for posting information on Facebook about anti-Assad protests in Aleppo. Despite the rebel takeover, she said, the members of her family have been able to return to work.
Hadeel Oueis says that on the one hand, “things are positive for the Christian community,” but on the other hand, she — who is living outside Syria, and relies on reports from those inside Syria who might be wary of expressing negative views of HTS — admits that this is only the result of jihad groups, especially HTS, wanting to put on a display of tolerance so that they can be taken off the list of designated terrorist organizations. And she adds: “so they are behaving.” But what will happen to the Christians once these groups are taken off that list? Will they revert to type, mistreating Christians, Alawites, Druze, and other minorities? Each murder of a Christian, each sudden takeover of Christian property, makes for more anxiety.
And meanwhile, now that the IDF has taken over the Syrian side of the Golan, including the summit of Mount Hermon, the Druze living in that area, previously ruled by Assad’s regime, have asked the Israeli government to annex them. Can you blame them? If you belonged to a small religious minority, would you rather belong to Israel or to Syria? The Druze in the village of Hader in the Syrian Golan are understandably worried. Now that the Assad regime — which they did not openly oppose because Assad protected minorities — has fallen, they wonder if the rebels will treat them harshly. They put little stock in the assurances of Abu Mohammad al-Jolani that minorities have nothing to fear. For jihadis, the Druze are practically Infidels. And the Druze know what that means.
The Center for Peace Communications, where Oueis works, conducted on-the-street interviews with Christians in Aleppo after Al-Jolani’s takeover, and most were cautiously optimistic. “The first two or three days were uncomfortable, and we were very afraid,” said one woman. “We’ve had enough of war. It’s been 13 years, and our children haven’t been able to experience life. But after a couple of days, the electricity got better, and our situation has become better, safer.”
Christians in Syria have for centuries learned to hide their dissatisfactions with Muslims, for fear of violent retribution. They are that way now, as well, for they can never be certain that their views, even if expressed only to opinion pollsters, will not be made known to Muslim groups. So of course they are now willing to claim that “ the situation has become better, safer.” But that is belied by the pleas of Antiochian Orthodox Greeks in Aleppo to the Greek government to rescue them from oppression by Muslims, and by the carloads of Christians leaving Syria for Lebanon every day.
Right now there is no way of knowing if the HTS claim to have abandoned its intolerance of non-Muslims is a temporary charade to get itself removed from the list of designated terror groups and to win Western support for its takeover of Syria, or whether Al-Jolani, and others, too, have had a sincere change of heart on the way to Damascus. There’s only one way to find out. Station Western observers on the Lebanese side of the main highway that runs from Syria to Lebanon, and count the cars with Christian and Alawite passengers as they come streaming in. And ask the Israelis, who clearly have a good grasp of the Syrian factions and their varying views, how much faith they put in the assurances of Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. By all reports to date, not much.
Nabil Bissada says
Can al-Jolani’s Assurances to Christians and Druze Be Trusted?
No way to trust AL-Jolani’s as the leader of one the Islamic terrorist’s organization.
Christians of Syria by personal connecting with some of them are living now under daily threat from these savage Muslims.
Maybe also the Druze as a minority.
The question does the USA, Europe and the other western countries can protect the murder, rapping and kidnapping of the peaceful Christians?
Who only own the Bible the word of the true God, to protect themselves.
Or the western countries protect only the Muslims until all the crimes they are making against humanity?
Do President Trump can protect the Christians who are living in the Muslims countries (Middle East and other places) from all discrimination and persecutions as murders, kidnaping, raping the Christians women, burns churches, etc.?
Every Muslim is a timing bomb.
Our enemies who are living in USA are more danger, than our enemies who are not living in USA.
Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.
somehistory says
They can be trusted to be liars, rapists, murderers and enforcers of what they read in their book of demon filth.
They cannot be trusted to tell the Truth or to be kind to infidels, as they hate Christians and others who refuse islam.
St Croix says
Just look at that poker face.
Not to be trusted any further than he can be thrown.
Keys says
Al-Jolani could be gone before sunset today, but Islam in Syria with its essential and pervasive spirit of hatred and darkness will not be.
Tim gallagher says
Trust a Muslim scumbag. No way in the world. As for Syria, they got rid of one scumbag and replaced him with this new evil scumbag. Just degrees of evil, but all them evil, murderous scum. It is what islam produces.
Tony says
A Muslim should NEVER be trusted because of Islam’s deceit, lies, and terrorism against ALL Non-Muslims. Moreover, Islam is a deceitful, totalitarian, terrorist, pedophilic Criminal Gang Enterprise against all Non-Muslims by using discrimination, deception, hatred, rape, murder, and violence to gain ultimate power and control as taught in Islamic Law and in Islam’s Quran. Furthermore, Islam’s supremacist-genocidal Ideology, its intolerant Muslims, its propaganda Schools, its foreign terrorist Organizations, and its ‘Convert-or-Die’ Mosques fund, teach, inspire, and promote ‘Threats and Incitement of Violence’ as well as never-ending terrorism, loathing, and segregation against women, children, and all Non-Muslims(eg. Quran 2:191-3; 4:65, 89, 100; 5:14,82; 8:65; 9:5,14-15,29,111; 33:26; 47:4; 65:4; 98:6-7 and more).
abu taleb says
History shows when Islam takes a complete power over a region, it eventually wipes out the non muslims with only a few exceptions. For example, in Indonesia where it is claimed that Islam came in peace, the Buddhist/Hindu people has completely disappeared except in Bali where the whole Balinese is Hindus and in Tengger which is a very remote place on top of the mountain.
We should not trust al Jolani.or any muslm at all, especially the jihadis who have blood all over their hands.
Hank says
+10
STJOHNOFGRAFTON says
Yeah, about as trustworthy as playing Russian Roulette.
Burnaby Lad says
sick f*ck
bring it
Hank says
You cannot trust a Muslim as he follows the Quran which is an antichrist book that tells them to kill, steal and destroy. Even lying/Taqiya is condoned in the script.
The only way for Syria to become civilized again is to drive out the Jihadis and their Islamic doctrines and return to its Christian roots. Even now non-Muslims there know this and are begging Israel to annex it and not hand it over to Islamists who will in a little while start threatening and massacring everything around them
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Given that Israel has decided to protect the Syrian Druze, partly maybe to win the support of their own Druze population and the factoid that the former has requested to be annexed by Israel, I think Jolani/HTS may avoid going after them, at least as long as they are weak. The Kurds are being battered by the Turks, so the “Umayyads” (which is what Jolani calls his forces) need not worry about them. That then leaves solely the Christians
The least that Jolani can and should do is allow those Christians to escape to Lebanon. He can then focus on the shi’a and Alawites, and decide whether he wants to fight them, or live in peace w/ them
Mada says
I am a Syrian Druze from Sweida living in Europe, and the situation in Syria is deeply troubling. We cannot trust Turkey or its Islamist militias like the SNA. Siding with Israel makes us targets for Islamists, while siding with Golani or the belonging to Syria risks our civil rights.
Overall the majority of Druze is leaning towards building secular Syria.
Our hope lies in Syria becoming a democracy with guaranteed rights to minorities, a possibility as the EU support and the growing worries of a new refugee crisis. While we don’t trust Golani, time will show if he adopts moderate Islam or aligns with Turkey’s expansion. His stance on Turkey’s attacks on the Kurds will be telling—joining would show support for Turkey’s ambitions, while resisting could bolster his credibility with minorities.
Lastly, the Israeli media’s claim that Druze communities want annexation is false. The video I shared and it was spread wildly was a public discussed, and the final decision remains to stay part of Syria and strive for peace with all neighbors.
memi says
Yes, indeed, the Syrian situation is a nightmare and minorities’ rights are not part of Sharia law and its Al-Qaeda/HST apostles.
I hate to say this but Assad will be proven to be “Mother Teresa” compared to Al-Jolani’s Islamist barbarians. Whatever else we may call Assad, he did try to run a “secular state”. The Islamist terrorists now “ruling” Syria are taking their orders from Sultan Erdogan and how the EU countries are treating this barbarian as a credible politician with whom to “negotiate”, is a mystery to me.
Syria, unfortunately, is no longer a secular state but is run by the most dangerous Islamist factions known to Americans and EU–but neither is willing to act so as to prevent the forthcoming genocide of Christians, Druzes, Kurds, Alwaites and other minorities. As for the U.S. the messages from Pres. Trump were not encouraging for any community in Syria under the terrorist regime of al-Jolani.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Mada
On your last point, here is a video of Syrian Druze saying that they wanna be annexed by Israel, if you ignore the flippant comments of the announcer here
https://youtube.com/shorts/u4aamqGWr6E
Anyway, Israel is not looking at annexing them, although they should keep that on the cards if HTS keeps inciting Palestinians to wage jihad against Israel
As for your hope of a secular Syria, that’s what the Alawite regime was, and it took extraordinary amounts of force, backed up by foreign military support, to prop it up: it was that unstable. Now that has collapsed, and there is no appetite among Syrian sunnis to support a secular establishment. Only way it might happen is if Syrian sunni Arabs have a fallout w/ the Turks, and revolt, in which case, they’d need the support of everyone else – the Kurds, Druze, Christians, Alawites and other shi’a. I don’t know if there is such an Arabist militia within Syria, that has that preference of allies
James Lincoln says
Do not trust Abu Mohammad al-Jolani as he supports the tenets of islam.
memi says
How can we trust an Al-Qaeda HST terrorist wanted (officially)by security services as posted on Justice Rewards for $10,000,000?
Islamofascist Turkey took him to a barber, gave him and his ISIS comrades new suits and Christians are not allowed (by al-Jolani’s order)to celebrate Christmas this year and, further, they cannot wear a Cross outside their homes.
Meantime the brave Kurds are faced with extinction by Sultan Erdogan and are aready evacuating Manjib while Christians and Druzes are leaving for Syria by the hundreds! Everyone there fears the terrorists especially girls and women. These barbarians are pedophiles and can “marry” 6-year-old children as it’s ok with Sharia!
Send the marines to capture this shaven Islamist barbarian and give the $10Million-dollar Reward to the Israeli families of the hostages! And please someone tell President Trump not to encourage the barbarians of Turkey and their neo-Ottoman dreams–and our nightmare!
Protect the Kurds and create an autonomous Kurdistan region to protect Israel from the protector of Hamas/Muslim Bros/Al-Qaeda & ISIS: Sultan Erdogan.
Lynnette Mellon says
NO!! Him and his terrorist friends would have to change big time. The proof is in the pudding – we will see.