While Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani continues to assure the West that the rights of minorities will be protected in the new Syria, those Syrian minorities are doubtful. They know that in Idlib, where HTS ruled with an iron fist, minorities — in Idlib Province that meant mainly Alawites and Christians — were subject to a host of disabilities. Recently, a report appeared here on the current state of Christians in Syria now that Assad, who protected the Christians as long as they did not express any opposition to his rule, is gone. More on the current state of Christians in Syria can be found here: “Syria’s Christians: ‘We Have No Reason to Trust Al-Jolani,’” by Madeleine Rowley, The Free Press, December 13, 2024:
Christians have lived in Syria for over 2,000 years, but their numbers have dwindled since the beginning of the civil war in 2011, declining from 2.2 million to about 500,000 or less, making up just over 2 percent of the population. Richard Ghazal, a Syriac Orthodox Christian and executive director of In Defense of Christians, part of the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C., said that under Assad’s rule, Christians in Syria were generally protected by Assad as long as they didn’t raise objections to his cruel dictatorship. But they were always treated as second-class citizens. Many of them fled to Lebanon during the war. He said that Syrian Christian church leaders spoke favorably about Assad because they had to—it helped keep the Christian community safe.
Once the civil war started in 2011, the Christians began to worry about the longevity of the regime that protected them, and beginning in that year, they started to leave the country. Many of them chose to go to Lebanon, where Christians still constitute 40% of the population, while others moved to the United States, Australia, and Europe. In 2021, there were 2.2 million Christians in Syria; today there are fewer than 500,000, with some estimates stating that there are only 300,000. The highway going from Syria to Lebanon has been clogged with the cars of Christians who do not trust the assurances of Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani.
“Bishops and priests in Syria and even in the United States knew that all their words and actions were scrutinized by the Assad government,” Ghazal told The Free Press. “If you weren’t a cheerleader for Assad, you were the opposition.”
This week, Fr. Bahjat Karakach, a Franciscan friar in Aleppo, told Vatican News that Christians living under Assad were not living, but were merely surviving.
Ghazal met with the State Department and politicians on Capitol Hill earlier this week and urged them to make it clear to Al-Jolani that America is watching. “The United States needs to show that we are interested. They need to show that we’re not going to be fooled, and we’re going to use whatever means possible from a foreign-policy standpoint to make sure this is right.”
Ghazal said he has received reports from Syria of rebels destroying liquor stores, since alcohol is banned in Islam, and of rebels telling women to cover their hair.
“This is chapter one,” said Ghazal. “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is still trying to woo the world.”…
In other words, HTS is moving slowly to impose its Islamic rule, and not doing so all over Syria at once. Liquor stores everywhere appear to have been ransacked, their contents smashed. But the requirement for women to be hijabbed appears not to have been enforced as yet in Damascus and Aleppo, where Western journalists are stationed. HTS doesn’t want to scare the Western powers; it wants Western approval and Western aid, and wants to be removed from the list of terrorist organizations, so it has downplayed both its strict jihadist history and current aspirations to impose Sharia.
On December 13, a Greek Orthodox couple, Samaan Satme and Helena Khashouf from the village al-Jamasliyye in Syria’s Homs province, in a place known as the Valley of the Christians (Wadi al-Nasraha), were murdered in their home. Although the murder was initially reported as a burglary gone wrong, it later emerged that Samaan had been beheaded and Helena shot, indicating that there were other — anti-Christian — motives. Saman’s killer was merely following the Qur’anic instruction to Muslims: “When you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks…” (Qur’an 47:4). At the same time, a video is being circulated on social media that shows a Lebanese Christian woman saying that her brother and mother live in Latakia, where after rebels arrived in the city, their house was invaded by Muslim neighbors who told him: “You’re Christians, leave the house, we don’t want you here!” No word on whether the Christians complied, but they must have done so, given the alternative. Finally, the Antiochian Greeks in Aleppo have written a letter to the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, begging the Greek government to help the Greeks in Aleppo: “the children of our relatives and their families are living in great danger. Their lives are at risk, abandoned to face their fate.”
Leonidas says
Islam ( submission)will collapse ,like USSR in 1989,if we DENOUNCE PSEUDO PROPHET MUHAMMAD,who according to his biography( Sira) and traditions( Hadith) was a pedophile( wife Aisha was 9 yo), rapist, murderer, bandit (keeping20% of the booty for himself),liar and sex-slave trader and also LIBERATE THE MUSLIM WOMEN from barbaric Sharia Law.The Koran states women are dumb, less intelligent than men,wives must be beaten for disobedience by their hudbands ,all women will go to hell unless in the last day their husband says he was pleased with her and all women must hide their curves and wear burkas ,so that men will not be aroused to rape them.Islam is a misogynistic ,violent , imperialist political ideology of Arab male supremacy ISLAMOFASCISM(~70%), DISGUISED AS A RELIGION(~ 30%) that strives through violent Jihad and soft cultural Jihad of immigration ( dawa)to subjugate the World.Jihadists are promised, if killed battling infidels-kafirs,) they will go to Paradise to enjoy 72 virgins ,taking along 70 of their relatives regardless of their sins!Withdraw from UN MIGRANT COMPACT ,that falsely claims immigration is a Human Right expecting Western countries to accept and provide for an endless number of muslim illegal immigrants ,thus islamizing them. Muslim “refugees “should stay in Turkey or vast rich Saudi Arabia ,until they can return to their countries.We must denounce islamic Sharia (=way)law of blasphemer,apostate ,homosexual , adulterer and hypocrite executions,misogyny,honor killings by stoning,hand amputations for theft,child brides,girls exclusion from schools,halal meat from tortured animals,clitorectomies,circumcisions,subjugation and segregation of women,burkas and Sharia banning of short skirts,bikinis,dancing,singing,painting ,sculptures of people,dogs,pork,alcohol and beauty contests .Demand gender equality for ALL muslim women.Punish severely those that kill apostates from Islam,blasphemers,adulterers or muslim hypocrites.Islam is incompatible with our freedom of speech, gender equality, values,way of life, Human Rights,
John1 says
Well said!
Andrew Blackadder says
I have noticed what that wee Popey Fellow in the Vatican had to say about his flock in Syria as it appears to be the same as what he said about the Christians in Nigeria.
Meanwhile he wraps the baby Jesus in an Arab RAG and kisses Herr Abbass like a long lost Gay buddy.
Sure am glad Im not a Catholic, nor a Christian.
joanofark06 says
Sure glad your not a Catholic either, I consider them second after Islam, on the evil scale. At least on their pope. But since their are millions of people who are blind and deaf to follow him, worship him, etc….then their just as evil as he is.
What’s really sad though, is what your missing out on.
I’d really like to know, what or who got you so turned against Christianity. Whatever it was, it’s a shame that it happened, especially in these days, when we’re so close to what we are told about what’s going to happen in the near future. I could easily write a book here, about the exciting things that are about to happen, in the very near future, that were written so long ago. And that’s called bible prophecy. It’s almost like knowing the end of a book, and you want tell everyone about the exciting part of it.
You know how you pick up a tiny bit of snow, make a small snowball out of it, and then have it roll down a long hill of snow, and it gets bigger and bigger, as it collects more and more snow. That’s what bible prophecy is like. When you start with just one subject, you’ll only know, or learn a tiny bit about it, until you keep reading and studying about it, and before you know it, your head is full of info about it, and you even pick up some other known tidbits or info about other subjects in prophecy, and so you end up finding out about THAT or THOSE subject (s). And all this time, your learning about God, whether you knew or not!
And believe me, He wants you to read about His actions He is going to be doing in the endtime, or He wouldn’t have wrote this:
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:”
Revelation 1:1
or:
“Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near” (Revelation1:3).
I, myself, felt like I was shown how the 7 year Tribulation is going to happen, and the when and how of it. And it was on the last day of Trump leaving office, the last time he was President. I felt on that day, that Trump just HAD TO come back, and be President again, because God was going to use him to start the beginning of the 7 year Tribulation, even if Trump isn’t a Christian, as every president since Pres. Carter, has publicly announced that they were a Christian, and lied about that, only to get that group’s vote.
I mention Trump NOT being a Christian (ask me why he isn’t, if you wanna know why), because of the peace document he drew up, and brought it to the Middle East (last time he was in office), and got a few signatures on it, of some Middle East leaders, that said they were signing this peace document, that meant they wanted peace with Israel. But alas, Trump had to return early, to leave office. Seemed like a “time out” by God, to stop him from receiving all the signatures that were needed on Trump’s peace document, and give this world another chance to change to a peaceful world, but alas, the world accepted evil, and changed for the worse. And so, he’s bringing back Trump, a sinner, that he placed back in office, and finish His job, of starting the 7 year Tribulation period. I saw how his name could even be short for “trumpet”, which many are blown during this time.
Back to the reason we speak of Trump NOT being a Christian, is because of what he named that peace document, that he actually drew up himself! Not being a Christian he could of named that document with ANY name at all, BUT he gave it a very important name from the bible. What are the odds of that? I could only see that as another sign (his name being the first). Did you hear the name of this document of Trump’s? Look it up, if you never paid attention to the name of this peace document he made. It shocked even me.
I’ll stop here, as there’s much more to write, on how Trump will do one small thing, to start the ball rolling (not a snowball on THIS act), to bring in “the beginning of the end”, or the 7 year Tribulation period.
On request, I can continue on, with what I saw, on what happens next.
But don’t wait long. I believe we could see it happen tomorrow, or anytime until the ending of Trump’s four years.
I, myself, is hoping that Trump will be too busy for quite awhile. But all that needs to happen, is him picking that document up again, with those few signatures, and him taking off again, with his peace documents in hand, to go see some rich and powerful men in the Middle East.
Mick says
On Monday night ITN’s John Ray showed an Alawite lady being evicted in Latakia.
This is not about faith per se.
Religion is the flag of land grabbers. So the cleansing will go on until the Sunni have moved in.
joanofark06 says
“Religion is the flag of land grabbers”. Sometimes I have to laugh at people, who don’t have a clue, about certain subjects. But then again, it depends on WHICH religion you might be speaking of, or is the word “religion”, in your brain, the basket of ALL religions, or are you speaking of one particular religion (which if you were, then you should of given this “religion” of yours, a particular name to clarify your statement.
joanofark06 says
I really don’t understand the Christians in these many muslim countries. Why do they stay and live there, when surely they know that their living on the edge of life, when they live in an islamic country!!
What part of the muslim faith, or their mentality, do they not understand? Have they not ever looked or read what’s in the koran? Do they not have computers over there, to get some education, of the dangers of where their living? Do they not know, that their getting murdered, and their numbers are dwindling, day after day?
Ok, maybe their so poor, that they can’t afford to move. But why wouldn’t Israel or some NON-muslim country make it known, loud and clear, that they are coming to take as many Christians as they can, out of those countries?
I can’t understand it. Don’t they all know that eventually it’ll be THEIR turn to be killed? If I lived in a muslm majority country, I’d be walking, or even crawling out of that country. Surely as big as these muslim majority countries are, that they are living in, they could find a way to escape!
Well, I try not to feel sorry for them, or their inaptitude to find a way out, and sometimes I just have to accept their murders, when it comes to the Christians in these muslim countries.
Why isn’t Israel removing these people from these countries? I wish I knew the answer to this, and all the rest of the questions I’ve constantly battled with.