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  "path": "/2026/02/27/protecting-religious-minorities-in-syria-part-2/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-27T06:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://juicyecumenism.com",
  "tags": [
    "Middle East",
    "earlier article",
    "Shai Fund",
    "Israeli controlled] Golan Heights; it’s one hour drive [north] to Damascus.” Beginning in April, and [most notably in July",
    "north] to Damascus.” Beginning in April, and [most notably in July of last year, “thousands of civilians were [just murdered, massacred",
    "substantially engaged",
    "The Challenge of Protecting Religious Minorities in Syria – Part 1",
    "The Challenge of Protecting Religious Minorities in Syria – Part 2",
    "Juicy Ecumenism"
  ],
  "textContent": "An earlier article reviewed the comments of a panel at the International Religious Freedom Summit on Feb. 3 concerning the impact on religious minorities in Syria of American and Western policy, now that an Islamist government (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS) has come to power there, and is establishing full control of the country. A second panel included voices (speaking for themselves alone) from the various religious minority communities in Syria. Charmaine Hedding, President of the Shai Fund moderated the panel. She said that we need to consider the experiences of the people who have suffered “and paid the highest price” from Syria’s civil war. Ancient communities face the reality that their “survival now hangs in the balance.” Panelists included Pari Ibrahim of Free Yazidi Foundation, Metin Rhawi of the European Syriac Union, Mahmud Zamlut of the Alawites Association of the United States, and Richard Assed of the American International Druze Public Affairs Council (AIDPAC).\n\n**Minority Perspectives**\n\nHedding asked if there is a prospect for equal citizenship in Syria, or only a prospect of “survival … and permanent insecurity.” She asked Ibrahim “what fears and concerns are the most pressing” for the Yazidi community. Referring to the past experience of the Yazidis with ISIS, Ibrahim said that ISIS’s ideology was “to eradicate the Yazidis” because they were “infidels,” “non-believers,” and “devil worshippers.” She expressed appreciation to the YPG (a primarily Kurdish force) and the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS that opened a corridor at the time of the 2014 effort to commit genocide against the Yazidis to bring Yazidi refugees from the mountains to “a safer place.”\n\nIbrahim observed that the Syrian interim President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was an al-Qaeda commander, “leading al-Qaeda in Syria.” As such, he cannot be expected to be favorable to Yezidis (or Christians) from anything in his background. These Islamist groups can be expected to kill Yazidi men if they have the power to do so, rape, kidnap, or sell women as sex slaves, and use young boys as suicide bombers. The Syria that al-Sharaa would envision is not one in which religious and ethnic minorities can live, she believes. This is also the message that she is getting from these communities as well. After many centuries of persecution, Syria’s Jews have left, and Christians and Yazidis will finally be eradicated (or nearly so) from Syria. It will be “an Arab Islamic state.” The fact that the international community currently “embraces and hugs” al-Sharaa will not dissuade him from his objective, it only makes it more likely that he will pursue it.\n\nRhawi said that Syrian Christians again find their continued existence on the line, both their religion (Christianity) and their language (Syriac). He sees a danger that Syrian Christians will lose their Syriac language and be turned into Arabic speakers, thinking (or enculturated in) Arabic as well. Unified response to Islamist rule is complicated by the fact that Syria’s Christians are dispersed throughout western Syria. He objects to referring to the Syrian Christians as a minority, “because we are the indigenous people of the region.” Burning of churches, vandalism of churches, burning of Christmas trees, desecration of cemeteries, etc. casts a serious doubt on the continued existence of the estimated 300,000 Christians remaining in Syria (the majority of Syrian Christians having emigrated due to the violence associated with the Syrian Civil War (2011-2024)). It is unclear if they will be able to educate in Syriac, a branch of Aramaic, the historic language of Syrian Christians (and the language of Jesus). But he said that Syrian Christians are determined “to stand up for themselves.”\n\nAssed said that the Sweida Governorate, in southwest Syria, south of Damascus, where many Druze live, is an area of strategic importance. “It is a border region to Jordan, the Israeli controlled] Golan Heights; it’s one hour drive north] to Damascus.” Beginning in April, and [most notably in July of last year, “thousands of civilians were [just murdered, massacred,” he said. The official number from the U.N. of 1,800 killed far underestimates the actual number, he maintained. “Entire villages were emptied.” There are 180,000 people “homeless, displaced.” There are 36 villages now deserted. This is also happening to Christians and other minorities in Syria as well. He said that the Druze remained neutral during the Syrian civil war (2011-2024). They fed and clothed people involved in the war. But “the massacres began” once the HTS government took power. The U.S. and other Western governments failed to act in any way against this. The current system is “rule by presidential decree” with “no accountability.” The situation is moving “toward ideological exclusion, and not pluralism.”\n\nHaving lived for many generations under Islamic rule, the Druze have their own “functional organization,” with police, hospitals, etc., which can serve them in “emergency situations,” even with “limited resources.” 120,000 people in Sweida, and 100,000 in diaspora have signed a petition for “self-determination.” This is not separatism, he said, but a matter of “survival. It’s not rejection of Syria, but it’s the only way to stay alive.”\n\nHedding then turned to the Alawites, the religious group of the Assad family, which ruled Syria for 43 years (1971-2024). She observed that an estimated 1,400 people were killed in a March 2025 massacre in the Latakia Governorate on the Mediterranean Coast. Zamlut said that the Alawite officers in Assad’s army and security forces, following his parting admonition, laid down their weapons in the hope that the new government would be just. Instead, killing, abduction and rape of women followed. Alawites were laid off from their jobs. Consequently the Alawites feel betrayed. The Alawites want to live, as do the Druze, and not be second or third class citizens. He agreed with other panelists that pressure from the United States is needed to get to a tolerable result in Syria.\n\n**Question and Answer about Religious Minorities**\n\nIn a question and answer session, Ibrahim said that a centralized state ruled by HTS is not something that is a possibility for religious minorities to live in. HTS and al-Sharaa, offshoots from al Qaeda, will treat religious minorities “in the way that they’ve treated them in the past” (massacres, abductions, enslavement, ransom demands, confiscatory taxes, etc.). She believes that a kind of Islamic state has already been established in Syria, and contrasted it with the tolerant and inclusive regime in the DAANES autonomous region of northeast Syria. Indeed, the atrocities of recent months advance the Islamist ideology, and she believes that “extremists or jihadists will never be long term allies to the United States.”\n\nRhawi agreed with Ibrahim that al-Sharaa believes he has a free hand in Syria because he is applauded by other governments. What is really needed in the country are democratic values, which appear not to be the values of interim president al-Sharaa and the HTS. He added that Turkish influence (currently behind the HTS government) should be minimized as much as possible.\n\nAssed said that kidnapped women and children “need to be released immediately.” A “humanitarian corridor” to Sweida needs to be immediately opened for “food, fuel, and medicine.” Displaced persons, numbering 180,000, need to be restored to their homes, and students need to be safely returned to their universities. A U.S. congressional fact-finding delegation needs to be dispatched to the Sweida Governorate, to take testimonies of the massacres and war-related problems there. The Druze want “survival,” but also “dignity, safety, and the right to live without fear of persecution just because of our faith.”\n\nZamlut said that prisoners, especially children, need to be released. Sanctions against Syria were legislatively imposed, and the American administration is required to report after 90 days if it lifts sanctions about what has been gotten from the Syrian government as a result of the lifting of sanctions. Certainly no one has been prosecuted for crimes against minorities. He proposed decentralization as a possible way to secure a less violent and more stable Syria.\n\n**Conclusion**\n\nHedding said that the crucial question with respect to Syria is whether the West is willing to hold the current government accountable for what has transpired since it took power in late 2024. The U.S. administration will either hold Syria to liberal democratic principles, or “default” to a geopolitical approach of relying on a strong man because it is “easier” and “more manageable.”\n\nGenerally panelists said that the new Syrian government is engaging in persecution of religious minorities, despite promises to the contrary and despite U.S. support for the new government. This is unsurprising, since the HTS government emerged from the al-Nusra offshoot of Al Qaeda, and is supported by Turkey, which seems to have neo-Ottoman aspirations. Panelists’ call for an inclusive Syria, with equal citizenship and freedom regardless of religion is, of course, inimical to the goals of Islamist groups such as HTS. It was observed that minorities are not concerned primarily about abstract ideas of rights and self-determination, but above all with survival. How HTS can accommodate the interests of religious minorities without a radical reversal of its Islamist goals is unclear.\n\nWith either Mahmud Zamlut’s proposal for decentralization, or Charmaine Hedding’s insistence on Western pressure (which is possible either directly, or, as noted in the earlier article, through the HTS government’s regional backers, which are generally friendly with the United States), the actual ability of America to turn Syria in the right direction would seem to be decidedly limited. At this point, U.S. government rhetoric and diplomatic engagement with Syria, its regional backers, and Israel, which is substantially engaged in south Syria would seem to be the best policy to ensure that American support is not seen as unqualified, but contingent on toleration of religious minorities. Beyond that, hope and prayer are certainly called for in this crucial and delicate time.\n\n**More from IRD** :\n\nThe Challenge of Protecting Religious Minorities in Syria – Part 1\n\nThe post The Challenge of Protecting Religious Minorities in Syria – Part 2 appeared first on Juicy Ecumenism.",
  "title": "The Challenge of Protecting Religious Minorities in Syria – Part 2"
}