Is the West Abandoning Syria’s Christians?

The existential threat to the two-thousand-year history of Christianity in Syria

Just days after the massacres of minorities by government aligned forces, US government pressure forced Syria's only democratically run region to come under the control of the jihadist group turned government in Damascus - Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).  Three days later the new government imposed an Islamist constitution. Syria’s Christians increasingly look abandoned.

Christians’ depletion

Before Syria’s civil war in 2011, Christians were estimated to be around ten percent of Syria’s 22 million population. No-one knows how many there actually were as there hadn’t been a census since 1960. But the specific targeting of Christians by various jihadist groups over the last dozen or so years triggered a massive population collapse, as vast numbers of Christians fled the country.

There are now estimated to be only 300,000. But unlike other Syrians, who since the fall of the Assad regime have been returning, Christians are continuing to flee, fearful of what life under HTS may mean.

But unlike other Syrians, who since the fall of the Assad regime have been returning, Christians are continuing to flee, fearful of what life under HTS may mean.

After HTS seized control of much of Syria at the beginning of December, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), run by the Kurdish dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), was the only area not controlled by a jihadist group.

That part of Syria was where Islamic State religiously cleansed an entire district of its Christian population one night, blowing up its churches the next morning. It also includes the city of Qaryatain where in August 2015 Islamic State abducted 260 Christians, taking them to Raqqa to use as human shields.  Others were given 48 hours to convert to Islam, flee or submit to dhimmitude symbolised by payment of jizya. But the area was taken by the SDF, supported by Western military backing, in 2018. Since then it has been the only area of Syria which has any real semblance of even fledgling democracy and freedom. But now that, too, is gone.

Betrayal by the West

On 10 March the head of the SDF, General Mazloum Abdi, signed an agreement by which the area would come under the control of the new government in Damascus. That agreement, which understandably prompted loud protests in the region, came after General Michael Kurilla of US Central Command visited the region to “encourage” the SDF to reach an agreement with the new government.

The move reflects plans currently being made by the US military to pull all remaining US troops out of Syria within the next 30-90 days. Those plans would of course leave the SDF high and dry, vulnerable to attacks from Turkish backed jihadists in the west, which have increased significantly since HTS seized Damascus, and to any assault which HTS might launch. Understandably, many in Northeast Syria now feel betrayed.

The agreement, which means that the new government forces will immediately take control of the area, could not have come at a worse time. It was signed just three days after the massacre of an estimated thousand plus people by government-aligned forces in the coastal area of Syria, with pictures circulating of bodies of civilians piled up in the street. The overwhelming majority of those targeted were almost certainly Alawites, the sect most closely associated with the Assad regime, although there is evidence of a small number of Christians also being killed.

Jihadist dictatorship

However, these events are not the only issue which has raised questions about the 10th of March agreement between the SDF and the new government in Damascus.

The first article of that agreement guaranteed the right to political representation and participation of all religious and ethnic groups. However, on 13th March, Syria’s new president, Ahmed al Sharaa, announced the imposition of a new interim constitution on the whole of Syria, a text which had not even been discussed when the agreement was signed only three days earlier.

What the new constitution does is to give sweeping powers to al-Sharaa with almost no checks and balances.

What the new constitution does is to give sweeping powers to al-Sharaa with almost no checks and balances. He can appoint a third of the parliament and appoint a committee who will appoint the other two thirds! All laws have to be approved by him, and he can reject any law the parliament proposes. A new Supreme Constitutional Court will replace the existing one, with its members appointed by the President. These powers will last until elections are called, which will not be for five years, although that time could be extended.

The new constitution also declares that shari’a is now the principal source of legislation - something the previous constitution gave a notional nod to, but is now likely to mean something much more significant.

Christian dhimmitude

Significantly, this same article of the constitution then goes on to say that “the State shall respect all monotheistic religions and guarantee the freedom to perform all their rites”. This sounds suspiciously like dhimmitude – the part of shari’a which allows followers of monotheistic religions, such as Christianity and Judaism, to live, provided they worship behind closed doors but with what is effectively a non-citizen status.

This sounds suspiciously like dhimmitude.

That of course is what Islamic State imposed on Christians in Qaryatain a decade ago and was also the status of Syrian Christians during most of the various Islamic caliphates they lived under until the end of the First World War.

The interim constitution also criminalises anyone calling for one part of Syria to become separate, so the agreement to place the autonomous north-east area under the new government is a one-way street.

Time for action

President Trump has pulled US forces out of Syria once before, but subsequently reversed that decision when unintended consequences emerged, including the large-scale escape of Islamic State prisoners.

There is still time to realise that false steps at this stage pose an existential threat to the two-thousand-year history of Christianity in Syria as well as risking the creation of a new jihadist state in the Middle East.

Let’s pray that the West, and particularly America, will recognise the disturbing realities of the situation, and respond to the utterly precarious position that Christians in Syria find themselves in – before it’s too late.