Uncertainty remains for Christians in Syria six months on from Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) overthrowing of Bashar al-Assad’s government. While they are meeting together, they remain concerned about the future under President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s rule.
Martin Parsons, CEO of The Lindisfarne Centre for the Study of Christian Persecution, believes a recent meeting between US president Donald Trump and al-Sharaa carries “seismic importance” for the future, with the first meeting between US and Syrian leaders in 25 years representing a huge shift in approach.
Al-Sharaa is considered by many to be a jihadist. Parsons said: “What we are seeing from the new Syrian government, especially al-Sharaa, is what has over the last decade or so has become a strategic tactic for jihadist groups; trying to appear moderate to the west in the hope of getting financial support for reconstruction, while giving a very different message to their own supporters. Prior to seizing power HTS controlled Idlib province, where the treatment of Christians in some respects was for a time worse than Islamic State.”
While Parsons did point to signs of hope, such as al-Sharaa’s expression of concern to western media outlets about persecuted Christians and his reopening of a church in Idlib province three years ago, highlighting his desire for favourable coverage, he concluded that Trump’s meeting with him “shifts the balance of power in the Middle East” in the wrong direction.
He said: “The governments of countries in the Middle East with large Christian minorities, such as Jordan and Egypt, see Islamists as their main threat. Those governments have just been massively undermined by the US President meeting the leader of a jihadist group, which has just succeeded where a decade ago Islamic State failed, by toppling Syria’s government and seizing power.”
