Syria’s Christian population continues to face a perilous future, following the UK government’s decision to remove the ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the Home Office’s proscribed list of terrorist factions. The decision follows the same call by the United States’ administration in the summer.
HTS - led by Ahmed al-Sharaa - remains a source of ongoing uncertainty, and there are persistent fears that Christians will face further persecution as HTS looks to establish an Islamic state in Syria.
As we reported last month, a recent round of dubious elections has done little to quell concern for the nation’s believers, and recent months have been plagued by massacres of religious minorities by HTS forces, mostly inflicted against Alawites and Druze communities, but with a handful of attacks involving Christians.
Lindisfarne CEO Martin Parsons told en why many believers fear that attacks against them could intensify: “There are ongoing killings of Druze by government forces at the moment. In fact, the day before the UK government announced deproscription of HTS, the Syrian government’s own envoy in Dubai resigned in protest at these massacres.
“Christians are fearful that it will be [a case of] ‘first they came for the Alawites, then the Druze, next they will come for us.’ The church bombing in Damascus in June, which killed more than 20 people and was probably undertaken by an HTS splinter group, was a huge shock, as Damascus has been in many respects the safe place for years.”
While some may wonder if the UK’s decision to remove HTS from its terror list is likely to impact events thousands of miles away, Parsons stressed that the government’s decision could have a very real influence on how Christians are treated in Syria.
He said: “HTS has not renounced terrorism, or jihad, and the Trump administration and the UK are the only countries in the world to remove them from their terrorism list, [while] HTS is still on the UN and EU lists.
"The message it sends to other jihadist groups around the world who target Christians is, ‘if your jihad succeeds and you manage to seize control of the whole country, Western governments will no longer treat you as a terror group, but as a legitimate government like themselves.’ That risks massively emboldening and empowering jihadist groups around the world who target Christians.”
