Fear grips Christians in Al Sharaa’s new Syria

Since then, they have been praying in the basement, while workers work to repair the temple with the aim of reopening the doors as quickly as possible. Since then, fear and distrust of the new Islamist authorities have continued to grow among certain Christians in Syria who do not believe the good words of Ahmed Al Sharaainterim president and former leader of Al-Qaeda. “We are not comfortable, we are afraid to go out on the street, that’s the truth. Every time there is a hostile act, the authorities say it is an “individual act”, but they do nothing to contain these acts and that is worrying. Basically, they are extremists and they have the power,” denounces Father Pierre, who warns of a mass exodus of Christians if things do not change.

On that dark Sunday in June, a man armed with an assault rifle entered the church grounds and began shooting those in his path until he reached the main door. He pushed her and opened fire indiscriminately. Having finished the magazine, he took a grenade from his pocket, but he did not have time to activate it because two faithful jumped on him. Then, on the ground, the bomb he was carrying in his backpack exploded. “The explosion was very strong But if he had set himself on fire in the center of the church, it would have been much worse. These two men who blocked his way saved many lives,” remembers Father Peter, responsible for celebrating mass during an attack which left 25 dead and 120 injured.

The Interior Ministry attributed the attack to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, ordered the erection of checkpoints at the entrances to this predominantly Christian neighborhood and arrested several suspects for their links to the attack. The minister Anas Khattab describes what happened as “reprehensible crime” and assured that “these terrorist acts will not stop the efforts of the Syrian state to establish civil peace.” Father Peter thinks that “it was quite a theater. They set up checkpoints, but they generated more worry and fear than peace, so we asked them to remove them and we placed people from the community at the entrance to the church to keep watch.”

The reaction of the priests was to make the community understand that “the attack cannot kill the Church, but must give it more life. Our religion taught us to love life, so we worked tirelessly and a week later we organized a collective funeral attended by thousands of people,” the father recalls with emotion. But, after the initial outpouring, fear is a burden they cannot shake off. The Christians of Syria (Orthodox, Syriacs, Assyrians, Maronites, Armenian Rite Catholics, etc.) represented the 10 percent of the 22 million inhabitants of the country before the outbreak of civil war in 2011. Today, there are no official figures, but estimates suggest that more than half a million Christians live as displaced people or have emigrated abroad.

Near the temple, a group of young people follow the progress of the repair work. “There is more fear than before and fewer and fewer people are coming to church because we think the attack could repeat itself. Let’s hope that with God’s help things will improve, we must be very united to overcome this,” said Fidel, a third-year medical student at Damascus University. His friends prefer not to speak.

Christians share the same feelings as the Druze and Alawites, the country’s other religious minorities. Father Pierre regrets that “They think we are devils or some kind of mistake in this country and they want to fix it on their own. They made a one-color revolution and they don’t want us. They try to embellish their actions in front of the world, but the reality is very different.