When the former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad (whose overthrow was long overdue, it would seem) was driven from office in December, 2024, the world held its breath. What would his replacement look like in terms of how he might treat minority groups? The new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa was a well-known ISIS leader who had overseen the killing of minority factions during the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to create a Muslim Caliphate in the last decade. He assured the world that he had changed and that minorities in Syria would be safe. Those were blatant lies. Minority groups are being annihilated, at al-Sharaa’s bidding, all in the goal to create an Islamic Umayyad state affiliated with the ISIS Umayyads (according to sources within Syria). Terrorist factions are killing innocent people every day on the Syrian coast. The United Nations seems either unable or unlikely to intervene Syrians. IN the meantime, Christians are being asked to pray.
The Bible records that Saul, who became the apostle Paul, was converted while on the road leading into Damascus, Syria. There, he joined an established Christian community. Christianity in Syria has continued since then and is among the oldest Christian communities on Earth and has been described as a “cradle of Christianity”. The first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas set out from Antioch, Syria. It was there that followers of Jesus Christ were first called “Christians”. The Syrian Christian legacy includes the establishment of some of the most ancient churches, monasteries, and pilgrimage sites in the world.
However, in recent times, the Syrian Christian community has faced numerous challenges, including ongoing and severe persecution, displacement and emigration. Christians in Syria made up about 10% of the Syrian population just over a decade ago but now make up less than 2%, falling from 1.5 million in 2011 to just 300,000 in 2022 due to the impact of the Syrian Civil War. The country’s largest Christian denomination is the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch. Christians in Syria have also been subjected to violence and discrimination by Islamic State fighters during their control of large areas of the country. Their churches have been converted into military headquarters, and their property confiscate. Some governments and organisations including the United States have claimed that the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa, especially in Syria and Iraq, constitute an act of genocide. That is certainly true now with the new President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, sanctioning, if not ordering, the slaughter of Christians and other minority groups. Below is a letter sent to the United Nations leaders:
Here is another letter to the United Nations leader:
“Mr. Secretary-General, here is Syria, here is the coast, sir, here every minute a massacre is being committed against the Alawites and Christians, sir, you wish a speedy recovery to our wounded!
Sir, there are no wounded. They are all dead now
Unfortunately, al-Sharaa does not send anyone, he only urges them to change their clothes from hired killers to General Security clothes, the content is the same, only the clothes change, they try to falsify the facts by hiding the bodies, some of them they threw in the sea, some of them they buried in mass graves, others were deported like garbage bags in garbage trucks to be buried in mass graves in Idlib, Burning many bodies and burning homes and civilian property, and others they dressed in General Security clothes to say that those who killed them were remnants of the regime, to mislead you and obscure what they did to these innocent civilians.
Sir, it is now 3:30 AM on Tuesday 3/11/2025. Now the homes of the Alawites are being burned and they are being killed in the village of Salata. The presidential decisions that Al-Julani issues only publicly are not being implemented. He gives them other orders from under the table. Imagine, sir, that they are threatening people with weapons and abusing them so that they do not speak the truth in front of you. They are waiting for your honorable Excellency to come and leave so that the remaining Alawites can be killed silently.
They are trying by all means to get the refugees out of Hmeimim Airport to be killed. The people refused to leave, so they were sent poisoned food and poisoned bread. The Russian soldiers got rid of this poisoned food. You can confirm the truth of my words from the Russian general residing in the Russian base in Hmeimim Airport.
We as Alawites demand international protection and will not accept anything less.
We live in fear, panic and intimidation from these Takfiri gangs. Please be, as we have known you, an example to follow in justice and fairness.
Provide us with international protection, do not let the rest of us die, as the number of our dead has reached nearly 17,000 dead and 15,000 missing until this hour. Save us, please, save us. We ask for a clear and strict response that will stop these criminals. We want to issue warrants against them that criminalize what they did to these innocent people. Thank you for listening and appreciating what is happening to us. May you be well, and may you remain an example of justice and fairness for us”
This is beyond a humanitarian crisis; it is an extermination. As Westerners and as Christians, we weep but please, we must be in prayer that things will change, lives will be saved, and that God will stop the annihilation and genocide.
