For Syria’s Christians, Christmas Is a Time to Grapple with Hope and Fear

The Washington Post / Mohamad El Chamaa, Salwan Georges

11:37 JST, December 26, 2024

DAMASCUS – This Christmas morning in Syria’s capital, Christians dressed in their finest clothes, attended church and participated in the annual parade through the ancient part of the city. Yet beneath the holiday cheer lay a heavy sense of anxiety.

Over the past 13 years, many have fled the country, leaving those who remain feeling particularly vulnerable as an Islamist group assumes power. Before the war began in 2011, Syria was home to more than 1.5 million Christians. Today, Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of the Syriac Orthodox Church estimates that number has fallen to around 400,000.

When Aphrem learned of the fall of Assad’s regime on Dec. 8, he cut short a trip to India and returned to Damascus, fearing for his church’s future.

Upon his arrival, he found his congregants had only partially decorated for Christmas. “The first thing I told them was, you have to continue to decorate. Decoration is an expression of joy and celebration,” he said.

By Christmas Eve, the capital’s streets were adorned with garlands, lights, and ornaments alongside the new flag. Passersby, many of them Muslim, stopped to take photos. In the courtyards of longtime restaurants, Christmas trees shone brightly as people shared meals and conversation.

Inside Aphrem’s church, parishioners sang Christmas songs in Aramaic – the language that Jesus is believed to have spoken – as well as songs about confronting fear and uniting Syrians.

The country has long been a diverse tapestry of religions. Sunni Muslims make up approximately 74 percent of the population, while Alawites – the minority sect to which Assad belongs – along with Ismailis and Shiite Muslims collectively account for about 13 percent. Druze make up around 3 percent of the population, and Christians represent approximately 2.5 percent, down from 10 percent before the war, according to the U.S. State Department. These figures are difficult to verify, as the war has displaced more than half of Syria’s population.

For more than 50 years, the Assad family elevated Alawites above others in the country. Members of their community were awarded high-ranking positions in the government and military, while Alawite businessmen benefited from lucrative deals, most notably Assad’s maternal cousin, Rami Makhlouf. Many others in the group, however, lived in dire poverty.

Although members of Syria’s Christian community said they are happy to see the old regime go, many are wary of their new Islamist rulers led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a group once affiliated with al-Qaeda.

HTS severed ties with the terrorist organization years ago and has sought to reassure all religious groups of their place in Syria. However, the new transitional government lacks Christian representation, and isolated attacks have raised concerns that such incidents could become the norm.

The Associated Press reported that armed men killed a dozen Alawites in the town of Bahra in Hama province on Dec. 9. On Dec. 18, shots were fired at a church in Hamas by unidentified gunman, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights. These, along with other unconfirmed reports of violence, are only increasing anxiety.

On Monday, a Christmas tree was burned down in Hama. In a video, a local HTS official standing next to clergymen vowed to punish the perpetrators, whom he said were not Syrian, and that the tree would be replaced.

But this did little to quell anger in Damascus as hundreds of demonstrators carrying a large wooden crosses descended onto the streets to express their outrage, chanting “we are not a minority, we are the original people” and calling on church leaders to “wake up.”

The march, which lasted hours, concluded after church leaders agreed to meet with protesters inside the historic Greek Orthodox Mariamite Cathedral. There, a heated exchange took place with Bishop Romanos al-Hannat, as parishioners shared the distressing news they’ve been hearing from different parts of Syria. Many shouted that they would leave the country if the government didn’t guarantee their safety.

Aphrem, the Syriac patriarch, said that a committee of churches had met with the transitional government and had been given assurances but that more action was needed to ensure no more violations take place and that the rights of the community “should be enshrined in the new constitution.”

On Christmas Eve, under heavy police presence, a similar protest took place, with demonstrators going from church to church demanding that bells be rung and shouting more incendiary chants, one saying “two solutions, our cross and the rifle.”

The organizer of both marches, Daniel, who spoke on the condition that only his first name be used for security reasons, said protesters were calling for the protection of all Syrians. “We’re tired. It’s been almost 15 years. We’re going to protest every day until they give us protection,” he said, adding that the group was joined by many Muslims.

Protests of dissent against the country’s leaders were met with punishing crackdowns under the Assad regime. For now, HTS has allowed them to go on uninterrupted.

“Now there is change, isn’t this freedom? Great, we have freedom, and everyone needs to have their freedom,” said al-Hannat. “We don’t just want to put up Christmas trees and not to be called minorities, we want all our rights.”

On Dec. 23, there was another reminder of the many challenges facing Syria and its new leaders. The country’s infrastructure is in tatters. Water and electricity are not always readily available. A recital at the Syriac church was delayed because the electricity was cut off, again. The show could not go on until a backup generator was brought in on a truck and plugged in at the church, helping light its Christmas tree.