The Middle East’s continued religious harassment over the past two decades is illustrated by the violent attacks against two religious minorities in Syria.
More than a thousand Alawites, a community that is a part of a religion that practices Islam, were killed earlier this month in the Mediterranean coastal town of Latakia by armed Sunni Muslim armies. At least four Catholics were killed in addition to the country’s two-million-year history of Christians who were attacked.
Alawites and Christians are accused of being guilty by organization because of their ties to Bashar al-Assad’s routine, who was ousted from power in December after a protracted civil conflict. He had pledged to protect both factions.
Such protection comes with a price, probably hurting minority people as the ruler intended. Immigrants are expected to at least show devotion and even express admiration in peace in exchange for protection from possible harm from legislatures. Majority populations who are perceived as flunkies of an evil government experience wrath when the dictator is overthrown.
The rise of radical Sunni groups who believe that immigrants like Alawites and Catholics are not only heretics but outcasts who must be cast aside have also contributed to the rise in attacks from within the mainstream Sunni Islam religion. In Egypt and Iraq, related attacks have been carried out on minorities who are religious and ethnic minority groups.
The criminal philosophy promoted by al-Qaeda and local affiliates, including the Islamic State, was rooted in this extraordinary animosity. Throughout Syria’s legal warfare, all fought back and pressed on to persecute Christians and Alawites.
The person who has become the country’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was responsible for next year’s thunder overthrow of al-Assad by Sunni militias. He once oversaw the conservative Salafi-jihadist group Al-Nusra Front, which opposed Assad. Nusra is infamous for its numerous crimes against Alawite and Christian residents.
At least 16 Alawites were presumably executed by Nusra attackers in a town south of Homs in 2013, including seven ladies and four kids. Al-Shararaa, who later carried the code name Abu Muhammed al-Jolani, demanded massive strikes on Alawite areas. He said,” There is no other option but to escalate the conflict and take control of the Syrian towns and villages in Latakia.”
Additionally, Nusra was responsible for the murder of Christians in the town of Jisr al-Shughour and the execution of a Christian partners for acting as al-Assad’s agent. Numerous Christian areas emigrated to Turkey.
Al-Sharaa and his Nusra Front later renounced their agreement with the Islamic State in Iraq and afterward al-Qaeda. He established the” Organization for the Independence of the Levant” along with other armies, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, and  .
In essence, al-Sharaa changed from a pan-Islamic political individuality to a nationalist personality, in the same vein as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey is a major supporter of HTS.
Al-Sharaa has made an effort to calm Alawite and Christian issues about the new government as Syria’s new president. He blasted the Alawite spree. He said to an examiner in Damascus,” Syria is a condition of law.”
Even those closest to us, al-Sharaa said,” We fought to defend the oppressed, and we won’t take that any body is shed unjustly, or goes without abuse or accountability.”
Late last December, al-Sharaa met with Christian spiritual leaders to confirm that Syria had been accepting and democratic.
Arab Catholic Archbishop Jacques Mourad was present at the meeting, and he claimed that al-Sharaa avoided referring to the Christian group as “minority” when speaking.
The archbishop claimed that” He said that Christians and other organizations are a part of the Arab people.” He is conscious that this country’s foundation is made up of Christians.
In a text delivered this month, UN General Secretary António Guterres expressed desire that al-Sharaa would uphold international human rights standards. He said,” Now is the time for action.” Every Palestinian needs urgent action to ensure that, regardless of race, religion, political affiliation, or female, they may live in peace, dignity, and safety.
It’s not yet clear whether such panders will be enough to appease angry Syrians and, particularly, Muslim extremists who detested the al-Assad program.
The Alawites are particularly susceptible to accusations of working with the tyrant. 80 % of the 1.7 million Syrian population worked in government positions, including those in the army, the intelligence service, and the administration, under al-Assad. Women of Alawite troops who were killed received employment and social security benefits.
Yet Alawite followers just and publicly criticized al-Assad, blaming him for the problems of economic growth and for corrupt state. They also criticized his family al-Asma, who again appeared on the cover of Vogue Magazine, for having a lot of economic and cultural impact on al-Assad.
However, when al-Assad was overthrown, fear of the future immediately permeated. Alawites have emigrated to Lebanon for safety or had traveled even further to Iran, which was Assad’s most important foreign allies.
They were concerned that Syria may follow in the footsteps of Iraq, which banned members of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist gathering from government positions under the influence of an Iraqi representative for Iran named Ahmed al-Chalabi. Thousands of Sunnis, a plurality in Iraq, were fired from their positions, including those in teachers, truck drivers, and administrators.
Now, there are signs of widespread harassment in the future. An Alawite monument was destroyed in Aleppo, the second-largest city in the country. Freelance police are advising women to wear masks in the manner of traditional Muslim women.
Arab Christians have fled the country by the tens of thousands in the past ten years, though not because they are forced to have a significant integration into al-Assad’s safety equipment and ruling government.
Christians constituted 10 % of the Arab people in 2011. The number had decreased by about 2.5 cent a century later, from about 1.5 million in 2012 to about 300,000 in 2022. Christians had unwaveringly backed the Syrian Arab Spring political protest, but their support for the armed resistance to al-Assad weakened when they were subject to atrocities, including open executions. The majority of Christians departed for North America, Europe, and Lebanon.
According to reports, the Christian killed in the most recent incident in Latakia may not have been targeted, but rather may have been merely a victim of crime. According to Archbishop Mourad,” Christians were killed no because they were Christians, but because they lived in Alawite suburbs.” They were” money sufferers,” they said.
Catholics are becoming increasingly feared as a result of their continued persecution. Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X expressed concern over the defacement and burning of Holy homes in temples in Syria in a letter he sent to al-Sharaa this month. He noted that Christmas trees were likewise lit in December.
Some Christians turn to Western forces to plan for their protection.
Christian Solidarity International’s president, John Eibner, demanded immediate action from US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer by launching sanctions against al-Sharaa and his state, cooperating with an international research into the killings in Latakia, and upholding international rules” to avoid genocide in Syria.”
In a letter to both leaders, Eibner wrote that” the Alawites ‘ massacres did not occur in a vacuum.” ” Some Holy civilians were also killed in the murder, and Catholics across the nation are living in fear of additional murder,” the statement read. He attributed the Sunni jihadists ‘ crime to him.
The US government did not informally reply. JD Vance, the vice president of the United States, stated to reporters that he was “talking to our supporters.” Behind the scenes, we’re now putting forth legislation to protect immigrants. However, it’s absolutely scandalous.
He forbade the use of force against Syrian minority.
Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, exerted pressure on the US Agency for International Development to make money applicable for persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria during his first term in office, from 2017 to 2021.
Forsaken: The Persecution of Christians in Today’s Middle East is the writer, Daniel Williams.