Christian Villages Are Burning While Syrian President Speaks at UN

Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa/Abu Mohammad al-Julani, a former Syrian al-Qaeda leader and a former ISIS (Islamic State) terrorist, is now the current, self-ascribed ‘president’ of Syria. He was in New York addressing the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the U.N. headquarters on September 24. Meanwhile, his Islamist regime was burning homes, villages, and forests in what is known as the Valley of Christians in Syria.

Julani has since returned to Syria, where his regime continues to murder and persecute members of religious minorities.

On October 10, a Christian man, Maher Qabalan, was murdered by jihadists in the village of Tibneh in Dara’a.  

On October 1, Christian brothers Wassim and Shafik Mansour from the Valley of Christians were shot to death by motorcycle-riding jihadists. Following the murders, protests broke out in the Anaz village within the Valley of Christians. Julani’s regime tried to violently disperse the protesters. 

Meanwhile, armed jihadists broke into a Christian house where there was only a mother and a daughter. They tied the two Christian women by ropes and threatened them with their weapons before stealing everything, according to X accounts.

The al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by al-Julani, with the help of Turkey, conquered the Syrian capital of Damascus in December of 2024. The new Islamist regime of Syria has since systematically targeted, abducted, and massacred the Druze, Christians, Alawites, and other religious minorities.

On October 9, the European Syriac Union issued a report entitled ‘The World Remains Silent: Christians in Syria Flee from Danger.’ According to the report, Christians in the city of Al-Qusayr in Syria’s Homs province are increasingly facing threats, violence, economic pressures, and extortions, as well as forced sales of their agricultural lands, while their schools and churches are violently targeted. The report noted:

Recently, a young Christian man named Alaa was reportedly kidnapped and beaten by known individuals. He suffered a skull fracture requiring surgery, and his family had to leave the town to protect their safety. The perpetrators allegedly shouted insults such as: ‘Filthy Christians, we will drive you out and take your money and homes!’

The local priest has been targeted with defamatory posts on social media, and two explosive devices were reportedly thrown at his home. Following these events, the priest and his family were forced to leave Al-Qusayr.

With the remaining few Christians being pressured to leave, fears are growing that Al-Qusayr may become completely depopulated. Local sources report that not even a single wedding ceremony can now be held in the town.

In areas that have been controlled by Julani’s HTS since 2017 (such as the province of Idlib, where several hundred Christians live), most of the historic church buildings have either been demolished or are used as Islamic centers. According to the human rights organization Open Doors, public expressions of Christian faith are prohibited; church buildings or monasteries cannot be repaired or restored. Christians are threatened with death and attacks; therefore, they hide their faith. Since 2019, the attacks by Turkey and Turkish-supported armed Islamist groups have driven out many Christians from their homes in the northwest, north, and northeast of the country.

When ISIS swept through the Yazidi heartland of Sinjar in August 2014, their genocide included mass murders and abducting over 6,000 Yazidi women and children who were forced into sexual slavery and labor. Some of the Yazidi girls and women who were abducted in 2014 and turned into sex slaves by ISIS are still held in Idlib. For instance, an Iraqi Yazidi woman kidnapped by ISIS in 2014 was rescued from Syria’s Idlib in December of last year. 

Since conquering Damascus in December 2024, Julani’s regime has not stopped persecuting religious minorities. In March, regime forces attacked the Alawite-dominated coastal areas of Syria, massacring hundreds, abducting women, and turning them into sex slaves. According to Reuters, a photo from Sonobar, confirmed by two surviving Alawites from the town, showed a message scrawled on the wall of one home: “You were a minority, and now you are a rarity.”

Druze communities are also persecuted by jihadists in Syria. In July, the regime forces launched an incursion against the majority-Druze city of Suwayda (also spelled Sweida) and its surrounding villages. Large numbers of civilians (mainly the Druze), as well as children, were massacred by Islamists. Many cases were filmed and posted by perpetrators on social media. Hundreds of Druze women and children were abducted. Today, many remain missing. 

On September 7, Father Tony Al Boutros of St. Philip Greek Catholic Church made an announcement about the destruction the Julani regime inflicted upon the 36 villages in his hometown of Suweyda. He said those villages were attacked by Julani’s forces and Bedouin tribes, violating the Druze and Christians, destroying homes, burning churches, terrorizing the whole population, and forcibly displacing them. 

They did not leave a house in any area they reached without stealing, burning, destroying and violating human dignity by assaulting women, the elderly, and children,” the bishop said in his open letter.

All residents of these 36 villages, both Christians and Druze, were displaced and moved to schools, homes, churches, clubs, and public parks, where they remain refugees to this day. More than 1,500-2,000 civilians were killed in this aggression. Many citizens were also executed in the field simply because they belonged to a different sect or religion. Women, children, and the elderly were attacked in a barbaric manner unprecedented in human history.

Even the graves were not spared during last July’s attack on Suweyda. The situation of the St. Michael’s Church in As-Sawara al-Kubra, one of six churches vandalized during the regime’s assault on the province, was documented by Father Boutros. He confirmed that “even the graves weren’t spared, a disgrace to humanity.”

Meanwhile, women and girls from religious and ethnic minority groups in Syria are at risk of abduction, sexual harassment, and rape. Men belonging to religious minorities continue to be targeted for murders, threats, torture, intimidation, and kidnappings by the new Islamist regime and its supporters. 

A young Christian man in Damascus, for instance, was tortured and forced to memorize the Quran under threat of execution, according to Arab media. He was freed after their family paid $10,000. 

In another instance, two elderly Armenian women near the town of Kasab were pressured by Muslim men to recite the Shahada (Islamic prayers that announce one accepts Islam) in order to receive life-saving medicine. No Christian charities are allowed to help them, according to social media posts.

In September, two Kurdish girls, named Fatime Salih and Nurman Celal, were kidnapped on the road between the cities of Kobani and Aleppo. Celal’s family said that the kidnappers asked the family for money to release the girl. 

Meanwhile, the Julani regime is imposing regulations in Syrian schools that force the separation of children by gender, with boys in one set of classrooms and girls in another.

Today, Syria is a Sunni-Muslim majority country. The 2012 Syrian Constitution stipulates that the president must be Muslim and Islamic law the major source of legislation, which provides a constitutional basis for discriminatory treatment of non-Muslims. 

However, indigenous Christians (of Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian descent) have lived in Syria for thousands of years. Most of Syria’s Christians belong to historical churches (mainly Orthodox and Catholic, plus some traditional Protestant congregations). 

Syria was a majority-Christian country and was part of the Roman and Byzantine empires before Muslim Arabs invaded in the seventh century.  After the Muslim conquest of this region in 634, Christians and other non-Muslims for centuries lived as oppressed, beleaguered “dhimmis” who were allowed to retain their religion in exchange for a high poll tax, also known as “jizya.” 

Today, while religious and ethnic communities in Syria are facing an actual genocide at the hands of the Julani regime, Julani is received by heads of state who ignore the fact that he is a jihadist terrorist. However, Julani and his HTS forces are designated as terrorists by the UN, EU, and the UK due to their ties with ISIS and al-Qaeda. 

The indigenous ethnic and religious minorities in Syria should not be forced to suffer under Julani’s regime. If given the required support, they are capable of establishing their own independent or autonomous states. They could create a prosperous and peaceful country for themselves. Julani should not be rewarded with the status of presidency after all the crimes he has committed as an al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorist and now as a so-called, self-ascribed ‘president’