Why Syrian Christians are right to be nervous about the country's new rulers

For people of my vintage, it seems extraordinary that the Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas is now 40 years old. It hardly seems that long since we saw Bob Geldof and Midge Ure take to our TV screens to ask for support for those dying in the famine in Ethiopia, now some four decades ago.

With the famous single back in the charts to mark this significant anniversary, a minor row has developed over what are now seen to be rather patronising lyrics about the situation in Africa at the time. Ethiopian Christians have pointed out that their country was a cradle for the worship of Jesus Christ whilst most of Europe was still in pagan darkness.

Nor do lines such as “where nothing ever grows” represent the reality of a green and productive country where the tragedies of famine were as much down to economic mismanagement by the Marxist government of the day as they were to a natural disaster.

Under the regime of ousted dictator Bashar Assad, there was a degree of tolerance for Christians in Syria (Picture: Delil Souleiman) | AFP via Getty Images

Troubled times after Assad’s fall

When it comes to Christianity, we have a particularly Western-centric view of the faith, too often failing to recognise its remarkable growth in recent decades in Africa, Asia, and South America. And we also tend to forget that, across the Middle East, in countries viewed from the outside as purely Islamic, there are ancient and resilient Christian communities existing in the most challenging of circumstances.

The events we have seen in Syria over the past few weeks, with the downfall of the dictator Bashar al-Assad, may well have given cause for celebration across most of the country and indeed the wider world, but for Syria’s Christian community these are troubled times.

The opposition group now in charge in Damascus, the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) was previously linked with al-Qaeda, and is regarded as a terrorist organisation by the US, the UK and the European Union. It has an avowedly Islamic agenda, in contrast to the mostly secular approach taken by the Assad regime, which had a degree of tolerance both for Christians and other religious minorities in Syria.

Encouraging signs

Syrian Christians are right to be nervous. According to the campaign group Open Doors, under HTS control in Idlib, Christian clergy were not allowed to walk outside in any clothing making them recognisable as pastors or priests, and crosses were removed from church buildings. That said, the leader of HTS, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, has been at pains to try and reassure both Christians and other religions and ethnic minorities that they have nothing to fear under its rule.

Early signs from HTS do provide some encouragement, suggesting that the country is not likely to head down the route we have seen from the Islamist regime in Afghanistan. There has been a prohibition on revenge attacks against Syrians associated with the Assad regime, a guarantee of media freedom, and a ban on restrictions for women’s clothing.

We only have to look at what happened in neighbouring Iraq in 2007 to understand why Christians in Syria might be nervous. Saddam Hussein may have been a brutal dictator, but his regime was tolerant of the Christian minority. The chaos that followed his removal from office by the US-led Western coalition was disastrous for the country’s Christian community.

There are now estimated to be around just 154,000 Christians left in Iraq, down from 1.4 million in 2003. The great majority left the country, and those that remain face ongoing persecution and discrimination from Islamist militant groups, whilst Christians who convert from Islam face intense pressure from their families and communities. They can be threatened, abused, lose contact with family, and even in extreme circumstances be killed. Christians in Syria pray that they will not suffer similar fates.

The right to religious liberty

In our own country, even those who have no particular Christian faith will at this time of year take comfort in Christmas festivities which have an avowedly Christian nature – nativity plays, carol services, and even the giving of gifts to family members and friends. We take for granted that we have a right of religious liberty which is denied to so many elsewhere in the world.

According to Open Doors, last year a staggering 4,998 Christians were killed for their faith worldwide. A great majority of these, around 90 per cent, were in Nigeria, where Christian communities are attacked by armed bandits and Islamist militants, apparently with very little protection being given to them by the authorities.

At the same time, some 15,000 churches or public Christian properties were attacked or closed worldwide in 2023, seven times more than the number recorded the previous year. Two-thirds of these, around 10,000, were in China, where increasing repression is seeing the Christian church forced underground. As Keir Starmer tries to warm our relations with Beijing, that is an abuse of human rights he needs to be conscious of.

Prepared to die for their faith

It seems almost unbelievable to us that something as simple and as normal as attending a Christian service at this time of year could lead to somebody losing their life, but that is the reality for too many Christians throughout the world. It does speak to the remarkable power of the Christian message that there are individuals today who would rather die than renounce their faith.

As we watch little tots dressed as angels, wise men and shepherds, paying homage to a plastic baby Jesus, we should remember that, for millions throughout the world, this is not simply an annual cultural event, but a representation of a real, living faith that many believe is worth dying for. The message of true Christian hope was never more needed than today, whether in Syria or indeed in our own society.

May I wish all readers a very happy, peaceful and meaningful Christmas.

Murdo Fraser is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife