Syria

Syria

Click to enlarge Syria became one of the leading nations of refuge for fleeing Iraqi Christians in 2004. (Thousands left Iraq following the bombing of five churches in Baghdad, in August 2004.) Many have immigrated to Damascus, seeking security and economic opportunities. Religion: Muslim 90.32%, Christian 5.12%, non-Religious 2.90%, Other (Druze, etc.) 1.55%, Baha’i 0.10%, and Jewish 0.01%. In 1973, Syria was declared a secular state with Islam recognized as the religion of the majority, and all other minorities accorded definite rights and privileges with a measure of religious freedom. Ideological Influence: Islam Head of State: President Bashar al-Asad Persecution: Christian minorities are tolerated and have freedom to worship and witness within their own community, but all activities that could threaten the government or communal harmony are watched. Evangelicals currently enjoy good standing, so they are hesitant to jeopardize this by witnessing too openly. Missionary Opportunity: Syrian Christians are a respected minority. Christians are influential in the cities, professions, politics and the armed forces, but their percentage of the population is shrinking due to a high rate of emigration. Conversions out of Islam are few but increasing. Most churches in Syria are not yet ready to evangelize Muslims. Missionaries are not allowed.

The historical process of Islamization has transformed Syria’s once thriving Christian majority into a small frightened community. Its existence is under threat. Syria’s Baath Party dictatorship is not as violent in its persecution of Christians as some other regimes and extremist Islamist movements in the region. Yet, the odds are stacked against the country’s intimidated Christians. According to the Syrian constitution, Islam is the ‘main source for legislation’. Discrimination against non-Moslems is evidenced in the regime’s refusal, for the past 40 years, to grant permission for the opening of a single Christian school. Moreover in existing Christian schools, the law requires that the Principal be a Moslem. Sunday sermons in churches are routinely monitored by the secret police. Violence against Christians often goes unpunished.

On December 1, 2004, Western oil executives and Syrian government officials shook hands and celebrated festively the signing an oil exploration deal in the northern Syrian town of al-Hasake . But only a six weeks beforehand, al-Hasake was the scene of the murder of two local Christian

On 15 October, Naseer Abraham, Christian proprietor of a café in Nasra, asked several Muslim guests, politely but firmly, to leave his premises, after their game of cards had ended in violence. For daring to challenge the unruly Muslims, Naseer Abraham was punished. The following day gang members and a Syrian police officer, Mudhar al-Rahdi, returned to the cafe. They dragged Naseer Abraham from his premises, handcuffed him and then beat him to death. Yalbas Yacoub, a Christian friend, was shot while trying to offer first aid assistance to the victim. Two weeks later in a Damascus hospital he, too, died from his injuries

Local Christians demanded the arrest of the perpetrators. But their appeals fell on deaf ears. For the Muslim authorities, the death of these two Christians was of no more importance than that of dogs run over by a passing car. Finally some friends of the murdered men took the law into their own hands, burning empty houses and shops belonging to the friends and relatives of the perpetrators. At this point the previously passive law enforcement authorities sprang into action. The police arrested 42 Christians, most of whom had nothing to do with the events. Not until April 2005 were all except four of them released. The murderers of Naseer Abraham and Yalbas Yacoub, however, remain at large.
The countdown for Christians in Syria goes on.