Diplomatic ‘Pressure’ Urged to Protect Christians, Other Religious Minorities Facing ‘Campaign of Death’ in Syria

A once-strong Christian community in Syria has dwindled under persecution as families have faced executions and kidnappings. Girls from Christian or other religious minority homes have been sexually exploited, even taken from their homes and forced into marriages or sold as sex slaves.  

Religious minorities in Syria now face a “deliberate campaign of death,” according to Dr. Morhaf Ibrahim, president of the Alawites Association of the United States, an advocacy group for religious minorities in Syria. Alawites are an Arab ethno-religious minority group, found primarily in Syria.

Speaking at a press conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Ibrahim urged U.S. leaders to “apply serious diplomatic and economic pressure” to the Syrian regime that he says is allowing the persecution of religious minorities to continue.  

Syria’s recent history is fraught with conflict that has allowed for radical Islamic groups to sow terror. A civil war broke out in Syria in 2011 under the Bashar Assad regime, which was overthrown at the end of 2024. A group known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham currently rules Syria and, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “can be thought of as a relatively localized Syrian terrorist organization, which retains a Salafi-jihadist ideology despite its public split from al-Qaida in 2017.” 

Religious minority groups suffered in Syria during the civil war, but now, persecution of Christians, Alawites, Druze, Kurds, and others has only grown worse, according to Richard Ghazal, executive director of In Defense of Christians, which is a part of the Institute on Religion & Democracy.

Syria’s transitional government has further empowered various Islamist groups, Ghazal explained.  

In June, about 25 people were killed in Syria’s capital, Damascus, when a suicide bomber entered a church. An additional 60 people were injured in the attack on the church.  

“The attack goes straight to sober a reality: Syrian Christians, who have endured centuries of political repression and sectarian violence, now face an existential crisis,” Ghazal said. “With every suicide bombing, every desecrated church, every community exodus, Syria edges closer to losing a 2,000-year-old spiritual and cultural pillar.”  

Syria is home to some of the world’s oldest Christian communities stemming all the way back to the time of Christ’s apostles.  

“It was the ancient Syrian city of Antioch where followers of Christ were first called ‘Christians,’ and it was on the road to Damascus where the Apostle Paul himself became a believer in Christ,” Ghazal explained.  

Today, Ghazal says, there are fewer than 300,000 Christians still living in Syria, down from more than 2 million before the civil war began in 2011.  

The U.S. should use its leverage, according to advocates, to bring about conditions in Syria that protect Christians and all other religious minorities in the country.  

The U.S. “should establish a measured diplomatic relationship with the Syrian transitional government to promote security, stability, and human rights,” Ghazal said.  

Sam Brownback, who formerly served as ambassador at large for international religious freedom, told those gathered at the Wednesday press conference that a “a decentralization of Syria” might be the answer needed to end the horrific persecution of religious minorities there.  

Pointing to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as a model, Brownback said a region, or regions, that are independently governed, but remain a part of Syria, would allow various communities to live out their beliefs freely.  

If minorities communities are not allowed to govern and protect themselves in Syria, not only does the Christian community risk extinction in the Middle Eastern nation, but there will also be a wave of refugees fleeing Syria for Europe and the U.S. 

The time for Congress and U.S. leaders to act and apply pressure on Syria is now, Brownback said, because only a limited window exists to provide protection for religious minorities there before it is too late.  

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