Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al Qaeda member and currently serving as the Interim President of Syria, was unable to prevent a tragic event where more than 1,000 Syrians, including Christians, lost their lives. This incident occurred last Thursday and extended over several days.
Al-Sharaa, along with his group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is recognized by the U.S. as a Sunni terrorist entity, successfully overthrew the former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December.
Leaders from the Christian community and activists advocating for human rights question the ability of al-Sharaa’s Islamist government to establish a democratic system that safeguards the rights of minority religious groups.
“This is a warning that the Syrian government is not ready for prime time if it can’t protect a handful of vulnerable Christians who had absolutely nothing to do with this violence except being its victims,” Rev. Johnnie Moore, the president of The Congress of Christian Leaders, told Fox News Digital.
Syrian families who fled the clashes in Syria arrive to cross into the northern village of Heker al-Daher in Akkar province, Lebanon, on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Moore lambasted the posture of the Europeans toward the hardcore Syrian Islamist regime by noting the European governments seem to be rewarding the regime in Damascus.
“And for this to happen within 24 hours of the United Kingdom announcing that they are waiving sanctions on the Syrian national bank and over 20 other entities is a warning sign to the entire Western world and the EU commission is continuing with its plans do a funding conference in the near future to help the new Syrian government.”
Moore continued, “The response from the U.S. should be the exact opposite. The United States should send a very, very clear message to the new Syrian government that there will be zero sanctions relief and there will be zero normalization of its treatment to the new Syrian government until it proves that it’s going to be able to protect all the citizens of Syria, including its vulnerable Christians.”
Christians gather to celebrate Christmas at the Monastery of Our Lady of Saydnaya on Dec. 24, 2024 in Saydnaya, Syria. (Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images)
Moore noted that during the Syrian civil war, Christians were killed and displaced. In December, the Center for Religious Freedom’s Nina Shea and Moore discussed on Fox and Friends the threat to Christianity in Syria after rebels took over the capital and the U.S. role in protecting Christians.
The Christian population in Syria has shrunk considerably since the start of the 2011 Syrian civil war. There are an estimated 300,000 Christians in the war-torn nation. Prior to the Syrian civil war, the Syrian Christian community numbered 1.5 million.
