The Archbishop of Homs voiced fear for the future of Syria’s Christians after a sharp rise in tensions in recent days.
On 13 July, the abduction of a Druze shopkeeper on the road between the city of Suweida, a stronghold of the Druze community, and Damascus triggered a violent escalation with Bedouin groups.
In response, interim president Ahmad Al Sharaa deployed his newly formed army. Some of its units had already been accused of abuses against Druze civilians in May.
Soon after, dozens of videos began circulating on social media showing Islamist fighters torturing Druze men and forcibly shaving off their moustaches – a deep humiliation in Druze culture.
The incident has reignited anxiety among other minority groups, particularly Christians.
Speaking to the Pontifical Mission Societies’ Agenzia Fides, Archbishop Jacques Mourad of Homs, a Syriac Catholic monk formerly resident at the Deir Mar Musa monastery expressed doubts about Al Sharaa’s repeated promises of a united and inclusive Syria.
“Syria as a country is at an end today,” he said. His comments followed a bomb attack on the Orthodox Mar Elias Church in Damascus on 22 June, which killed 25 people.
That evening, Hind Kabawat, Minister of Social Affairs and a well-respected figure among religious minorities, visited the site. Later that night, the president condemned the bombing as a “heinous” and “criminal act affecting all Syrians”.
“The government bears direct responsibility for everything that has happened. Because every government is responsible for the security of the people,” said Archbishop Mourad.
He also denounced the harassment Christians face in Homs, where Islamist extremists pass by his church with loudspeakers calling for conversions.
The archbishop said similar incidents had occurred outside Mar Elias Church shortly before the bombing.
On 31 December, just three weeks after taking office, Ahmad Al Charaa had pledged to protect all religious communities. “We are committed to safeguarding confessions and minorities from internal conflict”, he said at a press conference.
However, after six months Archbishop Mourad said he had grown tired of such reassuring rhetoric, which he said was not truthful and only placed a target on the Christian community.
“Every time I hear about ‘protecting’ Christians, I feel like we’re being accused, that we’re being threatened,” he said. “These are words that don’t express goodwill, they weigh heavily on us.”
In southern Syria, Aid to the Church in Need reported that a Christian community suffered attacks on 15 July by unidentified assailants who burned 38 houses in the village of Al-Soura Al-Kabira, in the Suwayda governorate, and set fire to the Greek Melkite Church of St Michael.
Security services in the Tartous governorate in western Syria reported that they had stopped an attempted bombing of a Maronite church on Sunday.