Sarah Latifa fears her Christian community in Syria may struggle to celebrate their first Christmas since Islamist-led rebels ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.
But in a church in the historic center of Damascus, surrounded by about 500 believers singing Christmas Eve hymns on Tuesday, she could breathe a sigh of relief.
“It was not easy under the current circumstances to come together and pray joyfully, but thank God we did,” Latifa told AFP during mass at the capital’s Syriac Orthodox Cathedral of St. George.
Syria’s rulers, who ousted Assad’s government on December 8, have since sought to reassure religious and ethnic minorities that their rights will be upheld.
But for some in the Christian community numbering thousands, the promises made by the new Islamic leadership have done nothing to calm their fears in a country torn by years of civil war.
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Damascus on Tuesday to demand that their rights be respected after a Christmas tree was set on fire in a town in central Syria.
A video on social media showed hooded fighters setting trees on fire in the Christian-majority town of Suqaylbia, near Hama.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said they were foreign jihadists. A local religious leader from Syria’s victorious Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) condemned the arson.
At St George’s Cathedral, Latifa said that even though the road towards a new Syria may seem “turbulent or uncertain”, the future could be better “if we walk hand in hand”.
– ‘We are not’ –
According to analyst Fabrice Balanché, before the war began in 2011, Syria was home to about one million Christians, or about five percent of the population.
Now, he told AFP, only 300,000 of them are still in the country.
Assad, who is from the Alawite minority and rules with an iron fist, has long presented himself as a protector of minority groups in Syria, whose population is majority Sunni Muslim.
The new administration appointed by HTS – a group rooted in Syria’s al-Qaeda branch – has adopted an inclusive discourse, trying to reassure groups in the multi-confessional and multi-ethnic country.
In this changing political landscape, Syrian Christians are determined to make their voices heard.
At overnight protests over the burning of Christmas trees, Georges, who gave only his first name, denounced “sectarianism” and “injustice against Christians.”
He said, “If we are not allowed to live according to Christianity in our country as we once did, then we no longer belong here.”
In his first sermon in Damascus after the fall of Assad, Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X of Antioch expressed hope that a new constitution would be drafted with the participation of “all parts of the Syrian mosaic”.
– ‘Afraid of the unknown’ –
In the Christian-dominated neighborhood of Bab Touma in Damascus, carolers were playing from a café, which was festively decorated and lit, and a Christmas tree was also put up.
Owner Yamen Basmar, 45, said some people are “scared” of the new situation.
“A lot of people come to me asking if I still sell alcohol, or if we still hold events,” he said.
“Really, nothing has changed,” Basmer insisted, although he added that sales have dropped 50 percent because “people are scared anyway”.
Last Christmas, “We closed at 3:00 in the morning. Now we close at 11:00 at night,” Basmer said.
A Christmas party was held at a restaurant in Damascus, attended by dozens of people, both Christians and Muslims.
“The party was really great, just not like we imagined,” said Emma Ciuffazzi, 42.
“As Christians this year, we are afraid of the unknown.”
Siufji told AFP that his only wish this holiday season was that no Syrian would have to leave the country, as happened to millions during the war.
“No one would want to be forced to leave.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
