Last week Christians in Syria cautiously celebrated Christmas. The jihadist group HTS which now controls the government in Damascus and the main cities such as Aleppo and Homs pursued its strategy of presenting itself as “moderates” to western governments who it desperately wants to provide it with aid and lift sanctions. 

That strategy was upset on 23 December when a video began to circulate showing men pouring fuel on and setting fire to a large town centre Christmas tree in the predominantly Christian town of Suqaylabiyah which just over a week earlier had fallen to the HTS led jihadist coalition. Initially, HTS claimed the arson was carried out by pro-Assad forces. Then they claimed it was done by “foreign jihadists”, although in reality HTS is a coalition, which includes foreign fighters. HTS then sent a senior cleric to Suqaylabiyah who promised to restore the lights on the tree. 

However, what was most significant, although almost entirely unnoticed by western media, was what happened next. Syrian Christians, fearing what the burning of the Christmas tree symbolised for them, held protest marches as part of which they held up large crosses. A senior cleric then criticised them saying that raising the cross violated shari’a. He was referring to the Pact of Umar, which Umar the second caliph imposed on the Christians in Syria, which specifically prohibits any public visibility of Christian symbols including the cross, and forms the basis for the dhimmi contract which has been historically imposed on Christian minorities and was resurrected by Islamic state in parts of Syria they controlled in 2015.

On Christmas Day itself, HTS’ chief religious official, 'Abd Al-Rahim 'Atoun aka Abu 'Abdallah Al-Shami, reposted a Telegram post he had originally published in December 2023 stating that it was completely prohibited for Muslims to have anything to do with Christmas, with even wishing Christians “happy Christmas” being “absolutely impermissible” under shari’a.

 
Meanwhile, the week before Christmas the BBC published an interview its international editor Jeremy Bowen conducted with HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa…Below we have posted our commentary on this interview, which also points to dhimmitude being the status that HTS seek to impose on Syrian Christians – although regrettably the BBC failed to pick up on this in the interview…

READ THE LINDISFARNE CENTRE COMMENTARY ON THE BBC INTERVIEW WITH THE LEADER OF HTS HERE

PLEASE PRAY FOR CHRISTIANS IN SYRIA AT THIS TIME...