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Arab News
3 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Syria must respond decisively to Damascus church attack
A suicide bomber attacked the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Dweil'a, a suburb of Damascus, Syria, during this week's Sunday Mass, killing at least 22 people and injuring more than 50 others. The Syrian Interior Ministry attributed the bombing to Daesh, but the little-known Saraya Ansar Al-Sunnah group later claimed responsibility. Authorities have arrested suspects believed to be connected to the attack. This was the first suicide bombing at a church in Damascus since the fall of the Assad regime in December last year and it underscored the continuing instability during Syria's political transition. The attack, which caused severe damage inside the church, has deepened fear among Syria's shrinking Christian population and prompted widespread international condemnation, including from the EU, the US, regional governments and the Greek Orthodox Church. Despite President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and other officials condemning the act as terrorism and pledging increased protection for religious sites, doubts and fears persist. This terrorist attack was significant, like all such attacks, but even more so because it provides a test for the new leadership in Syria. This is why Al-Sharaa needs a strong and decisive response to it. Leaving it unanswered could create divisions and add risks to the country's future. Social media has been flooded with various accusations of a lack of security, as well as a lack of a unified and direct response from the new government. Some are criticizing the fact that each ministry and many different officials all offered condemnation, showing a lack of strategy, as well as the absence of a unique presidential envoy to face this crisis. Others went as far as stating that the lack of protection was deliberate. The new government must show it is willing to protect and bring together all the ethnic and religious communities in Syria Khaled Abou Zahr They built these accusations on a pernicious point, which is that the patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, John X, is labeled by some as an Assad loyalist. They point out that he welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar Assad when they visited the Mariamite Cathedral of Damascus, one of the oldest Greek Orthodox churches in the city, in 2020. The visit was part of a rare Putin trip to Syria. Conspiracy theories on social media espouse that there is an unstated policy of not providing sufficient protection to the community as payback for the patriarch's past alignment with the Assad regime. But the new president needs to act as the leader of all communities in the country, regardless of their past, and take powerful action to protect the Greek Orthodox community. This also means full reconciliation with the Alawite community. The new government must show it is willing to protect and bring together all the ethnic and religious communities in Syria. The former regime had presented itself as a protector of minorities, including Christian ones, against the tyranny of extremists such as Daesh. This week's horrific terrorist attack at the Mar Elias Church not only causes destruction and suffering, but it also threatens the future of the country. Hence, decisive action needs to be taken. There is a security and military aspect. First of all, enough security and protection must be provided to communities. Moreover, there is a need to face and destroy any nonstate actor that threatens any community or the order of the state. This terror attack is a clear sign of the need to oppose Daesh and other groups and dismantle them. This task cannot be delayed. Syria needs to break out of the jail the former regime created and adopt an inclusive approach to governance and security Khaled Abou Zahr But this is only one part of the solution. The other part is to make sure state institutions grant every single citizen from all ethnic and religious communities the same rights. This cannot be only on paper but in fact. This means that an entire overhaul of the state is needed. It is the thorn the previous regime left for any future peace and prosperity in Syria. This transformation is Syria's biggest challenge, but also its greatest opportunity for a stable future. Syria needs to break out of the jail the former regime created and adopt an inclusive and rights-based approach to governance and security. The new leadership needs to rebuild trust and build national unity with all ethnic and religious groups — Christians, Druze, Kurds, Alawites, Sunnis, Armenians and others. There is a need to break free from the Baathist structure of the state and establish a new constitution that guarantees equal citizenship, religious freedom and freedom of expression: the same rights and duties for all. This also means that justice needs to be precise. Entire communities cannot be condemned as being complicit with the Assad regime, as that was the only way to survive. But those who facilitated or committed illegal acts against the broader population need to be brought to justice. The same applies to those who committed acts of terror against minorities. Justice cannot and should not be one-sided. This also brings the need to consider a reconciliation process. These points are essential for long-term stability. These are difficult and dangerous tasks to take on, yet they are the only true solution. Today, the new leadership needs to show this resolve toward the Greek Orthodox community, regardless of the past. Worshippers of any community cannot be blamed for the ills of the past regime. Even if people understand how difficult finding the perpetrators of this terrorist attack might be, they at least need to be convinced that the new leadership is doing its best to find them, as well as protecting the targets from future attacks. These are the conditions required to move toward a fair and nationwide reconstruction. By ensuring this protection, the new leadership will build the path to the future on Syria's greatest strength: its rich cultural and religious diversity.
The National
3 days ago
- Politics
- The National
From allies to adversaries: Attacks on minorities increase as hardline Islamists turn on Syria's new leader
The suicide bombing at a Mar Elias church in Damascus on Sunday has laid bare the difficulties Syria's new President Ahmad Al Shara faces in dealing with the very militants who helped him to overthrow the Bashar Al Assad regime six months ago. Mr Al Shara, a former militant of Al Qaeda in Iraq and the leader of Syrian offshoot Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, assumed power in Sunni majority Syria after a decade of fighting against the former regime, which was dominated by Mr Al Assad's minority Alawite sect, as well as the extremist group ISIS, to whom he is ideologically opposed, and other Islamist militant groups who stood in his path. Now, the claim by a group calling itself Saraya Ansar Al Sunnah that it carried out the attack on the Syriac Orthodox church presents a major challenge to Mr Al Shara as he seeks to establish government control over the entire country and attract foreign investment and support from regional neighbours and the west. Who are Saraya Ansar Al Sunnah? Saraya Ansar Al Sunni, which splintered from HTS after it led the rebel offensive that toppled Mr Al Assad in December, has claimed responsibility for several sectarian attacks on minorities in Syria, but little there is little concrete information about it. Since February, the hardline Islamist militant group has claimed responsibility for attacks of minorities across Syria, mostly Alawites and Shite Muslims – and, most recently, the suicide bombing at the church in Damascus that killed at least 25 people. It also claimed to have taken part in the retaliatory killing spree against Alawites in March by HTS-linked factions and other armed hardliners. More than 800 Alawites, mostly civilians, were killed in the community's heartland along the Mediterranean coast, according to an estimate by the Syrian Network for Human Rights. 'There's not enough information about the Saraya Ansar Al Sunnah group,' said Waiel Olwan, senior researcher at the Jusoor Centre for Studies, which specialises in Syrian affairs. 'You can consider them to be among a set of secret, radical, jihadist organisations. They may be connected to ISIS – either a fringe group or one at the core; they may be connected to Al Qaeda; or they may be part of a rising wave of radical cases following the fall of the regime.' The group reportedly operates in a decentralised structure of autonomous cells, similar to ISIS, and appears to be highly critical of Mr Al Shara. In early June, it boasted on its Telegram channel that 'hundreds of letters seeking to join are pouring in' and that it had already attracted 'nearly 1,000 mujahideen' in the Levant. Another post declared that 'politics is contingent upon compliance with Sharia, not the actions of Ahmad Shara!' Many of the group's online declarations consist of calls for violence against Alawites and other religious minorities through 'liquidation' and 'purification' operations. 'Such radical cases are expected and need to be addressed within the scope of the fight against terrorism,' Mr Olwan said. The Interior Ministry said after the church bombing that 'dark' and criminal groups would not 'have a place on Syrian territory'. It has so far identified ISIS as the perpetrator of the church attack, with a spokesman dismissing suggestions that it could be another group. HTS ties Two HTS sources said Saraya Ansar Al Sunnah comprises of fighters who had fought alongside HTS in the north-west governorate of Idlib, and even participated in the 11-day offensive that toppled the Assad regime. 'They were ideologically in line with Al Shara and helped him in his political objective,' one of the sources said. However, posts on the group's Telegram channel show that it considers Mr Al Shara's apparent willingness to accommodate Syria's vast ethno-religious diversity and placate western governments as apostasy. Its opposition to the new order under Mr Al Shara is political, and not necessarily ideological, the source said. One source in Idlib said the group has exploited a vacuum left by Mr Al Shara's relocation to Damascus along with many HTS cadres after toppling Mr Al Assad. It has also taken advantage of his accommodation of the country's 5 per cent Christian minority in his quest for normalisation with the west. This was partly to repair damage to Syria's foreign policy position following massacres of Alawites and Druze civilians in March and April. 'There are 2 million impoverished people still in camps in Idlib; meanwhile, many see Al Shara as obsessed with assuaging the Christians, who were on the side of Assad,' the HTS source said. Al Shara's dilemma Throughout Syria's 13-year civil war, Mr Al Assad gathered members of his Alawite sect and other minorities, as well as foreign militias, to prop up his regime – effectively engineering public resentment against minorities among the majority Sunni population. Many minorities either remained neutral or sided with the Assad regime out of a desire for self-preservation, particularly as Sunni rebel forces increasingly shifted towards hardline ideology. The Syriac Orthodox church, Syria's largest Christian denomination, supported the former regime. It did not oppose the formation of sectarian militia that many Christians joined, although many others stayed on the sidelines or fled the country. The HTS source said that if Mr Al Shara continued to 'neglect' Idlib, disillusionment among his core constituency would grow and drive recruitment by Saraya Ansar Al Sunnah and other groups. And if he fails to address attacks on minorities by extremist groups, civil unrest will expand. A senior member of the Orthodox clergy, who did not want to be named, said Christian former members of Assad's auxiliaries, who had mostly gone underground after his ouster, had re-emerged and begun agitating against the new government after the church bombing. 'Some of them showed up at the funerals and are trying to lump the government with the bombers,' he said.
