Syrian Christian leaders say Islamist government can't protect them or Druze

AMMAN, Jordan (OSV News) -- Syrian Christian leaders say they cannot trust the Islamist-led Syrian government of Ahmed al-Sharaa to provide the safety they need after a week of deadly clashes that claimed the lives of 1,000 people in the southern region of Sweida and urged international protection.

Greek Catholic Father Toni Butros of Sweida posted a video circulated on X July 21 in which he wants to bring international attention to "massacres that have happened to us in Sweida."

Bloody sectarian clashes drawing in Sunni Muslim Bedouins and armed tribes quickly erupted against the Druze and Christian communities on July 13. Syrian government forces sent to quell the violence, were among those caught perpetrating atrocities, harboring jihadist sentiments.

Widespread violations were directed mainly toward Druze civilians who were hunted down and killed in their homes and cars. Syrian troops, identified by their fatigues and insignia, shot others in the street.

Christians, too, were caught in the crosshairs with churches set on fire, including the Greek Melkite Church of St. Michael in Al-Sura. Meanwhile, 38 Christian homes were set ablaze leaving numerous families homeless.

L'Oeuvre d'Orient, a Catholic charity, reported July 21 that several hundred Christians, most probably those whose houses were burned, are currently sheltering in the Melkite parish in Shorba, the Capuchin Franciscan fathers' church and the Greek Orthodox archdiocese in Sweida without water, food or electricity.

An evangelical pastor, Khalid Mezher, who was of Druze origin and converted to Christianity, was killed along with 12 members of his family, including children, when Islamist militants stormed his home, SyriacPress media reported July 19.

An American citizen of Druze origin from Oklahoma was among eight men, all family members, rounded up and killed in an execution-style attack during the sectarian violence that flared up in Syria a week earlier, CNN reported.

Hosam Saraya, a 35-year-old Syrian American, was identified by a friend and a U.S. relative as one of the eight men, whose killing was captured on a video that circulated on social media over the July 19-20 weekend.

CNN said it cannot independently verify the identity of the gunmen in the video. A friend of the Saraya family said he believed they were militants aligned with the government.

Father Butros made an impassioned plea to the world community. "We demand international protection," the priest said. "We are not minorities, we are part of Syria and have lived here for hundreds of years. We are the people of this land. We and our Druze brothers live here together."

"We ask the U.S., Europe, the Vatican and the whole world for international protection for Sweida, the region, all of it, for us and for our Druze brothers," the Catholic priest said.

"The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East joins its voice with the voices of the wise of this world to call for an end to the bloodshed in Suwayda (Sweida) and commends regional and international mediation efforts to put an end to these massacres that target the coexistence of all communities," wrote Patriarch John X, Greek Orthodox primate, one of Syria's most senior Christian clergymen, in a July 20 statement.

This latest crisis of sectarian violence shows al-Sharaa's Islamist government is either incapable or unwilling to control parts of Syria or even his own security and military forces, observers say.

"Al-Sharaa emerges weakened from his standoff with the Druze leadership and Israel, which intervened on behalf of the religious minority," Hélène Sallon wrote in the French Le Monde newspaper.

"He not only failed to restore Damascus's sovereignty over the region, but also to establish himself as a unifying and protective figure among communities torn apart by 14 years of civil war," she said.

A regional intelligence source told Reuters agency that al-Sharaa "had not been in control of events on the ground because of the lack of a disciplined military and his reliance instead on a patchwork of militia groups, often with a background in Islamic militancy."

Hundreds of Alawites were killed by forces aligned to al-Sharaa in the western Latakia coastal region in March. Meanwhile, 25 Christians were killed and dozens more injured in a suicide bombing inside St. Elias Greek Orthodox Church in the Dweil’a district of Damascus on June 22.

Nadine Maenza, president of the Washington-based International Religious Freedom Secretariat, told OSV News that the Sweida bloodshed is a major test for al-Sharaa.

"Syria cannot move toward peace while state institutions are involved in committing atrocities and minority communities remain excluded from power. Real stability requires real reform," Maenza said.

"Minorities must have a role in their own governance and security. That means adopting a system of decentralization and a revised constitution that guarantees equal citizenship. So long as Islamists operate with impunity and minorities are sidelined by law, violence will persist," she said.

"Calling for an end to violence is not enough. The structure that enables it must change," Maenza affirmed.