Lebanon today »After the fall of Assad .. This is the situation of minorities in Syria

The “Al -Hurra” website published a new report entitled “Minorities in New Syria … Amal is afraid of fear”, and it stated:

The feelings of religious minorities in Syria are still swinging between hope and fear of the future, despite the pledge of the country’s new leaders to respect religious freedoms and forget their extremist past.

This pressure comes from the United States and European countries that still impose sanctions on Syria as a country and maintain separate measures against Islamic groups that dominate the new government.

Ali Rashid, who came to Damascus from Iraq to visit the shrine of Sayyida Zainab, says that his family was afraid when he told them about his plan to visit the Holy Maqam among Shiite Muslims.

But upon his arrival in January, Rashid says that he found and other Iraqi visitors a warm welcome from the new leadership in Syria.

He added: “We were afraid at the beginning, but we were overwhelmed by fear. When we got, we realized how well the hospitality and respect we received here, “according to the American newspaper” Wall Street Journal “.

Abu Maryam, a leader in the new government who supervises security in the shrine of Sayyida Zainab, says that in the first weeks after the collapse of the Assad regime on December 8, only about 100 people came to pray in the place.

But by late January, about 9,000 people gathered to perform Friday prayers, and the number rose every week.

Abu Maryam adds: “We worked hard to send reassurance messages,” Abu Maryam added. Over time, people became more confident. ”

In the areas inhabited by most Christian in ancient Damascus, life also continues relatively naturally.

According to the newspaper, the churches are witnessing the holding of the mass repeatedly, and the bars are crowded throughout the evening, as the local beer and the imported whiskey offer.

However, this does not mean that anxiety has disappeared from the hearts of members of the Christian minority in the country.

“Things are calm now, but no one knows what tomorrow will bring.”

Another senior cleric in a nearby church indicated that “this calm that precedes the storm may be.”

The head of the Syriac Orthodox Syriac Church, Patriarch Moore, Ignatius, Afram II, notes that some of the groups that share in the Syrian government had a bloody history of violence against Christians and other minorities in the early years of the civil war.

However, he says that when Christian leaders reported problems, such as the appearance of some Islamists in the old city of Damascus, urging Christians to change their religion, the new administration has taken quick measures to restore calm.

“It seems that there is a change in the heart and mind, and we are happy to do so,” the patriarch added. We hope this is a real change and will continue, because their perception should change after they are in leadership. ”

And he confirms that Christians “need more oral promises. There is still fear, because we must see the new constitution that guarantees the rights of all Syrians. ”

Since it reached power, the new Syrian administration has sought to reassure that it will respect the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in the country.

The number of Christians in Syria exceeded one million before the outbreak of the conflict in 2011, to retreat with the waves of immigration and asylum successively.

Experts estimate that the remaining number of Christians in Syria today ranges between two hundred thousand and 300 thousand people.

What about the Alawites?

On the other hand, the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs is afraid to be described as a follower of the previous regime, and they monitor the fear of what has been happening since the fall of Bashar al -Assad’s regime on December 8.

A number of those who spoke to the Al -Hurra site explain that the Alevis were mainly suppressed since the days of Assad, and there is fear today that they will be counted on the previous regime … to be exposed to injustice and injustice again, as they described them.

Ibrahim Zarqa is a Syrian young man from the city of Jableh, a former doctor and detainee who belongs to the Alawite community, and he made many concessions to be able to stay in his country without harassment during the regime’s control period, including the pledge not to work or communicate with the opposition.

Ibrahim explains during his talk to the “Al -Hurra” website the concerns of the Alawite sect of what is happening today in Syria, saying, “Fears today with the sect must define it in several categories, the first category that was taking advantage of its approaching power and influential people, and these people are afraid today for their influence and positions.”

As for the second category, according to Zarqa, it was the one that was actually common to the blood, and it did not express the whole sect, and it is a specific percentage and all people know them, and these are their fears and obsession is exposure to actions of revenge, liquidation or accountability, and these are their opinion that the Assad family would remain forever.

For the third category, as the speaker sees, it is the general sect, and they are people from middle -income, who moved from a medium category to a poor category because of the defunct system during the last ten years, as the latter worked to starve most of the Alawites to the point that the situation became miserable, taking advantage of his youth who were Fuel, killed or killed in armed clashes.

The opposition factions, led by the Headquarters for the Liberation of Al -Sham, which announced years ago, declared their association with al -Qaeda, succeeded in overthrowing the regime of Bashar al -Assad before last December., Before announcing its solution on January 29 and integrating it into the new Syrian army.

The Syrian administration is currently aware that the way it deals with minorities, such as Christians, Alevis, and Kurds in particular, is subject to severe scrutiny. (Free)