Amr Abdullah
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syrian Christians attended Christmas Mass on Tuesday for the first time since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in early December, an early test of pledges by the new Islamist rulers to protect the rights of religious minorities in the country. .
The mass was held amid tight security measures due to fears of violence against Christian sites, as there were several small cars belonging to the currently ruling Islamic group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, parked around the church.
The pews of Our Lady of Damascus Church in the Syrian capital were filled with a mixed crowd of young and old, holding candles as hymns filled the air and echoed throughout the church.
Hours before the funeral ceremony, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Damascus to denounce the Christmas tree burning incident in the northern countryside of Hama Governorate, west-central Syria.
Carrying wooden crosses, they chanted: “We are your soldiers, Jesus,” “With our spirit and our blood, we redeem you for Jesus’ sake,” and “The Syrian people are one.”
Demonstrator Laila Farkouh said: “We are protesting to demand our rights and to denounce… the burning of Christmas trees and the attacks on churches… we do not accept this.”
De facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa has told Christians and other groups they will be safe in Syria run by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, a former branch of al-Qaeda.
Although he was a former leader of the Sunni Islamist group, which considers Christians to be infidels, Sharaa quickly shed his jihadi uniform and switched to tuxedos in his recent appearances.
He told visiting Western officials that HTS would not seek revenge against the former Assad regime, most of whose senior figures were from the Alawite sect of Islam, nor would it repress any other religious minority.
But many Christians are not yet convinced.
The burning of the Christmas tree was one of many incidents targeting Christians since the fall of the regime.
The church said in a statement that on December 18, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a Greek Orthodox church in the city of Hama, entered the complex and attempted to destroy a cross and smash tombstones in one of the cemeteries.
In a separate incident, Reuters reporters saw several SUVs passing through Bab Touma, a predominantly Christian neighborhood in Damascus, blasting jihadist songs from loudspeakers.
