Adi Oweis was lounging with his kids in his Maryland home last week when his phone lit up with alerts from friends in Syria. Islamists connected to the new government were on their way to the country’s coastal Alawite region. 

Graphic videos soon arrived in his group chats: entire families slaughtered and row after row of dead Syrians lining the streets. Some of the victims were his Alawite friends. 

Now he fears for the future of the Syrian church.

Oweis, who works for an international nonprofit focused on interfaith dialogue, is a member of the Syrian Greek Orthodox community and lived in Damascus, Syria’s capital, until 2009. He was shocked by the violent campaign against people he once lived among. Christianity Today agreed not to use his real name to protect his Syrian family members. 

Islamists killed more than 1,300 people, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Most of the victims were civilians from the Alawite community, the minority Shia sect to which former president Bashar al-Assad belongs. Clashes between government forces and an armed remnant of Assad’s regime in the provinces of Latakia and Tartus last week led to sectarian violence as Sunni militia descended on the region. Alawites, who held prominent positions under Assad’s rule, have a history of living side by side with Christians.

“It freaked us out,” Oweis said. “We couldn’t sleep. It was a very painful few days.” Oweis confirmed the deaths of ten Christians through his channels in Syria, but he doesn’t believe the government forces and rogue militia are intentionally targeting the Christian community. 

“They see us as infidels, as people who don’t believe in what they believe in,” Oweis said. “At the same time, they don’t see us as people who persecuted them in the past.” 

Still, Syrian Christians are worried, wondering if the new government will target them next.

The revenge killings mark the worst violence since the December ouster of Assad. Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as al-Golani, led the Sunni movement to overthrow Assad and now serves as Syria’s interim president. 

Many Syrians welcomed the end of Assad’s 24-year grip on power. His Ba’ath party ruled for more than five decades and was guilty of numerous atrocities against Syrians. Yet Sharaa’s former ties to al-Qaeda have raised concerns that Syrians may have exchanged one violent regime for another. Christians and other minorities, including Alawites, Kurds, and Druze, could face increasing threats, said Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute.

“There are no restraints for the protection of religious minorities,” said Shea, who served on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom seven times. “It’s open season on them.”

Some reports characterized Syria’s conflict as ethnic in nature, but Shea believes religion is a primary driver. She tracks Islamist regimes and has observed patterns of religious oppression in Iraq, Nigeria, and Syria.

“[The killings] may not be done on orders, but I’d be surprised if the government protects Christians or anyone else,” she said. According to Shea, Sharaa has a tenuous hold on power and directs a coalition of radicals that includes “hardened jihadist fighters” from Chechnya, Uzbekistan, and other countries. 

She believes Syria’s interim president is a radical Islamist who projects a moderate image to the West to secure sanctions relief and aid. 

“The United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement Sunday. He called on the Syrian government to pursue justice. 

Sharaa’s office has said it would create an independent committee to investigate the killings by both sides. “No one will be above the law, and all those whose hands are stained with Syrian blood will face justice—fairly and without delay,” Sharaa said in a speech Sunday.

Oweis questions widely circulated social media posts describing a Christian slaughter, and he said reports claiming a priest died during the attacks are false. But he is still concerned about the future of Syria’s Christian community since Islamists view Christians as “low-hanging fruit.”

“It’s a house you can go to without any resistance because they know that Christians don’t have arms,” Oweis said. “And they are not clustered in one place like the Alawites where they can … resist for a long time.” 

Oweis said Syrian forces looted hundreds of Christian homes during the assault on Alawite communities between the coastal towns of Tartus and Latakia. Jihadis stormed the home of Oweis’s friend and spared his life after discovering his Christian identity. But they stole his car.  

Theft is so prevalent in Christian communities that churches typically hide their icons during the week and display them on Sundays only, Oweis said. Some icons are more than 400 years old and very valuable. 

Shea said the Syrian Christian population has dwindled significantly in the past few decades and now numbers around 300,000. While no surveys have been conducted, Oweis said Catholic and Greek Orthodox estimates are more optimistic and range from 600,000 to 1 million. 

Despite the indiscriminate killings and targeted theft, many Christians are choosing to stay in Syria and maintain a low profile, according to Christians with connections in the country. At the same time, some reports suggest that thousands of Syrians are crossing the border into Lebanon.

Those who stay face threats on multiple fronts. 

A group of around 500 Kurdish Christians from the northern town of Afrin has been displaced multiple times due to fighting between Turkish militias and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said Majeed Kurdi, a US-based Iraqi Kurdish pastor working with Freedom Seekers International to provide aid to that group. Tensions increased when the new government pressured armed groups to merge with the national military. 

The Kurdish Christians, who are currently living in Aleppo, Syria, are part of the nondenominational Good Shepherd Church but currently have no place to safely meet. The church has added more Kurds to its group each time it has evacuated a town or refugee camp, and the group has now swelled to around 1,200, including many nonbelievers who are interested in Christianity, according to Kurdi. 

But their situation is precarious. 

“[The militias] are, from time to time, trying to attack the Christians,” Kurdi said. “And especially they are looking for the converted Muslims to Christianity.”

Kurdi said Turkish-backed mercenaries who oppose the Kurdish presence in the border region have kidnapped Kurds, including women on their way to the market, as far south as Aleppo.

“All these powers are clashing in the area,” said Kurdi. “That’s why it’s impossible to have unity. Nobody listens to the others.”

On Monday, the SDF agreed to merge with the new Syrian government. Kurdi called the arrangement a “good beginning between both sides,” but he doesn’t think it will curtail Turkish assaults on Kurds. Another looming question is whether the 9,000 ISIS prisoners the SDF currently guards will be transferred to the new Syrian government. 

Oweis said the broader Christian community is the least-armed group in Syria. Now Christians fear mobs connected to Sharaa’s ruling Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, could turn against them in an instant.

Yet Christians maintain a measure of hope. “We are not good in the art of war at all, but we are good in the art of peace,” Oweis said. 

Throughout Syria’s decades of turmoil, Christians have developed relationships with Alawites, Druze, and Sunni Muslims, Oweis said. Some Christian communities have sponsored dinners that bring various factions together. 

On Monday, Sharaa claimed the revenge killings were contained and vowed to bring those responsible to justice, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed the targeted killings have since continued. Some Syrians question Sharaa’s intentions, and Oweis knows the road ahead will be difficult and complex. 

But any pause could be an opportunity for progress. 

“The militias left the Alawite region, so we hope for reconciliation,” Oweis said. “For Christians, fighting in an armed manner or resisting them is almost impossible, and it could result in a genocide for the Christian population.”

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