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Report of the situation of Christians in Syria during the ISIS occupation

Since the beginning of the civil war, and especially since the Islamic State's strengthening, the Syrian Christians have suffered many atrocities. Many have died and have been forced to leave their homes. CSW produced a report in which they wrote about these atrocities and provide some shocking data about the situation of Christians in Syria.

 

The report says that the militias have targeted the ancient Christian community. Between 2012 and 2017, numerous Christian leaders have been abducted or murdered.

Among them, Reverend Basilious Nasser, a Christian priest from the Greek Orthodox Church was murdered by a sniper in January of 2012. Father Fadi Haddad was abducted in the October of 2012. Archbishop Boulos (Paul) Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Church, and Father Paolo Dall’Ogglio, an Italian Jesuit priest, were abducted in October 2013, and there is still no information about their whereabouts. Frans van der Lugt, an elderly and respected Dutch priest was murdered in April 2014. Finally, Father Ibrahim Farah, an Orthodox priest in Idlib was kidnapped by the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, Al Nusra Front, in 2015. He fled to exile in Turkey and migrated to Canada.

According to the report, an estimated 650,000 Christians had to flee their home country. In 2014, the Islamic State took over the power over an estimated 35% of the whole country. Like Aleppo of Holms, earlier Christian towns have been deserted by most of their Christian population.

In the town of Raqqa, Christians have been forced to obey the Sharia law, respect the Islamic dress code, and pray to Allah also in their own homes. Many Christians have been forced to convert to Islamism. Due to this impossible situation, many Christians left the town. After 2014, the Christian population of the town sank from thirteen thousand to less than eighty inhabitants.

The report that we used to write this article was made by CSW UK.

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