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** Syria: Muslims Kidnapping, Possibly Torturing, Christians ([link removed])
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by Uzay Bulut • February 28, 2025 at 5:00 am
* After forces from the al-Qaeda affiliated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group conquered Damascus and overthrew Syria's Assad regime in December 2024, they urged the residents of the Valley of the Christians to surrender any weapons they kept for self-defense, telling them that civilians would not be harmed. Since the jihadists' takeover of Syria, however, around 500,000 Christians in the country have been faced with increased persecution and abductions
* On February 16, more Christians... were abducted from another village in the area. Their kidnappers, according to sources on the ground, are torturing them.
* "HTS's successive renamings and 'rebrandings' appear to echo al-Qaeda's own strategy in Syria of establishing branches and presenting them as locally-grown organizations arising in response to Syrians' needs..." — US Commission on International Religious Freedom, November 2022.
* Al-Sharaa recently started dressing in a suit and tie, and is now presenting himself to the West as a "moderate." He has spoken of plans to form an inclusive transitional government representing diverse communities that will build institutions and run the country until it can hold free and fair elections. In schoolbooks, however, his government has been replacing the word "law" with "sharia," and has been using Islamic teaching to recruit the country's new army.
* "Under HTS-control in Idlib, Christian clergy are not allowed to walk outside in any clothing that makes them recognisable as priests or pastors. Crosses have been removed from church buildings." — Open Doors, December 2024.
* "Islam does not tolerate other cultures." — "Christina," a Greek Christian in Syria, to Gatestone, January 2025.
* "The new Syria should not be established without parties that represent the minority groups in the country, such as Christians, Kurds, Druze, and Alawites. The official recognition and acceptance of the jihadists by Western governments is like placing swords on the necks of Christians in particular and everyone who disagrees with them in general." – "Christina," a Greek Christian in Syria, to Gatestone, January 2025.

The persecution of Christians in Syria has been escalating since Ahmed Al-Sharaa took over as the country's president, after his al-Qaeda affiliated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group overthrew the Assad regime in December. Al-Sharaa recently started dressing in a suit and tie, and is now presenting himself to the West as a "moderate." In schoolbooks, however, his government has been replacing the word "law" with "sharia," and has been using Islamic teaching to recruit the country's new army. Pictured: Al-Sharaa shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a press conference in Ankara, Turkey on February 4, 2025. (Photo by Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images)

Sadly, the persecution of Christians in Syria's "Valley of the Christians" (Wadi al-Nasara), overwhelmingly inhabited by Greeks originally from Antioch, has been escalating. Antioch is a city in today's Turkey (now known as Antakya), near the country's border with Syria. It is among the Turkish cities from which, in the last century, Greeks were forcibly expelled.

After forces from the al-Qaeda affiliated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group conquered Damascus and overthrew Syria's Assad regime in December 2024, they urged the residents of the Valley of the Christians to surrender any weapons they kept for self-defense, telling them that civilians would not be harmed. Since the jihadists' takeover of Syria, however, around 500,000 Christians in the country have been faced with increased persecution and abductions

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