A persecution watchdog is sounding the alarm as the situation in Syria appears to be deteriorating for minority groups like the Druze and Alawites.
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Joel Veldkamp, head of international communications at Christian Solidarity International (CSI), told CBN News that Syrian government forces have gone after these groups, killing innocents in the process.
The most recent incursion unfolded last week and had deadly consequences.
“Syrian government forces have once again launched an attack on religious minority populations — this time against the Druze, a religious group which makes up about 3% of Syria’s population, and who are considered heretics by jihadist groups,” CSI wrote in a statement. “Between July 14 and July 18, Syria’s Islamist-controlled government sent troops to occupy Suwayda province, a mountainous region of southern Syria where the majority of the population is Druze. Upon entering population centers in the province, government troops carried out numerous atrocities.”
This violence might not have been limited only to the Druze population. While details are still unclear about motives and precise details, Khaled Mazhar, the pastor of the Good Shepherd Evangelical Church in Suwayda city, was killed alongside 11 other family members.
“We’re still putting together the details on what exactly happened, but we know that Pastor Khaled Mazhar was attacked by armed fighters sometime last week in Soweda City,” Veldkamp said. “He, and his wife, and his children, and several other of his relatives — 12 people in all — were all killed. And there’s a 13th person who survived only because they thought that she was dead, basically.”
While the Druzes were the main target, he said government fighters sometimes kill Christians along the way, especially when they are going after other minority groups.
“This violence is not something that can be restricted to one community,” Veldkamp said. “It’s going to spread, and it’s going to affect Christians as well.”
His warning is one to heed, as Syrian Christians are reportedly fearful over how they could soon be treated, especially after Ahmed al-Sharaa — a former Al-Qaeda leader — rose to power to become ruler after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad.
Despite al-Sharaa’s pledge to treat minorities well, the incursion against the Druzes and other past issues show that actions might not align with words and pledges.
Veldkamp said the Druze attack this month has accounted for “one of the worst weeks of the entire Syrian civil war.” He shed further details on what unfolded once government officials entered the Suwayda area.
“They started killing people and looting people’s houses,” he said. “And this was very clearly religiously-driven violence. They were shouting Allahu Akbar, the troops of the new Syrian government. They were calling Druzes infidels. … They were calling them pigs.”
Veldkamp continued, “I saw some horrible videos I wish I hadn’t seen. There’s one where government forces go into an apartment, and find some Druze men, and force them to jump off the balcony of their apartment, and, as they’re jumping, they shoot each one and then shout ‘Allahu Akbar.'”
This attack against the Druze population came just months after a March assault against the Alawites, a Muslim sect. Read more about that here.
Veldkamp believes one factor holding back extreme and targeted violence against Christians is the U.S. and European reaction that would follow.
“Right now, [the Syrian government] really needs development aid from the United States and from Europe, even to make the country work,” he said. “So they’re holding off on the Christians for now, but our friends in Syria tell us that daily life is getting a lot more uncomfortable for Christians.”
Watch Joel explain the situation.
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