Syria's Religious Freedom at Risk: Sanctions Relief and Al-Qaeda's New Regime

Impact of Syrian Sanctions

• 📉 The US and its allies imposed sanctions on Syria in 2011, devastating the country's economy and leading to widespread poverty.
• 💔 Before sanctions, Syria was a middle-income nation with a middle class; today, over 90% of Syrians live in poverty, with severe malnutrition affecting children.
• 🎯 The sanctions' stated goals were to punish the Syrian government or pressure it into a diplomatic solution, but their effect was largely to devastate the entire country.

Regime Change and New Leadership

• 🔄 The Syrian civil war was a proxy war, and the collapse of the Syrian government in December led to a new regime, described as an al-Qaeda linked dictatorship.
• 🤝 President Trump's pledge to end sanctions is seen as acknowledging that the sanctions have served their function of bringing about regime change.
• ⚠️ The new ruler, Ahmed Ashara (formerly Abu Muhammad Al Galani), is the founder of al-Qaeda in Syria, with a $10 million bounty previously on his head.

Concerns for Religious Minorities

• 🚨 CSI warns that the regime change has replaced one brutal dictatorship with another, leading to massacres of religious minorities like Alawites and Druze.
• ✝️ Christians in Syria fear they are next and worry about the potential destruction of Christianity as a religious group in the country.
• ⚖️ There are concerns that Syria could become like Saudi Arabia, with no religious freedom and Christians potentially facing second-class status or worse.

Calls for Protections

• 🚫 CSI advocates for the removal of broad economic sanctions that hurt all Syrians but urges the US to demand firm guarantees for religious freedom for Christians.
• 🔒 Before removing individual sanctions on Ashara and his lieutenants, the US should ask for accountability for massacres and solid guarantees for religious liberty.
• 🌍 The potential for extreme violence against religious minorities is high, as demonstrated by recent massacres and the official ideology that labels Alawites and Druze as infidels.

Finding More Information

• 🌐 Those interested can find more information on CSI's work and publications about Syria at www.csi-enusa.org.
• 🙏 Prayer is encouraged for Syria, for wisdom, and for the Christians in the region.