Legal framework on freedom of religion and actual application
Syria is in a transitional phase. After the implosion of the old regime and former President Bashar al-Assad’s flight to Russia following a lightning offensive by rebel forces in December 2024,[1] Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa was declared new interim president of the Syrian Arab Republic. The new head of State is the leader of the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group that controlled the Idlib region for years. Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa signed a temporary Constitutional Declaration in March 2025,[2] replacing the constitution that had been adopted by a referendum in 2012.[3] As indicated in the Constitutional Declaration, the Islamist leader will govern for five years before elections are held in 2030.
Article 3 of Syria’s interim constitution stipulates: “1. The religion of the President of the Republic is Islam, and Islamic jurisprudence is the principal source of legislation. 2. Freedom of belief is protected. The State respects all divine religions and guarantees the freedom to perform all their rituals, provided that this does not disturb public order. 3. The personal status of religious sects is protected and respected in accordance with the law.”[4]
According to Article 8 (3), “The State is committed to combating all types and forms of violent extremism, while respecting rights and freedoms.” Article 10 stipulates that, “Citizens are equal before the law in rights and duties, without discrimination based on race, religion, gender or lineage.” Article 12 states: “1. The State shall protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and guarantee the rights and freedoms of citizens. 2. All rights and freedoms stipulated in international human rights treaties, charters and agreements ratified by the Syrian Arab Republic are considered an integral part of this Constitutional Declaration.”
Article 33 requires the President of the Republic to take the constitutional oath of office before the People’s Assembly. The oath is worded as follows: “I swear by Almighty God to faithfully uphold the sovereignty of the State, the unity of the country, the integrity of its territories, and the independence of its decision, and to defend them. I shall respect the law, safeguard the interests of the people, and strive with all sincerity and honesty to secure a decent life for them, achieve justice among them, and establish noble values and virtuous morals.”
The Constitutional Declaration was met with criticism by human rights advocates. A key concern is the provision that Islamic jurisprudence serves as the primary source of legislation. Unlike the previous constitution, it limits official recognition to “heavenly religions,” which is taken to refer to Abrahamic faiths such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism. According to experts, this might effectively deny recognition to some of Syria’s oldest religious communities, including the Yazidis and Druze. It is feared that, over time, this constitutional provision could also be interpreted to exclude the Ismaili and Alawite sects (offshoots of Shi‘a Islam) from formal recognition.[5]
Most Syrians are Sunni Muslims. Alawites (or Alawis), Christians and Druze are also part of the country’s traditional religious mosaic. Kurds are the most important non-Arab ethnic group with most following Sunni Islam and living in the north of the country. Kurds are not explicitly mentioned, and the Republic of Syria is defined as Arab in Article 1.
Assaad Elias Kattan, a Syrian Orthodox theologian from Lebanon, stated that since the HTS overthrew the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, many Christians have been “afraid of Islamisation” .[6] According to local sources contacted by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International, Christians are committed to playing a full role in the future of Syria and refuse to be labelled merely as a religious minority in need of special treatment or, worse, treated as second-class citizens.[7]
“The heads of communities do not want to define themselves as minorities, because otherwise they might lose their representation in the new constitution and state institutions. They want to stress equal rights,” according to ACN’s source, who prefers to remain anonymous for security reasons.[8]
In December 2024, the country’s new leaders gave assurances that Christians need not worry.[9] Several high-level meetings have taken place between Christian leaders and the new rulers, with the latter reassuring Christian leaders that their rights will be protected.[10]
Proselytising and conversion are restricted only in relation to Islam. Muslims are not allowed to convert to other religions while members of other religions can convert to Islam. The Penal Code prohibits causing tensions between religious communities.[11]
Article 462 of Syria’s Penal Code provides that anyone who publicly defames religious practices can be penalised by up to two years’ imprisonment.[12]
Article 48 of the Personal Status Law declares the marriage of a Muslim woman to a non-Muslim null and void.[13]
Incidents and developments
In January 2023, the Syrian government issued Legislative Decree No. 2 to regulate “the affairs and welfare of children of unknown parentage”.[14] The Decree states that a child of unknown parentage is considered “Muslim unless proven otherwise” and that a family can only apply to foster a child “if the couple and the child share the same religion”. The NGO Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) criticised this provision as unfair to non-Muslims and noted that the Decree failed to specify conditions under which a child’s religion could be changed from Islam to something different later in life.[15]
In April 2023, factions of the Syrian National Army (SNA), a militia supported by Turkey, reportedly forced two Yazidi men to convert to Islam in Afrin.[16] In July 2023, the SNA attacked a holy shrine in a Yazidi village in Afrin.[17] According to Yazidi activists, Yazidis have faced social, cultural and religious pressures since Turkey occupied the Afrin region in 2018. According to the Ezidina Foundation, the number of Yazidis in the Afrin region dropped from an estimated 35,000 to less than a thousand after the Turkish occupation.[18]
In June 2023, the Assyrian Church of St. George in Qamishli (northeast Syria) was broken into, with furniture and crosses destroyed, and some valuable items (ornaments and icons) stolen. Churches and other Christian buildings in the coastal area in the west of Syria have been reportedly vandalised or looted at least once a month.[19]
In July 2023, at least six people were killed and more than 20 wounded after a bomb exploded near a Shi‘a shrine south of the Syrian capital Damascus a day ahead of Ashura – a day of mourning observed by Shi‘a Muslims. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the explosion took place close to positions of Iranian militias, key allies of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.[20]
In August 2023, the Islamic State (IS) group confirmed the death of its leader, Abu Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, and named Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi as his replacement. The terrorist group claimed that its leader had been killed in “direct clashes” with the HTS group in Idlib province, in rebel-held northwestern Syria. HTS denied the claim. Earlier, in April 2023, Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stated that Turkish intelligence forces had killed al-Qurashi in Syria.[21]
In August 2023, the Ansar al-Tawhid group, which is allied with al-Qaeda, killed at least 11 soldiers in northwestern Syria after setting off explosives placed in tunnels dug underneath army positions and then attacking them.[22]
In December 2023, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said on Syrian TV that the Jews “who came to Palestine” were pagan Khazars from east of the Caspian Sea “who converted to Judaism,” not the ancient People of Israel. He dismissed the evidence that six million Jews died in the Holocaust or that the Nazis employed “a special method of torture or killing specific to the Jews,” who, he claimed, died just like other victims of World War II. Al-Assad added that the Holocaust was “politicised” and used as an excuse to send Jews from Europe to Palestine. He also claimed that the United States supported the rise of Nazism in Germany between the two world wars.[23]
The Syrian Network for Human Rights documented at least 33 attacks on mosques in the country in 2023, 31 (94 percent) attributed to the regime and two (6 percent) to the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led militia.[24]
In December 2023, HTS adopted a new policy of openness towards Idlib’s minorities, returning some seized properties and encouraging Christians and Druze to return. Still, discrimination persisted as many property owners have not been compensated for their losses.[25]
In January 2024, the independent media organisation Enab Baladi published a copy of the “Public Morality” bill prepared by the Ministry of Interior of the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG), the administrative arm of HTS in Idlib. The draft law has 128 articles. In addition to morality police training, it contains a list of religious prohibitions, such as insulting God, the prophets and religion, and disparaging Islamic rituals, symbols and scholars. The law also targets sorcery, fortune-telling, coffee cup and palm reading, eating in public during Ramadan and keeping stores open during Friday prayers, and requires girls over 12 to dress modestly outside the home.[26]
In February 2024, the High Committee for Real Estate opened an office in Raqqa, tasked with “protecting” the properties of Christian owners, who had left the region during the years of civil war.[27] Most Christians had abandoned the city after it was declared the capital of Islamic State group in 2014.[28] Since then, many Christian houses have been illegally seized. When IS was expelled in 2017, the region came under the control of a Kurdish dominated entity, the so-called Democratic Autonomous Administration of the Region of North and East Syria (DAARNES).[29]
In June 2024, the Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Hasakah-Nisibi, Joseph Chami, stated that Christians would not participate in the controversial municipal elections scheduled in the region controlled by DAARNES: “The situation is complicated. Christians are not happy. Most of them do not recognize the legitimacy and value of the local elections called for June 11 and will not vote.” According to the prelate, Christian men and boys are being forced to serve in Kurdish militias while confiscations and illegal appropriations of private Christian property such as houses and land continue.[30]
In late November 2024, the city of Aleppo fell into the hands of the HTS. Christian communities did not report any violence.[31] In December 2024, the leaders of all the Churches and ecclesial communities present in Aleppo met with representatives of the armed groups that controlled the city.[32]
In December 2024, Syria’s de facto ruler, Ahmed al-Sharaa, affirmed his commitment to respect Syria’s religious diversity. “We take pride in our culture, our religion and our Islam. Being part of the Islamic environment does not mean the exclusion of other sects. On the contrary, it is our duty to protect them,” he said during a meeting with Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.[33]
On 31 December 2024, al-Sharaa met in Damascus with representatives of the Christian communities present in Syria. The Islamist leader tried to reassure Christian leaders that the new Syria would be inclusive and wished them a Merry Christmas and a peaceful new year. Following the meeting, Cardinal Mario Zenari, Apostolic Nuncio to Syria, expressed cautious optimism regarding the new de facto leader’s assurances of inclusiveness. While recognising the symbolic importance of this commitment, Zenari emphasised that its true value would depend on whether these assurances are translated into tangible actions.[34]
Yohanna X, Greek-Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, also signalled his willingness to cooperate with the new authorities. “We extend our hand to work with you to build the new Syria, and we are waiting for Mr. Al-Sharaa and his new administration to stretch out their hand to us in turn,” he stated on New Year’s Day 2025.[35]
In December 2024, unidentified gunmen opened fire at a Greek Orthodox church in Hama. Upon entering the place of worship, they shot at the church’s walls and tried to remove the cross.[36] Since the fall of Hama governorate on 5 December 2024, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has documented many human rights violations, such as extrajudicial killings, the destruction of private homes, and attacks against public and private property. Based on the accounts that the SNHR has gathered, several groups were involved, but the jihadist Ansar al-Tawhid group was responsible for a large percentage of these violations.[37]
In December 2024, non-Syrian HTS elements set fire to a Christmas tree erected in a public place in Hama.[38] According to a source, the tree was vandalised before it was destroyed by fire. When residents tried to stop the act of vandalism, the HTS militiamen fired warning shots to keep them away. They justified their action by saying that the tree was a symbol of polytheism. A similar incident was reported in Aleppo, where an HTS official destroyed a Christmas tree in a Christian neighbourhood; soon after, the HTS replace it with a new one. Other incidents of this kind were recorded in other HTS-ruled regions.
Open Doors reported that in cities like Aleppo and Damascus, some Islamist groups were turning up in neighbourhoods where Christians live, telling women to wear the hijab or join Islam.[39]
In December 2024, human rights activists claimed that around 800 Yazidi women and dozens of Peshmerga fighters, former Islamic State captives, were thought to be still in a prison held by Syrian rebel forces.[40]
In a meeting in early January 2025 with Father Ibrahim Faltas from the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, interim President al-Sharaa expressed his admiration for Pope Francis, stating that Christians are an important part of Syria, both past and present, not a mere minority.[41]
In January 2025, Syrian security forces foiled an attack by the Islamic State on a Shi‘a shrine in a southern suburb of Damascus. According to SANA, Syria’s state news agency, intelligence and security forces “succeeded in thwarting an attempt by IS to carry out a bombing inside the Sayyida Zainab shrine”.[42]
In January 2025, the Institute for the Study of War reported that IS was making a comeback in Syria after regrouping for several years. IS has historically exploited security vacuums created by changes in international counterterrorism policies in Syria and Africa.[43]
In January 2025, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, visited Syria on a mission entrusted to him by Pope Francis to offer the troubled nation’s faithful the Pope’s closeness.[44]
In January 2025, Syrian Catholic Archbishop Jacques Mourad of Homs denounced “several cases of young Christians being threatened and tortured in the streets in front of everyone, in order to instil fear and force them to renounce their faith and become Muslims”.[45]
In January 2025, President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced “an inclusive transitional government that reflects Syria’s diversity”. In March 2025, he swore in a new transitional cabinet. Hind Kabawat, a Christian and longtime Assad opponent, became the Minister of Social Affairs and Labour.[46] Kurdish Syrian Mohammed Terko was appointed as Minister of Education. Alawite Yarub Badr is Syria’s new Minister of Transportation. Amgad (Amjad) Badr, from the Druze community, was made Minister of Agriculture.[47]
In February 2025, Syria’s tiny Jewish community said that they prayed for the first time in decades in a synagogue in Old Damascus.[48]
On 10th March 2025, Syria’s new regime ended a military operation against Assadist forces. The fighting had started when Assad loyalists attacked a Syrian security patrol.[49] What followed was one of the bloodiest single conflicts in Syria in a decade. Nearly a thousand civilians were killed, including women and children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Most of the civilians killed by government forces were Alawites, but some Sunnis and Christians were among the dead.[50] During the fighting, a series of revenge killings[51] and acts of humiliation[52] against Alawites took place. The clashes were concentrated along Syria’s Mediterranean coast, starting in Jableh[53] and spreading through Latakia governorate to Tartus, Hama and Homs.[54] Syria’s interim president launched an investigation into the killings, vowing to hold accountable “anyone involved in civilian bloodshed”.[55]
In March 2025, sectarian violence erupted in Damascus. The predominantly Alawite neighbourhood of al-Qadam saw masked men attack homes and seize unarmed men, eyewitnesses told Reuters.[56]
Also in March 2025, three Syrian Christian patriarchs signed a joint appeal to stop the “horrible massacres” by jihadist militias against the Alawite minority. Greek Orthodox Patriarch Yohanna X, Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Youssef I Absi and Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Mar Ignatius Aphrem II denounced an “escalation of violence that has led to attacks against innocent civilians, including women and children”.[57]
In March 2025, Syrian Yazidi organisations and unions strongly criticised the Constitutional Declaration of the Syrian Arab Republic, calling for its immediate withdrawal and a comprehensive revision. The Syriac Union Party (SUP) that represents Christian Assyrians had previously criticised the document for its failure to protect the rights of Syria’s ethnically and religiously diverse population.[58] The SUP calls for a secular state that upholds the country’s unity, sovereignty and independence while remaining neutral towards all religions and ethnic groups.
Prospects for freedom of religion
With the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, war-torn Syria entered a new chapter of its history. It is too early to assess how the takeover by the Islamist group, HTS, will affect religious freedom in Syria.
On the one hand, the al-Qaeda offshoot has a history of oppressing religious minorities in Idlib. On the other hand, interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has given assurances that their rights would be respected. Church leaders have expressed cautious optimism so far, stating their willingness to cooperate with the new transitional regime.
The fact that the new Syrian government is looking for foreign aid from Western countries might provide minorities with a certain sense of security since Western donors have insisted on the protection of minority rights. The inclusion of non-Muslims in the transitional cabinet is a positive first step. Conversely, the Constitutional Declaration, with its Islamic orientation, leaves little hope that Syria might become a state that guarantees comprehensive religious freedom and not only freedom of worship.
It also remains to be seen whether the new transitional government will be able to control all armed factions operating in the country. The March 2025 massacre of Alawites illustrates how rapidly the situation can deteriorate. Additionally, the suicide bombing on 22 June 2025 at Mar Elias Church in the Dweila neighbourhood of Damascus resulted in 25 deaths.[59] This attack, the deadliest in Damascus in recent years and the first since Assad’s fall, was attributed by the Interior Ministry to an Islamic State operative. The incident heightened concerns about the reawakening of dormant extremist cells can quickly undermine confidence in the new government’s commitments to protect minorities. Furthermore, the Islamic State remains active in Syria and may seek to exploit the prevailing instability.
Significant political change in Syria will take years to unfold. Free and fair elections and the transformation of rebel groups into political actors capable of managing state institutions will take time. The potential return of millions of displaced Syrians, including Christians and members of other religious minorities, depends on Syria’s political and economic stabilisation. Prospects for freedom of religion thus remain uncertain.
Syria