Church Leaders Condemn Killings, Urge Prayers Amid Syria Violence

Syria’s top Christian leaders have condemned the killing and wounding of hundreds of Alawites, many of them civilians, by security forces and gunmen linked to the country’s new Islamist rulers. The violence, which began March 6, has seen attacks on innocent civilians, including women and children, according to a joint statement issued by senior Christian figures in Syria.

Archbishop Youssef Absi, the Melkite Greek Catholic patriarch of Antioch and All the East, along with John X, the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch and All the East, and Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, the Syriac patriarch of Antioch and All the East and supreme head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church, issued the statement March 8. The patriarchs highlighted widespread killings in the northwest coastal area of Tartus, Banias, Jabla, and Latakia, where heavy clashes have been taking place in the Alawite heartland.

The area was the base of Syria’s former Assad regime, which ruled the country for 53 years until President Bashar Assad was overthrown late last year. Some observers describe this as the worst violence in Syria’s 14-year-old civil conflict. Bashar Assad, a minority Alawite, had historically given preferential treatment to his community over the majority Sunni Muslim population, often repressing them.

Syria’s new government, led by interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, has faced an insurgency by loyalists of Assad’s Alawite sect in recent days. The Christian leaders denounced any act that threatens civil peace, calling for an immediate end to the horrific violence that opposes all human and moral values.

They urged the swift creation of conditions conducive to achieving national reconciliation among the Syrian people. The leaders reiterated a call made in December for the inclusion of all Syrians in the new political system. They emphasized the need for a transition to a state that respects all its citizens and lays the foundation for a society based on equal citizenship and genuine partnership, free from vengeance and exclusion.

Regina Lynch, president of Aid to the Church in Need International, called for prayers during a time of pain and suffering, highlighting the urgent need for compassion and peace.

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