Syria (MNN) — Al Qaeda is calling on the Syrian rebels to use their new power to target minority Christians.
MegaVoice’s Darrel Templeton says, “We know that the rebels don’t look favorably upon Christians and they’re trying to set up a caliphate. So we, Christians, are seen to be the infidels and the enemy to such a regime. So they are, unfortunately, going to be targeted, I think; perhaps even worse.”
Years ago, MegaVoice worked with Free Burma Rangers to get audio Bibles into Syria, and also distributed them to Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
Rebels unfurl Syrian revolution flag inside Hafez al-Assad mausoleum, December 2024. (Photo by getty images – telegram, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=156639771)
Templeton says, “We do know that many of those who have received audio Bibles who were in Lebanon in the refugee camps there have gone back to Syria thinking that was safer.” That was before the rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took power.
HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) has positioned himself to the world as a moderate. But is it enough reassurance for those Syrian Christians to stay?
“We need to be praying for our dear brothers and sisters,” Templeton urges, “that they will be bold, that they will be salt and light in their communities and their families, and that the Lord will allow them to share the Good News with many more.”
The context of Christmas approaching is especially poignant for Syrian believers living the Gospel at this time. Templeton shares, “I was mindful of that verse this morning [when] the angel said to the shepherds that this (Jesus’s birth) is tidings or ‘good news’ for all people — and that even means to those in Syria.”
Header photo: A minaret and a church steeple side-by-side in Syria. (Photo courtesy of Ali Wassouf/Unsplash)
