Syria (MNN) — Keep this story in your back pocket as you sift the headlines on Syria. Despite the rhetoric of HTS leaders to the world about tolerance and protection of minorities, there’s more developing behind the scenes than is being widely reported.
Tom Doyle with Uncharted Ministries recently met with their Syria field leader. Militants are targeting Alawites, a divergent religion related to Islam that was upheld by the previous regime.
“Of course, this is payback, because Bashar Assad was an Alawite, and now the ruling leaders are going after the Alawites,” Doyle explains. “Some of them (the Alawites) were terrorists, for sure, but then there’s just good Alawite people that are living in fear — [there is a] lot of death, lot of kidnappings, bodies along the road in Alawite areas that are just being left there.”
Doyle shares there have also been clear threats to Christians that “you are next.”
“There is a Christian group that was was doing something in Damascus, and they’re already being threatened that ‘This is a Muslim city, and there will be no more Christian activities here,’” Doyle says.
A minaret and a church steeple side-by-side in Syria. (Photo courtesy of Ali Wassouf/Unsplash)
“This is what’s happening just out in the open, but somehow it’s not being covered much. So we need to pray for the church in Syria.”
Despite the extreme daily pressures, a local believer sent Doyle’s team this message.
“This friend of ours signs the letter, ‘Rest assured, my dear brother, we are all well through the Lord,’ even though there’s clamp downs on when they can go outside of their homes, they’re not getting paid, their government is not functioning well, and there’s open threats. Many of them know people that have been killed. But in the midst of it, the Body of Christ is shining.”
As HTS consolidates power, remember and pray for the Church with your eyes open.
“Pray for our Christian family in Syria, who’ve been through so much with the Assad leadership for over 50 years, and now we have this new leadership that is starting to show its true colors, [which is] going to be open hostility to Christians,” says Doyle.
Learn more about Uncharted Ministries here.
Header image is a representative stock photo by Alexas_Fotos via Pixabay.
