De facto Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa — whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fighters drove President Bashar al-Assad from power last month — recently met with the Mideast nation's Christian leadership after a string of menacing attacks on religious minorities, giving some observers hope the sanctioned militants are ushering in an era of greater inclusion and tolerance, though others remain skeptical.

Protests broke out in Syria over the Dec. 23 burning of a Christmas tree in a Christian-majority town in Hama amid other reports of harassment, prompting calls for the new Islamist authorities to take steps to safeguard ethnic minorities.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), an independent U.K.-based human rights organization, “Uzbek gunmen set fire to the Christmas tree in Al-Saqilibiya in Hama... that is inhabited by Christian residents.”

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported on Sharaa’s meeting with Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican clerics, including publishing pictures from the event.

Syrian Catholic Archbishop Jacques Mourad of Homs, who attended the meeting, said Sharaa avoided using the term “minority,” according to France-based La Croix International, a general-interest Catholic publication.

“He said that Christians and other groups are part of the Syrian people,” the archbishop told La Croix. “He is aware that we Christians are foundational to this country.”

Hope and skepticism

Rafif Jouejati, nonresident scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, expressed optimism about the public rallies to demand accountability.

"If you watch the demonstrations taking place in Syria, you see immediately that people are out freely expressing their views," she told VOA. "This is not something we've been able to do in half a century."

She also shared her belief that Syria is moving in the right direction, dismissing concerns about a country transitioning to an Islamist state.

But others aren't so sure.

Richard Ghazal, executive director of In Defense of Christians, told VOA there was no “difference [between HTS] and their organizational predecessor, Jabhat al-Nusra, which is the Nusra Front, al-Qaida or even [Islamic State].”

“They've taken the lessons from the mistakes of ISIS and al-Qaida," he said, using another term for Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS, ISIL, IS or Daesh. "They've used those to polish their message, their media engagement, and try to fool the West if not convince the West."

Although Sharaa was quick to emphasize the language of tolerance upon ousting Assad from power, declaring “a Syria for everyone” the day after taking Damascus, Ghazal says how they will govern remains to be seen.

Jouejati points to 2016, when HTS leaders distanced themselves from more radical militant groups.

"They have shown themselves to be far more moderate than their Islamist counterparts," she said. "We're observing a gradual shift away from any semblance of an Islamic dictatorship. Increasingly, they are beginning to resemble civilians more than soldiers."

Sanctions

U.S. officials recently lifted a $10 million bounty on Sharaa, a decision that top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East Barbara Leaf called a "policy decision" aimed at facilitating engagement with HTS.

U.N. Syria envoy Geir Pedersen in late December expressed hope for a swift end to the U.N. sanctions on Sharaa’s organization to help facilitate Syria's economic recovery.

But Syria's economic rebound, say some observers, also requires an inclusive constitutional framework.

“The main challenge today, of course, is putting together a government that is in accordance and in adherence with U.N. resolution 2254,” said Ghazal said, which “calls for a new Syrian government that actively involves the Syrian people and putting that government together with full sight and visibility to the international community and full transparency."

Jouejati envisions Syria evolving into a "Middle Eastern-style democracy."

“I believe we will have a country that is based on ... all human rights. I believe we have an opportunity to establish a state that is grounded on the rule of law, that incorporates transitional justice, that has free and fair elections, that has a separation of powers, and perhaps most importantly, a separation of religion and state,” she said.

The 2023 U.S. Department of State Report on International Religious Freedom regarding Syria notes that approximately 2.5% of the population remaining in the country are Christians.

Ghazal said he anticipates a new wave of emigration.

Signs of intolerance

Despite calls for inclusion by HTS leadership, Ghazal said signs of intolerance are already evident, including a ban on alcohol, the separation of women from men in public transport, and the presence of the Islamic State flags near some Damascus suburbs.

“This is very alarming that we're seeing this in Christian neighborhoods,” he told VOA. “Signs like this tell you that while violence has not been witnessed on a large scale just yet, I'm afraid it may be looming in the future."

Jouejati emphasized the importance of unity and a shared Syrian identity for the country's future.

“I believe that right now [the] minorities’ biggest problem is their own fears,” she told VOA. “We have seen and heard and, we've seen examples of this complete willingness to accept that there are Christian and other minorities. We have seen them being very respectful of everybody, not just minorities.”

Nadine Maenza, of the Washington-based International Religious Freedom Secretariat, recorded at least a dozen eyewitness accounts of attacks on religious and ethnic minorities in the Shehba region outside Aleppo in late December.

“Both HTS and the Turkish-backed militias have a history of severe religious violations against [minorities],” she told VOA. “Atrocities are continuing against Kurds, Yazidis, Christians, and other religious minorities, but particularly we are seeing them from the Turkish-backed Islamist militias.”

Ghazal said he anticipates an exodus of religious minorities from the country.

"The only reason the Christians who are currently in Syria have not migrated west to Europe, to the United States, Australia, it's not because they haven't wanted to,” he told VOA. “It's simply because they haven't had the opportunity. And that's the tragic part."

Jouejati, however, described the reports of harassment as isolated cases rather than a consistent pattern of broader intolerance.

“I have seen some individual incidents where spoilers have instigated trouble, but I’ve also seen communities banding together,” she told VOA. “Syrian Sunnis, who make up the majority, are reaching out to their Kurdish and Alawite and Christian and other counterparts to join hands. And I'm seeing an overwhelmingly positive response to being free of the Assad regime.”

Asked to comment about Sharaa's direct engagement with Christian leaders, Italian Archbishop Mario Zenari, the pope’s envoy to Syria, said the fact of the meeting itself speaks volumes.

“This event would have been unimaginable only three weeks ago and the bishops and priests ... left with a sense of hope for Syria's future,” Zenari, who met with Syria's top diplomat last month, told Vatican News.

This story originated in VOA's Armenian Service.