{"id":2590196,"date":"2026-04-13T13:29:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/syrian-christians-forced-to-subdue-prayers-amid-persecution-threats\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T13:30:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:30:51","slug":"syrian-christians-forced-to-subdue-prayers-amid-persecution-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/syrian-christians-forced-to-subdue-prayers-amid-persecution-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrian Christians Forced to Subdue Prayers Amid Persecution Threats"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsyrian-christians-forced-to-subdue-prayers-amid-persecution-threats%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2590196&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In Syria, a late-March attack on Christians in Suqaylabiyah led Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox leaders too restrict Easter worship to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/uk-cardinal-urges-no-more-church-closings-over-coronavirus\/\" title=\"UK Cardinal Urges No More Church Closings over Coronavirus\">inside churches<\/a>. attacks by motorcyclists included gunfire, vandalism, and residents being forced to hide, following the expulsion of two Sunni villagers who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/asian-city-councilwoman-allegedly-harassed-by-social-justice-warrior-despite-increase-in-anti-asian-violence\/\" title=\"Asian ... Councilwoman Allegedly Harassed By Social Justice Warrior Despite Increase In Anti-Asian Violence\">allegedly harassed<\/a> a woman; the town\u2019s Greek Orthodox community was affected. In a statement,the Patriarchs urged that blessings accompany prayers within churches and stressed the need to curb unregulated weapons,safeguard security,and uphold the dignity,rights,and freedoms of all citizens. The piece frames this incident within broader persecution of Christians since the end of Bashar al-Assad\u2019s regime in 2024, noting demographic shifts as the Sunni-led government took over and Assad loyalists fled Suqaylabiyah, with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/veteran-congressman-faces-stiff-challenge-in-close-georgia-race\/\" title=\"Veteran Congressman Faces Stiff Challenge in Close Georgia Race\">population dropping<\/a> from about 20,000 to 16,000. It also <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >cites social media posts<\/a> about attacks on Christian properties and emphasizes that public Easter traditions are limited by ongoing tensions, while noting the Western and Eastern Easter dates (april 5 and April 12, respectively).  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>After an attack targeted at Christians rocked the nation of Syria, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox leaders within the country restricted worship on Easter to inside churches only.<\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenationalnews.com\/news\/mena\/2026\/03\/30\/syria-christians-al-shara\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> from The National, assailants on motorcycles carried out an attack in late March in Suqaylabiyah, a city in western Syria.<\/p>\n<p>They fired guns, damaged storefronts, and smashed cars as citizens were forced to hide &mdash; an attack which followed the expulsion of two Sunni villagers who allegedly entered the town and harassed a woman.<\/p>\n<p>The inhabitants of the village are largely Greek Orthodox.<\/p>\n<p>After the attack, the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox authorities said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Antiochpatriarchate.org\/posts\/pfbid0qpMngosro9qkvYvvnSZnEwmYxB1XN75JhcxoiYrKf7iLAojf9jvhBVh8bGQNZLx1l\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a> that &ldquo;the Patriarchs extended their blessings and greetings to the faithful, while directing that celebrations be limited exclusively to prayers within the churches.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\tif ( getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"anyclipvideo\").remove() \t\t\t} else { \t\t\t\tdocument.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\", function() { \t\t\t\t\tfunction loadAnyclip() { \t\t\t\t\t\tconst container=document.getElementById(\"anyclipvideo\"); \t\t\t\t\t\tif (!container) return; 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\t\t\t\t\tobserveElement(paragraphToObserve); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">On the eve of Palm Sunday and Holy Week, in the ancient Christian town of Suqaylabiyah, Syria, groups of armed Islamists are attacking Christian shops, homes, and churches. The Al-Qaeda\/ISIS-aligned Syrian government is encouraging these attacks and has been a catastrophic&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TPHukOiLx6\">pic.twitter.com\/TPHukOiLx6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Iraqi Christian Foundation (@iraqschristians) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iraqschristians\/status\/2037788547533418663?\">March 28, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;With deep concern and a sense of responsibility, the Patriarchs addressed the challenges facing Syria that threaten the country&rsquo;s d coexistence between Muslims and Christians,&rdquo; the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;They emphasized the urgent need to control unregulated weapons and to maintain security and stability. They also stressed the importance of safeguarding the dignity of all citizens without exception.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The statement added that &ldquo;this must be grounded in the principles of citizenship, equal rights and duties, and respect for both personal and public freedoms.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>That means Syrian Christians cannot enjoy marching bands and egg hunts in the streets &mdash; traditions which usually mark the resurrection of Jesus in their country.<\/p>\n<p>Easter for western Christians was on April 5, and eastern Christians will celebrate the holiday on April 12.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">BREAKING:<\/p>\n<p>Armed attack on the Christian city of Suqaylabiyah in Hama, Syria.<\/p>\n<p>HTS-aligned residents of Qalaat al-Madiq were seen attacking properties belonging to the Christian population in Suqaylabiyah.<\/p>\n<p>They also targeted a statue of the Virgin Mary in the city.<\/p>\n<p>The attack&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tEm1C6mdbX\">pic.twitter.com\/tEm1C6mdbX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Visegr&aacute;d 24 (@visegrad24) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visegrad24\/status\/2037671602230276461?\">March 27, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Christians in Syria have faced heightened persecution since the end of Bashar Al Assad&rsquo;s regime at the end of 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Assad was an Alawite &mdash; an offshoot of Shia Islam &mdash; meaning that religious minorities were treated relatively better under his governance.<\/p>\n<p>The population of Suqaylabiyah has declined from 20,000 to 16,000 after the new Sunni Muslim government took over, which prompted Assad loyalists in the town to flee.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey==typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts={ \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs=[ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i=0; i <inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]]=document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display='block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src=firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id']=firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting=jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display='block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following a violence targeting Christians in Syria, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox leaders ordered Easter celebrations to be held only inside churches. The attack took place in late March in Suqaylabiyah, a western Syrian city, where assailants on motorcycles fired guns, damaged storefronts, and frightened residents after two Sunni villagers allegedly harassed a woman. The town\u2019s population is largely Greek Orthodox. In a joint statement, the Patriarchs blessed the faithful but said celebrations should be limited to church prayers, and they urged tighter control of unregulated weapons, as well as security, dignity for all citizens, and adherence to the principles of citizenship and equal rights and freedoms.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, traditional public Easter festivities, such as marching bands and egg hunts, may not be possible for Syrian Christians this year. Western Christians celebrated Easter on April 5, while Eastern Christians observed it on April 12.<\/p>\n<p>Contextually, Christians in Syria have faced increased persecution since the end of Bashar al-Assad\u2019s regime in 2024. The Alawite-led regime\u2019s departure is noted as having altered the treatment of religious minorities, and Suqaylabiyah\u2019s population reportedly declined from about 20,000 to 16,000 after the new Sunni government took over, prompting some Assad loyalists to flee. The report also references social-media posts describing the attack and ongoing tensions in the region. If you\u2019d like, I can condense this further or tailor it for a specific audience<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2590197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/default_wj.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546,33651],"tags":[73799,19118,11817,75807,77689],"class_list":["post-2590196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","category-the-western-journal","tag-middle-east-2","tag-persecution","tag-prayer","tag-religious-freedom-2","tag-syrian-christians"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/default_wj.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2590196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2590196"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2590196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2590200,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2590196\/revisions\/2590200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2590197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2590196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2590196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2590196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}