DAMASCUS — “If the explosion had occurred in the street, I could have made sense of it. But for it to happen inside a church while people are praying…”
Rama, who didn’t want to give her real name, said that most of the people inside Mar Elias Church when it was attacked Sunday were either elderly regular attendees or young men and women participating in scout training.
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Rama had just attended the wake of Simon Haddad, one of the elderly victims of the explosion, which killed 27 and injured 60, according to the latest toll from the Syrian Ministry of Health.
According to his daughters, Simon was sitting as he usually did in the last row inside the church when the suicide bomber entered and detonated himself, killing him immediately,
Like many Syrian Christians, Rama says she has been in a state of shock and fear since the bombing that targeted the Greek Orthodox Church in the Dweila neighborhood of Damascus.
The Syrian Ministry of Interior announced that members of a terror cell affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) had been arrested for involvement in the church bombing while unverified statements circulated claiming that an ISIS faction named “Ansar al-Sunna” took responsibility.
Yet despite the arrests and even personal phone calls by interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa to the victims’ families, a visit to the Christian neighborhoods of Damascus reveals a growing sense of insecurity.
Of course, Christians are not the only group to be targeted since the fall of the Assad regime late last year. There have been massacres in Syria’s coastal region that affected the Alawites sect of Muslims, as well as simmering tensions in Sweida with Druze groups.
Life and death in Dweila
Dweila is a Damascus neighborhood located next to the famous Bab Sharqi district, and has long been home to a Christian majority who’ve come from various provinces of Syria. The neighborhood is characterized by unregulated urban development and difficult economic conditions — the main reason its residents left their villages for the capital in search of jobs and a more stable life.
Today, the Dweila neighborhood is in mourning, as its young men hang white ribbons to announce the death of loved ones. Beyond the sounds of people crying, one can also hear residents whisper about their fears triggered by the targeting of the church. Some ask “Why us?,” while others are pointing fingers. One resident recalls a car that roamed the neighborhood two months ago with loudspeakers calling for conversion to Islam before it was banned from broadcasting. “Did they come to take revenge on us?”
Did what happened occur with the approval of our country’s leaders? Or was it the result of negligence?
“In my opinion, the responsibility lies with the government. Didn’t they say we became a real state?,” says one resident. “So where is the Ministry of Interior? Where are the intelligence agencies? If the authorities were able to arrest the perpetrators and planners so quickly, that means they had the ability to prevent what happened.”
The real question, says says Marcel S., a sixth-year student at the Faculty of Human Medicine, boils down to this: “Did what happened occur with the approval of our country’s leaders? Or was it the result of negligence by a rogue element?”
Marcel is not the only one who feels that Syria’s new leaders have not fulfilled their duty — Christian voices accusing the authorities of negligence now include Orthodox Archimandrite Malathius Shtahi. This church leader says the problem began when the state failed to protect people from what were called “individual incidents.” He said: “After remaining silent about what were called individual events, I’m not surprised we’ve reached this point.”
Rama said that at the wake, the atmosphere was charged with anger toward the government. “But people are afraid to express it in the open. And when a group from the authority entered, silence prevailed — no one dared to show discontent because they’re afraid.”
Image polishing
Rama says that Christians have watched with skepticism as the new government — led by former Islamist militants — tries to polish its image. “I used to reassure my family and relatives and convince them that this government is not extremist,” she said. “But today I can no longer say that. I’m no longer convinced by my own words.”
Marcel also blames official state-run Syrian news channels, which have been fueling sectarian rhetoric. One political analyst who appeared on air said that Christians were targeted because of “their failure to join the minority alliance” — referring to the Alawites and Druze — which was understood as an implicit justification for the attack instead of a clear condemnation.
I’m seriously considering leaving the country.
Marcel is one of thousands of young people whose lives were consumed by war. He had pinned great hopes on liberation and change, but the bombing of Mar Elias Church is part of a disturbing pattern. “What worries me most now is the fear of a repeat — that we’ll be the victims next time,” he said. “At this moment, I’m seriously considering leaving the country.”
Not all dead Syrians are “martyrs”
One of the debates that emerged immediately after the bombing was the government’s refusal to use the term “martyrs” for the victims of the Mar Elias Church — despite its previous use of the term in statements for victims belonging to the Sunni sect.
While many insist that the word “martyr” might not matter to Christian families, it’s troubling in today’s context that the government has decided to apply this title to citizens of a certain religion and not another.
Says Marcel: “The authorities’ refusal to name the victims as martyrs and their fear of meeting this simple popular demand clearly demonstrate the discrimination between the country’s citizens and the treatment of non-Muslims as second-class citizens.”
