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A Christmas tree was lit in Hama city of Syria on Monday evening.
There was a huge uproar on Tuesday in protest against burning of Christmas trees in Hama city of Syria. Thousands of people from the Christian community took to the streets in protest. People demonstrated with Syrian flags and crosses, a symbol of Christianity.
At the same time, HTS, the rebel group that ousted Syria’s Assad government, has claimed to have detained the accused involved in this incident. The Islamic organization said that the people who carried out the arson were foreign fighters. He has been taken into custody.
HTS assured the protesters that the Christmas tree would be repaired soon, but despite this, thousands of protesters are on the streets of Syria. Their demand is that religious minorities should be protected in the new Islamic regime.
Earlier, a video had gone viral on social media in which two masked people were setting fire to a Christmas tree in the Christian-dominated Sulabiya city.
People demonstrated against burning of Christmas trees in Hama city of Syria.
Playing with our cultural and religious sentiments – protesters
While talking to news agency AFP, a person named Georgis said-
If we are not allowed to practice Christianity in our country, then we will not have any relation with this country.
Another protester said that Syria is a free country and those who do not belong here should leave the country. He said this about foreign fighters. In fact, many foreign fighters were also helping HTS to remove the Assad government.
Another protester said that this was not just an incident of burning a tree. Our cultural and religious sentiments have been tampered with. People of many religions and sects live in Syria, including Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Christians, Druze, Shia and Arab Sunnis.
About 1.5 million Christians lived in Syria before the civil war started in 2011. These were 10% of the total population. In the last 14 years it has reduced to less than 2%. At present there is about three lakh Christian population in the country. Most of them live in Damascus and surrounding areas. In the second largest city, Aleppo, their population fell from 12% to 1.4% in 2023.
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