Trump meets Syrian leader as Christians face persecution and exodus

As President, the United States has a rare and critical opportunity to protect at-risk religious minorities in Syria Donald Trump He will meet Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa at the White House on Monday.

This represents an important step in Syria’s turbulent history After the fall of the Assad regime last December.

Supporting a federal system of government that decentralizes power will help ensure the survival of Christians, Druze, and other vulnerable communities. Until decentralization efforts are established, the self-defense capabilities of these religious minorities are essential to protect them from sectarian violence and “religious cleansing.”

President Donald Trump is expected to meet with interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the White House. (Ping Guan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images; Aaron Schwartz/CNB/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

your The new Syrian government Looking to rebuild a nation torn apart by years of civil war, and after a summer of heinous persecution, President Trump’s role in ensuring the fate of Syria’s religious minorities, especially Christians, has never been more important.

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In June, a suicide bomber entered a Greek Orthodox church outside Damascus and blew himself up. The force killed 25 people and injured 65 others in its aftermath. The crowd, filled with sadness, was sorting out the bodies of worshipers scattered among the shards of stained glass and rubble, while the eyes of the icon of the Holy Prophet Elias overlooked the blood-stained church. Charred Bibles and shoes blown off the victims’ feet were piled up in a horrific memorial to the horrific massacre.

Just one month later, the Greek Melkite Church of St. Michael, located in the Druze-majority area of ​​Suwayda, was looted and set on fire. The fire engulfed the Holy Sanctuary and sparked a new wave of religious violence.

Before the civil war began in 2011, more than 1.5 million people, 10% of Syria’s population, were Christians. Today, less so 300,000 Christians remained.

Syria is the oldest homeland of Christians outside of Israel. It was on the road to Damascus where Christ called the Apostle Paul. It was in Antioch (in what is now modern Türkiye) that followers of Christ were first called Christians. The Patriarchate of Antioch was the first pentecostal patriarchate in the first centuries of the Church.

Syria is the cradle of Christianity. Christians cannot stand idly by while their oldest traditions and peoples suffer.

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For Christianity to disappear From Syria it would be like the disappearance of philosophy from Athens or freedom from America – it would mean the erasure of one of the living foundations of Western civilization.

Although the geopolitical ramifications still exist, the question no longer exists if Christians in Syria will survive, however how long Can they withstand continued repression without major reforms? The price of cooperation with the United States must be Shara’s commitment to ensuring the protection of religious minorities in Syria.

Since sanctions were lifted in June, President Trump has the political leverage to make hybrid governance a condition for limiting future sanctions or providing reconstruction aid.

By developing a model for the scheme of existing local councils that manage daily affairs with the support of regional authorities, Reconstruction in Syria It represents a unique opportunity to strengthen national unity by first stabilizing local communities and giving Christians and other religious minorities a voice in their governance.

This approach ensures that the United States supports reconstruction while also protecting human rights in vulnerable communities.

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It is wise for the new Syrian leadership to adhere to this model of governance.

A federal Syria would consist of autonomous provinces, each with the authority to govern itself and protect its people. Syrian Christians are often left unprotected. Federalism stabilizes minority groups, so that no single group, whether remnants of the Alawite leadership of the Assad regime or Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham fighters, can take control by force. Parliamentary elections in Syria this year exacerbated these concerns, with minorities citing a lack of representation in what appears to be an “attempt to reproduce dictatorship.”

Northeastern Syria provides a practical example of what federalism can achieve. In areas once ruled by ISIS, their local councils have built stability by ensuring representation for every community – Kurds, Arabs, Christians and Yazidis alike. These structures have promoted peace and social trust where chaos once reigned. Dismantling it would erase years of progress. Instead, integrating this model into a national federal framework would strengthen the country’s unity without returning to central control or empowering the remnants of the old regime.

Syria has historically had a more integrated society. This provides an opportunity to establish a solid foundation for decentralization that ensures local autonomy while respecting national identity and without undermining the state.

The complex array of players in Syria, including Russia, Iran, Turkey, and the United States, is more focused on strategic alliances and territorial control than on strategic alliances and territorial control. And deepening sectarian divisions. This gives Syria a unique opportunity to establish a decentralized model capable of stabilizing internal and external interests and protecting its minorities.

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Al-Shara’a’s radical opposition to federalism stems from his view that local autonomy would threaten national unity and sovereignty. But federalism is actually the way forward to preserve a diverse Syria. Without local control and protection, religious minorities, especially Christians, will be forced to flee, as has happened everywhere else in the world. The Middle East.

The Syrian model should show a new way for religious minorities to survive in the region.

Striking a balance between local autonomy and national unity would create a future in which religious minorities are no longer at the mercy of groups in power, but are instead able to fend for themselves and establish a stable, pluralistic society. The Kurdistan region of Iraq is a very successful model of how this can work in Syria.

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The tears of Syrian Christians – the mothers tending the graves, the fathers wandering through the rubble, the sons and daughters lost in exile – water the familiar ground of the killing of innocents. As the hour of peace dawns through President Trump’s meeting with Sharaa, we pray for lasting peace for all Syrians, majority and minority.

Decentralization is not just another option. It is a necessity if Christians are to remain in this ancient homeland.

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Nadine Mainza is president of the Institute for Global Engagement, co-chair of the International Religious Freedom Roundtable and former chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.