Pastor Edward Awabdeh had just finished serving Communion at the Evangelical Christian Alliance Church when he noticed members fiddling with their phones and whispering nervously to their neighbors. Many in the Damascus, Syria, church had received notifications of a suicide bombing at the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox church, located only 15 minutes away.
Syrian security forces suddenly entered from the rear of the church and evacuated the congregation within a few minutes. But even as congregants filed out peacefully, many feared for their friends’ and relatives’ safety at Mar Elias, where they learned that the June 22 bombing last year had killed 22 Christians and wounded at least 60 others.
“This was our hardest day,” Awabdeh said. “But most concerning is the general atmosphere of extremism [in the country].”
Persecution monitor Open Doors agrees. In the 2026 edition of its annual World Watch List (WWL), the nonprofit listed Syria at No. 6, up from last year’s ranking of No. 18. The country is the only newcomer to the top 10 most dangerous places to be a Christian and received a near-maximum score of 90 in Open Doors’ methodology.
In Open Doors’ previous reporting cycle, which ends each September, zero Syrian Christians died for faith-related reasons. For the 2026 report, Open Doors verified at least 27 deaths of believers.
The fall of the Assad regime in Syria occurred in December 2024. Shortly after, Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of the rebel coalition and head of the jihadist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) appointed himself as the country’s interim president and established Islamic jurisprudence as the main source of legislation in the transitional constitution.
Open Doors stated that power remains fragmented in the country, leaving space for extremists to harass Christians. Fear prevails among the few Christians who remain in the northwest city of Idlib, where the HTS base also contains ISIS cells and a Turkish military presence, as well as in central Syria due to a lack of local security and extremist intimidation.
In the larger cities of Damascus and Aleppo, Islamist actors have called for conversion to Islam through trucks laden with loudspeakers in Christian neighborhoods. They have placed posters on churches demanding payment of the sharia-mandated jizyah tax (historically levied on non-Muslims) for those who refuse.
The situation for Christians is more tolerable in Syria’s coastland regions and the Kurdish-ruled northeast, Open Doors stated. Still, Syrian authorities closed 14 Christian schools in the northeast that refused to adopt a new Kurdish curriculum, denying education to thousands of students.
Awabdeh has hope for Syria. Evangelicals enjoy “ten times” more freedom now than under Assad, he said. Authorities sent security forces to guard all Christian areas during Christmas, and the head of police in Damascus visited his church to offer holiday greetings. Officials also recently gave permission to build a community center on Alliance-owned land in the capital, which the previous regime had denied for more than three decades.
Yet Awabdeh remains troubled that the government is not reining in extremism. Officials say all the right things about minorities’ rights, he says, but there was little accountability following the Syrian forces’ massacre of Alawites last March and during armed militias’ killings of Druze Muslims last July.
In the southwest region of Druze-majority Sweida, armed men entered the apartment of one of Awabdeh’s church members and held him at gunpoint. They stole everything and destroyed all the Christian symbols in his home. A moderate Muslim shaykh told Awabdeh that some Islamic militants believe they have the right to loot non-Muslim properties. Syrian
Christian emigration continues to grow. Open Doors estimates that only…
This article was originally published at Christianity Today on January 14, 2026. Please click here to read the full text.
Jayson Casper 