6/25/2025 Syria (International Christian Concern) — A lone gunman wearing explosives entered the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church near Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, opening fire on congregants before detonating his suicide vest. The attack killed at least 25 worshipers and wounded more than 60 others. According to sources, about 350 people were in the church at the time of the attack. 

Governments around the world quickly condemned the incident, calling it a terrorist attack and expressing concern for the fragile state of coexistence among various communities in the country.  

“These terrible acts of cowardice have no place in the new tapestry of integrated tolerance and inclusion that Syrians are weaving,” said Tom Barrack, U.S. Special Envoy for Syria. 

Though Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa was quick to speak out against the attack and offer his condolences to the church’s survivors, church leaders condemned Sharaa for failing to provide sufficient protection for the country’s Christian community. In his comments the day after the attack, Sharaa called it a crime but did not reference the targeting of Christians or mention that it took place in a church. 

“Mr. President, you spoke yesterday by phone … to express your condolences. That is not enough for us,” Patriarch John (X) Yazigi said at the funeral for the victims, as quoted by Reuters. “We are grateful for the phone call. But the crime that took place is a little bigger than that.” 

Though no group immediately claimed responsibility for the incident, Syrian government officials and others blamed the Islamic State group. Government forces raided an Islamic State hideout soon after the attack and killed two fighters, including one who purportedly played a supportive role in the church bombing. 

Concerns of Islamic State Resurgence 

While the international community celebrated the fall of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to rebel forces in December 2024, concern quickly mounted that terrorist groups such as Islamic State might exploit the unrest to regain power in the country. 

Though it lost the last of its territory in 2019, Islamic State has continued to operate across much of the Middle East and has grown aggressively in Africa in recent years. Exploiting regions plagued by poverty and militant unrest, the group has continued to coordinate terrorist attacks like the one on Sunday near Damascus. 

Islamic State views the shifting power structure in Syria as an opportunity for resurgence, according to more than 20 sources interviewed by Reuters, and has “started reactivating fighters in both countries, identifying targets, distributing weapons and stepping up recruitment and propaganda efforts.” 

The group has so far proven less capable of launching attacks in 2025 than during the same period in 2024. Dozens of plots in Syria have already been foiled, according to security officials, and the group conducted attacks at three times the pace last year, according to SITE Intelligence Group. 

Still, Sunday’s bombing stands as a high-profile example of Islamic State’s continued capabilities and the limits of government security forces in fully protecting the country’s many religious minority communities. 

Adding to concerns over a potential Islamic State resurgence, the U.S. has indicated that it plans to cut its roughly 2,000-strong troop presence in half by the end of 2025. 

U.S. support for anti-terrorism operations has been critical in recent years, and the potential drawdown has increased observers’ concerns that Islamic State may attempt to free some or all of the 9,000 Islamic State fighters and their families currently being held by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). 

SDF prison guards paid by the U.S. briefly saw their salaries eliminated due to a U.S. foreign aid reduction earlier this year, before being restored, with U.S. officials describing the incident as a mistake. Continued U.S. support for the massive prison camps is seen by many as essential to managing the threat posed by Islamic State in the coming years. 

Uncertainty for Syria’s Minority Communities 

Adding to the concern for Syrian Christians and other minority communities is the fact that President Sharaa himself began his career as an Islamic State fighter in Iraq, only returning to Syria to help establish the group in his home country. While he has since disavowed the group and most recently led his own militant faction separate from Islamic State, the association remains and casts doubt on his current claims to value diversity and minority rights. 

While Sharaa’s new government has promised to protect religious minorities and their place in society, such an inclusive effort must overcome decades of intercommunal tension and is far from a guaranteed success. 

Sharaa has made numerous statements extolling the virtues of religious tolerance and has taken concrete steps to ensure the safety of minorities. “Diversity is our strength, not a weakness,” Sharaa declared in an edict upon capturing Aleppo en route to Damascus. 

Still, HTS-aligned fighters reportedly went door to door in Damascus asking residents to identify their faith, suggesting that religion may continue to be a source of tension. Sharaa is an avowed proponent of Salafi-jihadist ideology and has much deeper roots as a persecutor of religion than a promoter of its free practice. 

Part of the inconsistent messaging may stem from the fact that Sharaa has always focused more on opposing the Assad regime than on clearly establishing a positive vision for the country’s future. 

Some analysts predict that Sharaa’s deep roots in Islamic jihad will lead to further attacks on ethnic and religious minority communities. 

Others argue that his primary concern will be rebuilding a country torn by decades of war — something that will require international cooperation and may incentivize him to respect international human rights norms. 

As the international community watches to see what type of government will replace the Assad regime, hundreds of thousands of religious minorities in Syria are watching too. For them, the new government’s respect for religious freedom is an intensely personal unknown. 

Should Sharaa continue to signal support for the rights of Christians and other minorities, it would represent a fundamental shift for the better. But that outcome is far from guaranteed — and a reversion to his former ties with Islamic State and al-Qaida would be disastrous for these already vulnerable communities that suffered so much under Assad. 

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