Christian Communities Face Extinction Amid Brutal Persecution

Christianity is at risk of being “wiped out” in parts of the world due to intensifying persecution, the United Kingdom’s special envoy for freedom of religion or belief, David Smith, has warned. The situation is particularly dire in Syria, where the Christian community has faced brutal attacks since the fall of the Assad regime.

Syrian Christians (Photo: AFP)

In some parts of the world, Christianity is at risk of being “wiped out” due to intensifying persecution, the United Kingdom’s special envoy for freedom of religion or belief, David Smith, has warned. The British government is now targeting 10 countries as part of its revised foreign policy focus to defend this human right, reports the international V4NA news agency .

 The situation of Christians is particularly dire in Syria (Photo: Antoni Lallican/Hans Lucas) 

Smith, a Labour Party MP, announced that the government’s new plan will prioritize freedom of religious beliefs in countries where religious minorities, including Christians, Bahaʼis and Ahmadiyya Muslims, face repression or violence, the Religion Media Centre reported.

Smith said the United Kingdom will focus on ten countries, naming Vietnam, Algeria, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Iraq. He said these were selected because of the severity of need, the UK's diplomatic ties and the possibility of making progress. He added that persecution, carried out both by governments and social groups, can involve harassment by police, social ostracism, detention without cause, denial of citizenship, torture, attacks on places of worship and even killings, citing research by the Pew Research Center.

He cited recent data showing that 380 million Christians face persecution worldwide and warned, that

persecution on the basis of religion or belief, enacted by states themselves and social groups, is taking place on every continent in the world.

Smith called the UK’s commitment “a new chapter” in foreign policy and said freedom of religion was interlinked with other liberties, including freedom of speech, conscience and assembly. Freedom of religious belief is not merely about religious belief but about the health of societies, Smith explained.

Religious intolerance and persecution can fuel instability and conflict,

he said.

Fear Intensifies in Syria

In June, at least 25 people were killed and more than 60 injured when a suicide bomber opened fire and then detonated himself inside the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Elias in Dweilaa, Syria.

“I was in the middle of preaching when the shooting began,” recalled Father Baselios, priest of the nearby Church of Saint Joseph, close to the site of the attack.

Then came the screams. Everyone instinctively dropped to the ground. The fear was indescribable. We were all in shock, paralyzed by horror. The moment that truly broke me was when a child — one of those who had lost their families — ran to me and said, ‘Hide me, Father, I don’t want to die,’

the priest said, according to a report by Open Doors.

“I’ve lost all hope that life is still possible for us here,” said a young, terrified Christian woman who had heard the gunfire and explosion. “This is just the beginning of the end,” added another woman.

The rising tensions across Syria—particularly in the south—are increasingly threatening Christian communities. Yet their persecution did not begin recently. Since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, anti-Christian attacks and massacres have intensified, especially at the hands of the Islamist group HTS. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), at least 1,500 people have been killed in these attacks, with the death toll likely to rise.

The massacres are partly driven by revenge, as HTS fighters view the Alawites as loyalists of Bashar al-Assad, the dictator ousted last December.

However, according to the aid organization Global Christian Relief (GCR), the attacks now target more than just the Alawites — they are also intended to terrorize and destroy Christian minorities.

Two-thousand-year-old communities now face existential threats. Churches are being vandalized, Christians are being killed, and many are fleeing their homes.

The new government’s promises to protect religious minorities have not materialized, and the international community has failed to act effectively. The Christian population has drastically declined—from 10 percent of the total population 14 years ago to just 2 percent today.

In early July, Christian communities were confronted with a chilling development.

In the Syrian city of Safita, leaflets were found pinned to church doors. They called for the killing of Christians — regardless of age — the enslavement of women, and the looting of homes, all in the name of religion.

80% of Syria’s Christians, who were 10% of the population just 14 years ago, fled the country during Assad’s war. Now the Islamists are coming for the rest of them.

Tell me again about the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea of Jewish self-determination. https://t.co/jgnzCEltSv

— Haviv Rettig Gur (@havivrettiggur) July 7, 2025

Cover photo: Syrian Christians (Photo: AFP)