DAMASCUS, Syria — Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Christian areas of Damascus early Tuesday to protest the burning of a Christmas tree near Hama in central Syria.
“We demand the rights of Christians,” protesters chanted as they marched through the Syrian capital towards the headquarters of the Orthodox Patriarchate in the Bab Sharqi neighborhood.
The protests come a little more than two weeks after an armed coalition led by Islamists toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad, who had cast himself as a protector of minorities in the Sunni-majority country, but whose regime was accused of brutally targeting and killing masses in the country’s civil war.
“We demand that Syria be for all Syrians. We want a voice in the future of our country,” said Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of the Syriac Orthodox Church as he addressed the crowd in a church courtyard, assuring them of Christians’ rights in Syria.
A demonstrator who gave his name as Georges told AFP he was protesting “injustice against Christians.”
“If we’re not allowed to live our Christian faith in our country, as we used to, then we don’t belong here anymore,” he said.
“We are here to demand a democratic and free government for one people and one nation,” another protester said. “We stand united — Muslims and Christians. No to sectarianism.”
The protests erupted after a video spread on social media showing hooded fighters setting fire to a Christmas tree in the Christian-majority town of Suqaylabiyah, near Hama.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the fighters were foreigners from the Islamist group Ansar al-Tawhid. However, the London-based SOHR, run by a single person, has regularly been accused by Syrian war analysts of false reporting.
In another video posted to social media, a religious leader from Syria’s victorious Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) addressed residents, claiming those who torched the tree were “not Syrian” and promising they would be punished.
“The tree will be restored and lit up by tomorrow morning,” he said.
The tree was reportedly later repaired and its lights turned on again.
The Islamist HTS movement, rooted in al-Qaeda and supported by Turkey, has promised to protect minorities since its lightning offensive toppled Assad this month following years of stalemate.