Christians have celebrated their Sunday services in Syria for the first time since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. This return is seen by many as an early test of the assurances given by the new Islamist rulers that the rights of minorities will be protected.
The end of the Ba'athist regime marks the beginning of a new relationship between religious minorities and government authorities. Despite the 1973 Constitution, implemented under Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad, dictating that the president must be of the Islamic faith and that Islamic jurisprudence should be a principal source of legislation, it also states that “the freedom of faith shall be protected. The state respects all religions.”
