Syria 2012 International Religious Freedom Report

The constitution and other laws and policies protect religious freedom, although the government imposed restrictions on this right. The government’s respect for religious freedom declined during the year. The constitution provides for freedom of faith and religious practice as long as religious rites do not disturb the public order. The government increased its targeting and surveillance of members of faith groups it deemed a “threat,” including members of the country’s Sunni majority. This occurred concurrently with the escalation of the civil conflict that resulted in the regime killing 35,000 civilians between the start of the uprising in 2011 and year’s end. Such targeting included killing, detention, and harassment. There were credible reports that the regime targeted citizens based on religious affiliation in mixed neighborhoods in Homs and rural Aleppo. The government outlawed groups it claimed were “Muslim extremist groups,” as well as Jehovah’s Witnesses. It continued to monitor the activities of all religious groups and to discourage proselytizing, which it deemed a threat to relations among and within different faiths.

There were reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice. While opposition to the government began as a series of peaceful protests calling for reform and an end to regime abuses, the regime framed the protests and subsequent armed resistance in sectarian terms, maintaining that protesters and oppositionists were associated with “extreme Islamist factions.” At times, some protesters associated the entire Alawi minority with the regime, holding Alawis accountable for the regime’s brutality and killing of civilians. Consequently, Alawis were particularly targeted for reprisal as tensions, violence, and killing rose between Sunni and Alawi communities. The majority of those killed during the year were Alawi, Shia, or Sunni, although Christians, Druze, and Kurds were also victims. Societal pressure sometimes caused Muslim converts to Christianity to leave their places of residence. Reports of harassment of Christians, mostly in the context of ongoing political unrest, increased during the year.