There are moments when the world must look past its abstractions, beyond ceasefires, summits, and slogans, and confront the stark truth: evil has not vanished, and in Syria, it just walked into a church and pulled the trigger.
On Sunday morning, during Divine Liturgy at Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus, a gunman stormed in, opened fire, and detonated a suicide vest. At least 22 people were murdered. Another 60 were injured. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility.
And so, the Damascus church attack becomes a defining event, not just in Syria’s transition, but in the moral bankruptcy of the West’s response to Islamist violence.
The Illusion of Security
Since Assad’s fall in late 2024, Syria’s new transitional leadership, backed by European governments eager for closure, promised a “pluralist rebirth.” It appointed token Christians, whispered the right words, and was handsomely rewarded with aid, legitimacy, and media praise.
Meanwhile, Islamic State cells rebuilt underground.
Now, with a massacre in the heart of Damascus, those illusions lie in ruin. Despite prior warnings from Christian groups, no preventive measures were taken. No security outside churches. No credible monitoring of radicalized returnees. The regime’s passivity is not a sign of weakness, but complicity born of ideological blindness.
The Silence of the West
Let us be clear: a church bombing in Europe would trigger international outrage. When it’s in Damascus, it’s buried behind football scores and weather reports.
Why? Because the victims are Christian, and the perpetrators claim Islam.
We no longer speak honestly. Christian suffering in the Middle East is treated as a footnote, too awkward, too politically inconvenient. But history is clear: where churches burn, so too does civilization. And if Damascus falls to fear, others will follow.
This isn’t just about Syria. This is about what we choose to protect.
If the Syrian regime cannot, or will not, defend its Christian population, it deserves no recognition. And if the West continues to look away, it will find, one day, that it has no churches left to defend.
