As you will no doubt have noticed, Syria is in chaos. Much like the “Arab Spring” that looked so hopeful, the truth is that one oppressive regime has been overthrown leaving a vacuum for another to come in its place. As believers we cannot afford to be jubilant just yet, even though the fallen Assad regime was evil in the extreme.

Looking at Syria with the word of God in our hands at the situation, how can we pray?

What was

Before Assad’s regime met its timely (and welcome) end, he had been wielding brutal force over an unwilling people for decades. Assad and his cohorts were in the minority, the Alawite sect of Shiite Islam controlling a larger Sunni majority. They stayed in power by meting out eye watering cruelty on their opponents in order to suppress dissent. When the Sunnis rose up in Hama, Assad had 10,000 slaughtered in one day, sending a strong message to any other rebels that wanted to try their luck. But the Sunni majority could not hold back and in 2010 a civil war broke out that lasted for ten years, displacing hundreds of thousands of Syrian people.

Assad used chemical weapons on his own people and terrible torture. Now inmates held captive in the infamous Sadnaya prison are being released back to their homes and families, but the horrors that have been found there beggar belief. Some are still trapped in underground dungeons despite ongoing attempts to rescue them. As his statue was toppled and dragged through the streets, it’s hard to think that anyone might be sorry Assad has gone. It happened so quickly, thanks to the weakening of Iran and Hezbollah by Israel.

We can pray for the release of those who have been unfairly imprisoned, some for decades.

Pray for healing for the thousands who have been bereaved and traumatized.

Pray for the hundreds of thousands who were displaced as refugees, to find a permanent home.

What is now

A coalition of rebels who have evolved from Al Qaeda have successfully overthrown Assad’s evil regime. However, as you might suspect, they haven’t entirely left their Al Qaeda roots behind and both the Syrian National Army (SNA) and the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of the Islamic State have been led to victory by Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. Al-Jolani, who takes his name from the Golan Heights (which Syria considers to be theirs) has assured the west that they will respect diversity and human rights. But if this is sounding a bit like what the Taliban did in Afghanistan, there are good reasons. These rebel groups are essentially Turkish-funded jihadists, whichever way you look at it.

There are ISIS veterans fighting with HTS and neither group should be trusted to care for Christians or minorities as equals. Moreover, hostility towards Israel remains strong, with rebels assuring Hamas fighters that they’re coming to Jerusalem to liberate them too.

HTS Islamist Militants in Damascus Declare: We Will Enter Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, and the Kaaba in Mecca, Just Like We Entered the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus pic.twitter.com/5JO9iWULx0

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) December 9, 2024

In short, what we have now is a volatile situation, fraught with danger for Israel and particularly for Kurds, Christians, Druze and Yazidis. The outlook does not look good for women and minorities, and especially not for Muslims who have come to faith in Jesus.

Pray for all minorities, for safety and freedom in the new situation in Syria

Pray for the protection of Israel as weapons could now come in through Jordan to the West Bank to attack Israel.

That there would not be a proliferation of chemical and strategic weapons to Jihadi terrorists.

Pray against a Turkish invasion into Syria, especially NE Syria through SNA rebels.

Pray that the new rebel coalition would not try to take back the Golan Heights, but seek peace with Israel.

What could be

There is a third player in the Syria saga, and that’s a Kurdish held region in the north east of the country, to the east of the Euphrates river. The Autonomous Administration of North East Syria (AANES) as it is known has been allied with and supported by the US and western allies especially in the fight against ISIS. It’s not an officially recognized state, even though it effectively acts like one.

Charmaine Hedding who founded The Shai Fund¹, an organization that ​​supports those affected by war, conflict, disaster, persecution, and exploitation, has been partnering with local communities in Syria over the last 20 years to provide urgent aid, practical support, and humanitarian assistance. Shai means “gift” in Biblical Hebrew, and refers to the greatest gift of all: Jesus. Charmaine and her team are working night and day to organize practical support for Christians and minorities such as Yazidis, Druze, and the Kurds who are left vulnerable by the situation. She encourages Christians everywhere to support this Kurdish enclave in north east Syria, and to pray that their style of governance, which is committed to freedom and equality for minorities, would spread throughout Syria:

“The one part of Syria that is democratic and has values like we have: freedom of religion and belief, inclusion for women, participation of all religious minorities according to their 2012 social contract is North East Syria. It’s from there that the US bases have been able to form the coalition forces. They joined up with North Eastern Syria to fight ISIS. These are the people we should be actively supporting, not these Jihadist groups.”

“That’s where there are many evangelical churches, that Andrew Brunson and others supported, they have freedom of religion there, Muslim converts are able to openly worship Christ there,” she explained to All Israel News². “This is the best governance and the people who practice it in the region it’s a model of inclusiveness, participative governance and religious freedom.”

Charmaine encourages us to pray especially for the Kurdish Administration of North East Syria at this time, that their system of governance would be able to spread throughout the whole country and bring freedom to everyone.

Praying for the Kurds and for Israel at this time

The Kurdish people trace their ancestry to ancient Medes of the biblical Medo-Persian empire fame, the ones who sent the magi to worship Jesus, Michael Niebur tells me. Michael is Jewish Israeli with an Armenian Turkish wife and has learned a lot about the region over the years. He has been studying biblical prophecy and connecting believers in the region for decades. The story that unites Israel and the Kurds goes back two and a half millennia, when Jewish people lived in what would later become Kurdistan. A Jewish community was there until 1950, and with the Kurds having similar aspirations for statehood, Israel is seen as an ally and an inspiration.

“Pray for israel because our internal divisions are so serious,” Michael urges, pointing to the fact that over 60% of Israelis believe our own country’s problems are even more serious than the existential threats we face all around us. “Israel is extremely important,” he continues. “If Israel falls everyone loses hope. We are the democratic experiment they’re all watching because they don’t have that in their own countries. It’s a place where Muslim background believers are free.

Mike warned of the danger to believers: “Salafis tend to get names quickly and go after them, so pray for divine protection over the traditional Christian communities and also for Muslim background believers in the north of Syria.”

He also reminds us that the fulfillment of prophecy often comes out of time  of judgement and war, the clashing of kingdoms. He pointed to prophecies in Isaiah 19, Jeremiah 49, and the famous prophecy in Isaiah 17 about the destruction of Damascus, something that has never happened in history even till this day, but we are keeping our eyes open. Yet times of redemption come at times like these: with every judgement there’s always a remnant, and a kernel of hope.

 An oracle concerning Damascus.

Michael also refers to Matthew 24 where Jesus describes the beginning of end, with evil increasing, deception rampant, but also the gospel of the kingdom preached in all nations.

We need to pray into God’s redemptive purposes for Israel and other nations, that God would bring forth an alliance of nations that will allow the gospel to be freely preached.

It’s important for us as believers to be alert at this time, to watch and pray, not allowing our first love for Jesus to grow cold (Matthew 24:10). Michael expressed his hope that Christians wouldn’t stop being sent to the region at this time when it’s most dangerous, saying, “It’s at times like these that people are losing faith in Islam. It’s difficult and scary to go, but pray that laborers would be released in to the harvest.”

Pray then,

For workers to be sent to the harvest in Syria and the region, and for open hearts to the gospel

For the Kurdish area of Syria to be protected

For God’s redemptive purposes for Israel, Syria and the surrounding nations

1. https://www.theshaifund.org
2. All Israel News, Syrian Christians face new threats amid fall of Assad regime, Jo Elizabeth, December 9, 2024

Picture: Omar Ramadan on Unsplash