The Damascene scholar Sheikh Muhammad Khair Al-Sha’al was subjected to verbal assault and exclusion by individuals affiliated with the Salafi movement. He was expelled from a mosque in the town of Qarah in Rural Damascus on October 30, 2025, due to his adherence to the Ash‘ari school of theology. The incident did not stop there — the attack was repeated the next day, October 31, 2025, at a mosque in Harasta, in the same region.
These assaults come within the context of a systematic hate campaign targeting the Sheikh. According to “Human Rights Monitor Platform in Syria” , the campaign has been observed across social media, where supporters of the so-called “interim authority” in the country launched defamatory attacks against him, labeling him a “Shabih” (regime loyalist) and mocking his Ash‘ari creed, in an attempt to discredit and incite hostility toward him.
Sheikh Muhammad Khair Al-Sha’al said that he has been visiting and teaching in the towns of Rural Damascus for twenty years, where he always found generosity and respect for knowledge. He explained that some individuals deliberately disrupted his recent lessons over differences of opinion, so he chose to stop and leave. He emphasized that Damascus today needs unity and harmony despite differing views, and he concluded by asking God to forgive all.
