An image circulated on social media on November 7, 2025, showed phrases written on the gate of a Christian religious shrine inciting the killing of Christians in Maarat Saydnaya, Damascus countryside.
According to what appears in the image, written on the door of the Shrine of Mar Elias in Maarat Saydnaya were the phrases: “Nasara [Christians] are infidels, There is no god but God… After Mar Elias is Al-Dawila’a, Mar Elias of Al-Ma’ara,” in addition to drawing an X over a cross drawing.
This comes days after the Church of Charles in the Al-Qassaa neighborhood of Damascus was vandalized through the smashing of a statue and the writing of the phrase: “There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God, Jesus is the servant of God, the son of Mary, the servant of God.”
On June 22, 2025, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Mar Elias Church in the Al-Dawila’a neighborhood of Damascus, resulting in the death of at least 25 people and injuring about 60 others.
