At approximately 2:00 a.m. on December 26, 2025, the Church of Our Lady of the Dormition in the town of Zabadani in the Damascus countryside was subjected to an attack involving the throwing of a hand grenade by unknown individuals at the church building.
The explosion caused limited material damage, confined to the shattering of one of the church’s windows, with no human casualties recorded. Posts issued by the Orthodox Sunday Schools affiliated with the church on the same day confirmed that the explosion occurred during the nighttime hours and noted the safety of all those present.
This attack comes amid a noticeable escalation in hate speech and sectarian incitement in areas under the control of the interim authority “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” during December 2025. On December 6, 2025, the city of Safita in the Tartous countryside witnessed the circulation of sectarian incitement leaflets signed in the name of a group calling itself “Liwa Ansar al-Sunna.” These leaflets targeted members of the Alawite sect and the Christian religion, inciting against their participation in any public events or celebrations, and threatening to carry out “suicide operations” and bombings should such participation occur.
The leaflets contained explicit takfiri rhetoric and quotations attributed to Ibn Taymiyyah, and were distributed in the streets of Safita, with an explicit threat to use violence against civilians on the basis of their religious affiliation.
In the same context, the Salafi preacher Abdul Razzaq al-Mahdi delivered a Friday sermon earlier in December 2025 from one of the mosques of the capital, Damascus, in which he forbade Muslims from participating in Christmas celebrations or congratulating Christians on the occasion, considering this to be contrary to religion. Al-Mahdi is known as a former religious official within Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and currently preaches at Tankiz Mosque in Damascus.
Similar sermons and positions were also recorded from other preachers, including Abdul Qader al-Bakour, who appeared in a video recording dated November 22, 2025, from inside one of the mosques in northern Syria, during which he directed takfiri rhetoric against members of the Alawite sect.
The targeting of the Church of Our Lady of the Dormition in Zabadani reflects a growing pattern of attacks and threats with sectarian and religious backgrounds, within a fragile security context accompanied by an escalation of incitement and hate speech. This reality poses a direct threat to the safety of civilians and their fundamental rights, particularly freedom of religion and belief, amid a clear absence of accountability for the inciting or perpetrating parties.
