The Salafi preacher Abdul Razzaq al-Mahdi delivered the Friday prayer sermon from the pulpit of a mosque in the Syrian capital, Damascus, earlier in the month of December 2025, in which he forbade Muslims from participating in Christmas celebrations or offering congratulations to Christians on this occasion.
According to a video clip published by al-Mahdi on his page on the website “Facebook,” he said during the sermon that “it is not permissible for a Muslim to participate in joy or offer congratulations on the holiday of the Christians,” referring to Christians, even if the person being celebrated is a neighbor, considering that this holiday is “based on polytheism,” as he put it.
Abdul Razzaq al-Mahdi is known as one of the former religious officials in Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, and he currently delivers sermons at Tenkiz Mosque in Damascus, where he conducts his preaching activities under the auspices of the Ministry of Awqaf. It is noteworthy that the mosque has recently witnessed the presence of official figures, including the Minister of Communications and the Governor of the Central Bank of Syria.
This sermon comes within a broader context of escalating hate speech and sectarian and religious incitement in Syria. In this regard, similar sermons and positions by other preachers have previously been documented, including the Salafi sheikh Abdul Qader al-Bakur, who appeared in a video recording inside one of the mosques in northern Syria on 22 November 2025, and during his sermon directed insults at a number of well-known Sunni scholars, as well as declaring members of the Alawite sect to be unbelievers and considering them outside Islam.
These incidents reflect a recurring pattern of exclusionary discourse that targets multiple sects and religions, and contributes to deepening societal division and fueling tension and violence, in the absence of accountability and legal action against those who incite hatred.
