Bombing of the Shrine of Sheikh Faraj Abu Hayya Belonging to the Alawite Sect in the Salamiyah Countryside Amid the Escalation of Sectarian Attacks on Places of Worship
On Monday, corresponding to 1 December 2025, gunmen carried out a bombing of the shrine of Sheikh Faraj Abu Hayya in the village of Al-Sayyada, التابعة to the Salamiyah countryside in Hama Governorate, western Syria, leading to its complete destruction.
The shrine of Sheikh Faraj Abu Hayya is considered a religious site belonging to the Alawite sect, and is used for worship and religious rituals, which makes its targeting a direct assault on freedom of belief and the practice of religious rites.
According to available information, gunmen bombed the shrine and completely vandalized it, in an attack described as having an overt sectarian character. No information was reported about human casualties resulting from the bombing; the damage was limited to the complete material destruction of the shrine’s building and its contents, according to what appeared in a recorded video.
This attack comes amid a noticeable escalation in the targeting of religious shrines and places of worship belonging to the Alawite sect, the Druze sect, and the Christian religion, across various Syrian governorates, since Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham assumed power in the country on 8 December 2024.
Similar recent violations in other governorates:
In Homs Governorate, on 24 November 2025, the Emmanuel Baptist Church in the Armenian neighborhood was subjected to a violent attack during the assault on the Alawite and Christian neighborhoods in the governorate.
On Thursday, 13 November 2025, the shrine of Sheikh Hamid “Ahmad ibn Batta al-Shami,” a shrine belonging to the Alawite sect in the Al-Makhram area in the Homs countryside, was subjected to acts of vandalism carried out by members of a security checkpoint affiliated with the transitional authority “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” before their withdrawal following residents’ complaints. These acts included breaking and removing the doors, tampering with the marble, and cutting down trees.
A photo circulated on 7 November 2025 also showed inciteful slogans calling for the killing of Christians written on the gate of a Christian religious shrine in Ma‘arat Saydnaya in the Damascus countryside. In another incident days earlier, the Church of St. Carlos in the Qassa‘ neighborhood of Damascus was vandalized by breaking one of the statues and writing religiously inciteful slogans.
On 21 October 2025, the shrine of Sheikh Mohammad Balsanouri, a religious shrine belonging to the Alawite sect in the village of Al-Mawrid, التابعة to the subdistrict of the villages of the center of Banias in the Tartous countryside, was attacked after grenades were thrown inside it, causing a large fire that completely destroyed its contents and inflicted severe damage on its structure to the point that it became almost destroyed.
Damascus also witnessed, on 22 June 2025, a suicide bombing that targeted the Church of Mar Elias in the Al-Duwailah neighborhood, resulting in the killing of at least 25 people and the injury of about 60 others.
The bombing of the shrine of Sheikh Faraj Abu Hayya in the village of Al-Sayyada reflects the continuation of a dangerous pattern of systematic targeting of religious and cultural landmarks belonging to religious minorities in Syria, especially the Alawite sect and Christians, amid the escalation of sectarian violence, the absence of accountability, and the growth of takfiri rhetoric in areas under the control of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.
