Orthodoxy

"The Church in Syria Is Dying" Archbishop Who Survived ISIS Captivity Warns Christians Face Extinction

Michael Ringer

01 Nov 2025 — 3 min read

Rome, Italy - Syriac Catholic Archbishop Jacques Mourad of Homs, Hama and Al-Nabek warned that "the Church in Syria is dying" as Christians continue fleeing the country's disastrous political and economic situation.

Speaking at the October 29, 2025 launch of Aid to the Church in Need's Religious Freedom in the World 2025 report in Rome, Archbishop Mourad said Syria's Christian population has collapsed from approximately 2.1 million in 2011 to around 540,000 in 2024.

"None of the efforts by the Universal Church or the local Church managed to stem the tide of the exodus, because the causes are not related to the Church, but rather to the country's disastrous political and economic situation," the 57-year-old archbishop said. "You can't stop a wave of migration without first establishing a well-defined political government model in Syria and a solid security system."

Archbishop Mourad, who was kidnapped by ISIS in 2015 and held captive for five months before escaping with help from Muslims, warned:

"The Syrian people continue to suffer violence, reprisals, and tragic and regrettable events that undermine all the international claims and popular demands to put an end to this bloodbath. We are become more and more like Afghanistan. We don't have that level of violence yet, but we're not that far off either. People are under all sorts of pressure."

He added: "Don't think we are heading towards greater freedom, religious or otherwise."

Archbishop Mourad also expressed concern over a possible peace treaty with Israel that would cede the disputed Golan Heights, which he said would "deprive the inhabitants of Damascus of water sources and enslave them. Who would accept a treaty such as this? Where are the human rights values that should help ensure that decisions are fair for both parties?"

The archbishop, a member of a monastic community committed to promoting fraternity between Christians and Muslims in a country where Christians comprise only 2.3% of the population, called on the international community to "adopt a clear position regarding what is happening in Syria."

He proposed that "all local and international institutions and organizations that operate in Syria cooperate with cultural bodies, schools, universities and institutes to overcome the fear that has taken hold in society, and organize training courses on the role of legislation in the establishment of justice and the independence of the state's judiciary."

THE CRUSADER'S OPINION

Syria's Christians are disappearing. Seventy-five percent gone in thirteen years. That's not migration, that's extinction.

Archbishop Mourad survived five months as an ISIS hostage. He knows what he's talking about when he says Syria is becoming Afghanistan. While the West celebrates "regime change," Christians are being quietly erased. The international community that claims to care about human rights sits silent as one of Christianity's oldest communities vanishes.

We're watching the death of Syrian Christianity in real time, and the response from Western churches? Crickets. Where are the protests? Where's the outrage? If 1.5 million of any other religious group fled their homeland, we'd never hear the end of it. But Syrian Christians? They get a press release.

This archbishop is begging the world to pay attention before it's too late. Will we listen, or will we wait until Syria joins Iraq, Afghanistan, and Turkey as another graveyard of Christianity?