Christians in Damascus protest against burning of Christmas tree in Hama

The incident will be seen as a test for Syria's new administration

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Hundreds of Syrians marched in the streets of the capital Damascus on Tuesday morning, to protest against the burning of a Christmas tree in central Syria’s Hama by Islamist extremists the previous day.

“Raise your cross high! We demand the rights of Christians,” protesters chanted as they marched through Damascus towards the old Bab Sharqi neighbourhood, where the headquarters of the Orthodox Patriarchate are located.

Protesters gathered spontaneously from different neighbourhoods to express their fears on Christmas Eve. Some demonstrators carried wooden crosses while others waved the green, white and black ‘Free Syria’ flag adopted by the country’s new administration – a sign of tentative support to the new authorities while also registering concern for their community.

“We came out because there is a lot of sectarianism and injustice against Christians under the name of individual actions,” one protester told the AFP news agency. “Either we live in a country that respects our Christianity and we live safely in this homeland as we were before, or open the door to church asylum for us so we can leave and go abroad.”

The protests followed the burning of a Christmas tree in a main square in the Christian-majority town of Suqaylabiyah, near Hama, on Monday. Videos showed a burning Christmas tree reportedly lit by a group of foreign fighters affiliated with the rebels who participated in the toppling of former Syrian president Bashar Al Assad on December 8. For years, the deposed Syrian leader portrayed himself as the protector of minorities – right up until the moment he fled the country.

The protests come a little more than two weeks after a coalition of armed rebels – led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham – overthrew more than 50 years of the Assad family reign, promising to uphold the rights of minorities in Syria. Originally an offshoot of Al Qaeda, HTS has since distanced itself from its ideology and tried to present itself as a pragmatic replacement of the fallen regime, as it installed a de facto interim government in Syria.

Representatives of the group assured residents of Hama that the incident would not be repeated and perpetrators would be punished.

“This will never be repeated,” an HTS cleric in Suqaylabiyah told residents in a video circulated on social media. “The people who did this were not Syrians. And they will be punished more than you can imagine.

“I assure you this tree will be completely restored by morning,” he added.