Youstina Khoury, a Christian nun kidnapped by an earlier iteration of the group now running <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/syria/" target="_blank">Syria</a>, has forgiven the former rebels and their leader, the new president of her country. <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2025/01/30/syrias-shara-vows-to-bring-country-under-central-control/" target="_blank">Ahmad Al Shara</a> has “greater ambitions” than allowing Syria to descend into more conflict, the 41-year-old said of the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) leader, who this week was <a href="https://n/" target="_blank">declared president</a> for a transitional period. “Now maybe, for example, the world thinks about how he was a fighter. Maybe they are scared because they are people,” Sister Khoury told <i>The National</i> inside a high-ceilinged salon in the Greek Orthodox St Takla convent complex in Maaloula, an ancient centre of Christianity. “It’s normal, people get scared. But if they think at a higher level, it may be that his ambitions are to rebuild the country. Maybe if I pray for him, maybe God will change him and make him better. God is all powerful.” It was from St Takla convent that Sister Khoury was taken by Mr Al Shara's rebel group, then called Al Nusra Front and affiliated with Al Qaeda, when it seized Maaloula in 2013. Sister Khoury and 11 other nuns who were kidnapped were released in a prisoner exchange three months later. The rebels were forced out of Maaloula by fighters loyal to former president Bashar Al Assad, who retained control of the town for over a decade until rebels ousted him from power in December. Today, feelings about Syria’s future are mixed in the small town, which is home to both Christians and Muslims, and not all are as hopeful as Sister Khoury. Christmas was subdued, residents said, as church authorities kept a low profile. “At Christmas ... we didn’t practise our rights, it was prohibited on orders of the Patriarchate. We decorated the church only two days in advance. We used to do it beforehand,” said Nisreen Sirhan, 39, who works in a gift shop at the 1,700-year-old Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus. She fears it is “impossible” that the rebels who took Maaloula in 2013 have changed. “I think people remain as they are raised," she added. A symbol of Syria’s rich ethnic and religious diversity, Maaloula sits elegantly among the folds of the Qalamoun mountains, which extend into neighbouring Lebanon. Many of its homes are built into the rock face, and its roads twist in sharp bends between sheer stone. It is one of the few communities in the world where Aramaic, the language spoken at the time of Jesus, is still in use. But recent history has ravaged Maaloula. It suffered severe damage during the fighting early in the civil war that began in 2011, and while many churches have been restored, other buildings still lie in ruins. Maaloula’s residents are keen to show that they did not all support Mr Al Assad, who claimed to protect minorities. Like people elsewhere in Syria, they blame him for the compulsory military conscription, which forced the town’s young men to flee, and for failing to help reconstruction efforts. “We didn’t support anyone – young men all fled because of the military service,” said Maaloula resident Suleiman, speaking from a deserted town square. “The regime did not help us rebuild. They gave us just enough to repair the windows – they were laughing at us.” At night, Maaloula is almost pitch black, save for the glow from illuminated crosses topping its many churches. There is little electricity here, and many of those who lived there before 2011 and fled have not returned. Just a couple of hundred families live there, down from a population of about 3,000 people 15 years ago. Although Christmas here was kept low-key, Syria’s new leaders have not imposed restrictions on Christian worship, Maaloula’s religious leaders and residents said. Monasteries continue to produce wine and araq, a potent aniseed spirit, and people stream out of churches after Sunday morning services. Rather, it is fear of the unknown and news of what people see as attacks on Christians in other parts of Syria that worry Maaloula’s residents the most. Some are concerned that public shows of Christian faith, such as the famous Easter parades due to take place in April, may be banned in future. They also fear what could happen given the complete absence of security forces in the town. “No one has interfered in church affairs so far," Mirna Al Haddad, 41, told <i>The National</i>. "But I am talking about our celebrations and rituals. Will they allow us to practise them, or restrict them to the confines of the church?” The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus is led by Father Fadi Al Barkil, who is giving Syria’s new leaders the benefit of the doubt for now. “People can change,” he said<i>,</i> referring to Mr Al Shara. “He was portrayed as a member of ISIS, he then joined Al Nusra Front, then Hayat Tahrir Al Sham. Perhaps today, with the support of certain people, institutions or countries, he truly does want what's best for Syria and to build the country. What's important is that we all work together like one family – that no one is excluded.” In a <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2025/01/30/syrias-shara-vows-to-bring-country-under-central-control/" target="_blank">speech to the nation</a> on Thursday, Mr Al Shara said the transformation of governance under way would build a future of “freedom and dignity, without exclusion or marginalisation” – an apparent attempt to reduce qualms among Syria’s non-Sunni Arab populations. Key to this is ensuring the representation of religious and ethnic groups in future governance structures and constitutions, Father Al Barkil believes. The current caretaker leadership in Damascus is staffed almost wholly by officials from the Salvation Government set up by HTS, which administered the rebel pocket in the northern Idlib province before rebel groups launched the offensive that toppled Mr Al Assad. It was Mr Al Shara’s “right to bring people that he knows and trusts” for the time being, Father Al Barkil said. But they should be replaced by a more diverse spectrum of officials in a longer-term transitional government to avoid a repeat of Mr Al Assad’s rule in which institutions were staffed by loyalists, he added. “If those people don’t change, then we would be continuing with the same approach," he said. "But if they invite everyone to participate in the transitional government, we would be in a good place.” Like many of Syria’s Christians, Maaloula’s residents do not want to be referred to as a minority – Syria’s non-Sunni Arab ethnic and religious groups who Mr Al Assad always claimed to protect. At the St Takla convent, Father Mate Rezeq said he had exchanged messages with undisclosed members of Syria’s new authorities on the need to see everyone equally. “A loaf of bread is one thing,” he said, recounting his appeal to them. “It doesn’t have either the word Christianity or Islam on it. It’s a loaf for humanity. We need to talk in terms of humanity.” Security remains the number one concern for Maaloula, where members of Syria’s new General Security forces are conspicuous by their absence. During 18 hours in the town, <i>The National </i>did not see one checkpoint, police patrol or security official – things that residents feel would make them safer. “People are afraid, the situation isn't secure in Maaloula,” said George Rihan, 45, a wood carver, after Sunday prayers at St George’s Church. The new authorities “haven't set up any checkpoints", he said. "We need security, not just in Maaloula but in all of Syria," he added. Father Al Barkil said that under Mr Al Assad’s rule, his community “was safe, but we were also living in fear and couldn’t speak our minds. Now people are free to express themselves, but they need safety.” Back at St Takla, Sister Khoury is firm in her belief that her country’s future can be brighter. “In Syria, people don’t want much – they just want to live peacefully and happily, without war. That’s all they want,” she said. “If God wills it, the new leaders will be responsible, and God will give them strength.”