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Syria

Also Known As Syrian
Asia

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Syria holds an unusually dense layering of religious history, from ancient Semitic cults through early Christianity, whose adherents were first called Christians in Antioch, to the Umayyad Caliphate, which built the Great Mosque of Damascus on a site that had earlier held a Christian basilica and, before that, a Roman temple. The population is majority Sunni Muslim, with significant Alawite, Druze and various Christian minorities, including some of the world's last communities to speak Aramaic in daily life, and the ongoing civil war since 2011 has included attacks on minority communities and the deliberate destruction of religious and archaeological sites by the group calling itself Islamic State. The country's Alawite minority has held disproportionate political power under the Assad family, a fact central to understanding the conflict's religious dimension. Sufi orders and shrine based devotion have historically been widespread among Syria's Sunni population alongside more scripturalist currents.

Facts
Law and State
Establishment Status
Privileged Never Established 2
No state religion is declared, but Syria's transitional Constitutional Declaration, signed by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa on 13 March 2025, keeps the requirement that the head of state be Muslim and elevates Islamic jurisprudence to the main source of legislation, carrying forward and strengthening language from the pre-2024 constitution.
Apostasy or Blasphemy Law
Syria's Penal Code, Article 462, punishes disparaging religious rituals practiced publicly, or inciting contempt for them, with imprisonment of two months to two years. Human rights groups have called for its repeal as one of the legal tools used to restrict speech about religion. 3
Registration or Recognition Regime
Under the Syrian government's law, as described in the US State Department's 2023 report on religious freedom, all religious groups must register, and the Ministry of Religious Endowments, the Awqaf, approves foreign Islamic organizations before they may operate; foreign Christian NGOs, by contrast, were allowed to operate under an established church's auspices without registering separately. Registered Muslim, Jewish and Christian groups receive free utilities and exemptions from real estate and vehicle taxes, and the Awqaf also vets books imported from abroad, while a state Council of Islamic Jurisprudence has the power to fine or penalize preaching it judges to be extremist. 4
This describes the registration regime under the government the 2023 report covers. Syria's government changed in December 2024 after the fall of the Assad government, and the current framework may differ; that change would need its own dated source before this entry is updated.
Ban or Official Watchlist
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended in its July 2025 Syria Policy Update, issued after the fall of the Assad government, that the State Department name Syria to the Special Watch List for severe violations of religious freedom, citing threats to religious minorities from the transitional authorities led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham and from Turkish backed militias. The recommendation is USCIRF's own; the State Department's own Special Watch List, most recently announced 29 December 2023 and naming Algeria, Azerbaijan, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam, does not include Syria. 5
Concordat Basis
Syria has no concordat with the Holy See. Article 3 of the 2012 Constitution, the last ratified before the country's 2024 to 2025 political transition, requires that the President's religion be Islam and names Islamic jurisprudence a main source of legislation, while committing the State to respect all religions and guarantee freedom to perform rituals that do not disturb public order; Syria's constitutional status since the transition remains unsettled. 6
Disputed
Legal Status
The Assad government fell in December 2024; transitional authorities with roots in a Sunni Islamist insurgent faction have pledged protection for religious minorities, though the durable legal status of religion remains unsettled. 3
The Assad government fell in December 2024 after more than a decade of civil war, and Syria's transitional authorities, which trace their roots to a Sunni Islamist insurgent faction that led the final offensive, have publicly pledged protection for the country's religious minorities, including Alawites, the historically dominant Assad family's own minority sect, Christians and Druze. Minority communities have expressed continuing uncertainty about their actual status and safety under the new order, a concern the State Department's report records without being able to resolve, since the transitional authorities' pledges are recent political commitments rather than an established track record, and a Sunni Islamist-rooted movement's pledges toward minorities it fought during the civil war carry inherent uncertainty until tested in practice. Whether Syria's durable, longer-term legal status for religion comes to match the transitional pledges is a question about how the new government actually governs going forward, which had not had time to be demonstrated as of the report's writing.
Government
Capital
Damascus 1
Government Type
transitional presidential republic 1
Sovereignty Status
Sovereign UN member state 1
Established Year
1946 1
17 April 1946 (from League of Nations mandate under French administration)
Geography
Latitude
34.8 degrees north 1
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.
Longitude
39 degrees east 1
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.
Open Questions
Religious Composition
Before 2011, roughly 74% Sunni Muslim, 11% Alawite, about 10% Christian (various ancient rites), with smaller Druze and Twelver Shia populations (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 7
Precise current composition is unsettled after a decade of civil war, mass displacement and emigration.
Location
Location of Syria Afghanistan Albania Algeria Angola Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Guam Guatemala Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Laos Latvia Lebanon Libya Lithuania Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritius Mexico Moldova Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
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Religion and History in Syria

Syria is majority Sunni Muslim, around 74 percent before the 2011 civil war displaced much of the population, per estimates including Pew Research's Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020, with an Alawite minority near 11 percent historically concentrated on the coast, Christian communities of various ancient rites around 10 percent, and smaller Druze and Twelver Shia populations. Damascus, one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, holds the Umayyad Mosque, built in the eighth century on a site with a long layered religious history as a Roman temple to Jupiter and later a Byzantine church dedicated to John the Baptist, whose head Muslim tradition holds is enshrined within the mosque itself.

Syria's Christian communities, among the oldest in the world, trace continuous presence to the apostolic era, since the road to Damascus is where the New Testament places Paul's conversion, and Syriac-speaking Christian communities preserve liturgical traditions in Aramaic dialects close to the language of Jesus. The Alawites, a heterodox offshoot of Shia Islam with esoteric doctrines historically kept secret from outsiders, rose to disproportionate political power under the Assad family, whose Alawite background shaped decades of sectarian tension within a Sunni-majority state.

Sectarian Dimensions of the Syrian Civil War

The Syrian civil war, beginning in 2011 as part of the wider Arab Spring protests against the Assad government, developed strong sectarian dimensions as the conflict progressed, with the Alawite-led government drawing core support from Alawite, Christian and some Druze communities fearful of Sunni Islamist rule, while much of the armed opposition drew on Sunni Arab majority communities and, increasingly, explicitly Sunni Islamist and jihadist factions including the Islamic State, which briefly controlled roughly a third of Syrian territory between 2014 and 2017 and subjected religious minorities, particularly Yazidis and Christians, to mass killing, enslavement and forced conversion.

The war and the Islamic State's campaign devastated Syria's ancient Christian population through displacement and emigration, reducing communities in cities such as Aleppo and Homs to a fraction of their prewar size, and destroyed or damaged significant religious heritage, including parts of the ancient city of Palmyra and its temple complexes.

Following the Assad government's fall in December 2024, Syria's new transitional authorities, with roots in a former Sunni Islamist insurgent faction, have pledged protection for religious and ethnic minorities, though minority communities, including Alawites, Christians and Druze, have expressed continuing uncertainty about their status and security under the new order.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

This source names Syria directly: "Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic under the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2016, is the UN's own formal investigative report documenting the Islamic State's campaign..."

Source "They Came to Destroy": ISIS Crimes Against the YazidisIndependent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, United Nations

This source names Syria directly: "Downey's A History of Antioch in Syria from Seleucus to the Arab Conquest, Princeton University Press, 1961, is a scholarly history."

This source names Syria directly: "and British involvement in Ottoman Syria."

About 10% Christian across various ancient rites, dating to the earliest use of the name Christian in Antioch.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

This source names Syria directly: "on the Euphrates in present day Syria, whose walls were covered floor to ceiling in painted scenes from the Hebrew Bible when the building was enlarged and redecorated in 244 or 245 CE, as recorded..."

This source names Syria directly: "the province of Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina to sever its name from the Jewish people, and Jews were barred from entering the rebuilt city of Jerusalem, itself renamed Aelia Capitolina."

Islam, Religions

Before 2011, roughly 74% Sunni Muslim with an 11% Alawite minority.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

This source names Syria directly: "foothold in Egypt before reaching Syria, North Africa and Italy."

This source names Syria directly: "under his own control (Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor) later that year, making martyrs of bishops and other Christians through 311 and 312, promoting a pagan revival through temple restoration and..."

This source names Syria directly: "The stele was excavated at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit), northern Syria, by Claude Schaeffer's mission in 1932."

This source names Syria directly: "through his adolescent journey to Syria and encounter with the Christian monk Bahira."

Source Wikipedia, "Muhammad: The Messenger of God (film)"Wikipedia contributors

This source names Syria directly: "the Byzantine-ruled provinces of Syria and Palestine."

This source names Syria directly: "Mongol Ilkhanate, whose own raids into Syria briefly pressured the Mamluk Sultan Baibars, but his army was too small to retake significant territory, and he survived an assassination attempt by a..."

Source God's War: A New History of the CrusadesChristopher Tyerman

This source names Syria directly: "From Antioch in Syria, the apostle Paul, together with Barnabas, Silas and others across three separate journeys, carried the Christian movement west across Cyprus and the cities of south-central..."

This source names Syria directly: "after which Rome renamed the province Syria Palaestina, mark Roman Judaea as one of the single most consequential Roman provinces in the history of both Judaism and Christianity."

Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)

This source names Syria directly: "stele from Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra, Syria), showing the storm and rain god Baal, also known as Hadad, in a striding pose on a pedestal carved with mountains and sea, symbols of his dominion over..."

This source names Syria directly: "of the French Mandate period in Syria and Lebanon, which records a separate 1923 Alawite census counting 173,000 Alawites."

Source Syria and Lebanon Under French Mandate (Longrigg, 1958)Stephen Hemsley Longrigg

This source names Syria directly: "the excavation of Ugarit (Ras Shamra, Syria), covering tablet RS 15.30 and its joining fragments, held in the National Museum of Damascus."

This source names Syria directly: "the call to "go forth," and crossing Syria, Lebanon and Jordan before passing through Jerusalem and ending at Abraham's traditional tomb at Hebron."

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

This source names Syria directly: "both Muslims and Jews in medieval Syria, drawing on primary sources from both religious communities to show how devotional practices around holy sites were sometimes shared or paralleled across..."

This source names Syria directly: "it once controlled in Iraq and Syria and now operates as a geographically dispersed insurgent network, with provinces in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Somalia, Mali and..."

This source names Syria directly: "the Alawite, or Nusayri, minority of Syria, a group whose specific doctrine has historically been kept closed to outsiders."

This source names Syria directly: "Johann Ludwig Burckhardt's Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, published by John Murray in 1822, is a primary travel account, published after Burckhardt's own death from the notes of his journeys."

Source Travels in Syria and the Holy LandJohann Ludwig Burckhardt

The caliphate ruled from Damascus from 661 to 750, and its great mosque there was built by Abd al-Malik's son al-Walid.

This source names Syria directly: "that the State Department name Syria to the Special Watch List for severe violations of religious freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act, citing threats to religious minorities from..."

Source USCIRF, 2025 Syria Policy UpdateUnited States Commission on International Religious Freedom

Contains

Aleppo, Cities
Damascus, Cities
Ugarit, Cities

Ugarit is the mound of Ras Shamra on the Syrian coast near Latakia.

Originated Here

Hurrians, Cultures

Spread Events Here

Sources
1. The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)
Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence AgencyView the Source
2. Syria's Interim President Signs Constitution Enshrining Islamist Rule for 5 Years
Ghaith Alsayed and Kareem Chehayeb, The Associated Press, via The Times of Israel, 2025View the Source
3. International Religious Freedom Report
United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source
4. US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Syria
United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State
5. USCIRF, 2025 Syria Policy Update
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)View the Source
6. Syria 2012 Constitution (Constitute Project)
Syrian Arab Republic, Constitute ProjectView the Source
7. Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020
Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 2025View the Source
The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition
Oxford University Press, Oxford University Pressdemonym / adjectival formView the Source
Open Questions (1 open question)
What is Syria's religious composition after the civil war?

The last widely cited figures, about 74 percent Sunni Muslim, 11 percent Alawite, 10 percent Christian, describe the pre-2011 population. A decade of civil war, mass displacement and emigration has since altered the population in ways no subsequent census or survey has measured, so the current composition is not known.

What would resolve this A new nationally representative census or demographic survey conducted once conditions allow it, accounting for returnees, refugees and the dead.
DemographyPew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020
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