A Kurdish Baptist pastor from a Muslim background who was arrested whilst visiting his family in Afrin, Syria, was detained without charge from 20 July until 3 August.
Pastor Nihad Hassan leads a Kurdish-speaking congregation in Beirut, Lebanon. In recent years he has expressed concerns about the situation of Syria’s Kurdish population, and particularly for converts from Islam. He has also shared posts on his Facebook page deemed insulting to Islam and the prophet of Islam, which was reportedly the main reason for his arrest by local police.
Following his arrest, Pastor Hassan was taken to Afrin prison where he was held until 3 August. Upon his release the authorities asked him to return to Lebanon for his safety, and he has since done so.
In a separate development, on 4 August Catholic and Orthodox church leaders in the Christian town of Saydnaya near Damascus issued a statement in which they announced the cancellation of religious celebrations in the town for the rest of the year and restricting activities to worship inside churches.
The leaders cited the deliberate targeting of Christian men from the town by Syrian national security stopping them for hours at checkpoints. However, CSW spoke to a Muslim local authority official and a Christian civil society activist from the town, both of whom denied any deliberate targeting of the Christian community in Saydnaya. The sources claim that the police are searching for dozens of Christian men accused of having taken part in atrocities under the Assad regime, adding that fewer than five of them have been arrested.
CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: ‘While news that Pastor Hassan has been released and reunited with his family is welcome, we are concerned that he was detained for two weeks without charge and call on the transitional government of Syria to work towards ending the use of arbitrary arrest and detention in areas under its control. We encourage the leaders of every faith community to unite against sectarianism, and to counter it through the proactive promotion of peace, justice and reconciliation. We also call on the Syrian government to address issues related to intercommunity relationships with full transparency and in accordance with law.’