The murder of George Yeshu on July 9, 2025, in the Syrian city of Homs is more than just another tragic crime in a war-torn country – it is an alarming sign of the ongoing persecution of religious minorities and the resurgence of a practice thought to be long overcome: the jizya.
George Yeshu, a Christian Syriac, was reportedly brutally murdered because he refused to pay the Islamic special tax known as jizya. This tax was traditionally imposed under Islamic rule on non-Muslim “protected persons” (dhimmis) – a system based on inequality and religious subjugation. Historically, those who could not or would not pay the jizya faced discrimination, expulsion, or even death. That this system is reemerging in the year 2025 shows how little has actually changed regarding the status of religious minorities in parts of Syria.
The parallels to the atrocities of the terrorist organization ISIS are unmistakable. When the so-called Islamic State took control of large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, its fighters began spraying the Arabic letter “ن” (N, for Nasrani – Christian) on the homes of Christian families in Mosul and the Nineveh Plain. There too, people were given a cruel ultimatum: payment of the jizya, conversion to Islam, emigration – or death.
Today, although ISIS is officially defeated, the same repressive ideologies are returning under a new banner. The new rulers in Syria present themselves as reform-oriented, but in the shadow of political upheaval, it is often the same extremist ideologies that now continue within parts of the state apparatus – disguised, legitimized, and more dangerous than ever. The murder of George Yeshu is a chilling example of how little protection Christian Syriacs are truly afforded in the new Syria.
Added to this is the devastating bomb attack on the Greek Orthodox Mar Elias Church in Damascus on June 22, 2025, in which dozens of Syriacs were killed or severely injured. The attack occurred during a worship service and was carried out by extremists whose ideology is no different from that of ISIS. The targeted assault on the Christian Syriacs in the heart of the Syrian capital makes one thing clear: the idea of religious cleansing lives on – not at the margins, but at the center of the country. And all this under the eyes of the new government.
It is therefore not surprising when Syriacs and other threatened groups refuse to surrender their weapons used for self-defense. Who can blame them when the government is either unwilling or unable to guarantee their safety? Disarmament of these communities can only realistically and responsibly occur if the Syrian state constitutionally guarantees equal rights, participation, and protection to all peoples and ethnic groups. Only when Syriacs and other minorities are no longer on the margins but recognized and included as integral components of a pluralistic, unified Syria, can the necessary trust in the state be established. The need for self-defense loses its necessity only when the state becomes a reliable protector for all – regardless of religion or origin.
This is precisely why it is of vital importance that the international community does not channel its aid for Syria solely through the central government in Damascus but also decentrally through local, credible partner structures. Only such targeted and controlled disbursement of funding can apply pressure on the new rulers to enforce real separation of powers, pluralism, and constitutional inclusion. A centralized distribution of billions in aid, by contrast, only strengthens those forces already complicit today in the oppression of religious minorities, either through tolerance or direct involvement.
The international community, especially countries like Germany, must ask themselves: Are we supporting a government that is willing to protect minorities and guarantee equality – or a system that perpetuates old Islamist ideologies in a new guise?
The murder of George Yeshu and the terrorist attack on the Mar Elias Church must not remain without consequences. It is time for the protection of religions and ethnic groups in the new Syria to exist not only on paper. Only if aid is tied to clear conditions and distributed decentrally – and only if both constitution and reality are directed toward an inclusive state structure – can this aid become a lever for democratization, security, and trust. Otherwise, history is bound to repeat itself in a cruel way.
