Holy Smoke: are Syrian Christians who speak the language of Jesus about to disappear after 2,000 years?
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The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 2 February 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
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Summary
Mgr Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Anglican Bishop of Rochester who is now a Catholic priest of the Ordinariate, has written a heartbreaking piece for The Spectator about the Christians of Maaloula in southwest Syria. It’s one of the last remaining communities to speak Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ. ‘Were this community to be destroyed, something precious and irreplaceable would be lost’, he writes.
Yet that is exactly what may happen. When the then-Bishop Nazir-Ali visited the town in 2016, he discovered that the predecessors of the jihadis who recently toppled Bashar al-Assad ‘had systematically destroyed and desecrated the town’s churches and monasteries. Orthodox nuns were kidnapped and held to ransom … young men had been singled out and executed when they refused to convert to the extremists’ version of Islam.’
Will it happen again? Ahmad al-Sharaa, head of the new Syrian transitional administration, has told Church leaders they have nothing to fear. But can he be trusted? As Mgr Nazir-Ali tells Damian Thompson in this episode of Holy Smoke, it is time for the West to act.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews. |
| 0:06.4 | Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12-week subscription in print and online, |
| 0:11.7 | along with a free £20 £10 £10 or Waitrose voucher. |
| 0:14.6 | Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher. |
| 0:29.0 | Welcome to Holy Smoke, the Spectator's Religion podcast. |
| 0:31.2 | I'm Damien Thompson. |
| 0:39.3 | There's been a Christian community in Syria since the first century A.V. But it is shrinking fast and faces terrifying threats as the country's new government, |
| 0:46.3 | following the overthrow of President Assad, |
| 0:48.3 | forges alliances with hard-line Muslims, including foreign jihadists, |
| 0:53.3 | Uyghurs from China, Uzbeks from Central Asia, |
| 0:56.9 | Chechens from Russia, Afghans, and Pakistanis. |
| 1:01.2 | Monsignat Michael Nazar Ali, the former Anglican bishop of Rochester, who's now a Catholic |
| 1:06.5 | priest of the Ordinariad, has written a heartbreaking piece for the spectator about the Christians |
| 1:12.0 | of Malula in southwest Syria. It's one of the last remaining communities to speak Syriac, |
| 1:19.3 | a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ. Were this community to be destroyed, |
| 1:25.4 | something precious and irreplaceable would be lost, he |
| 1:28.5 | writes. Yet that is exactly what may happen. When the then-bishop Nazarelli visited the town in |
| 1:35.6 | 2016, he discovered that the predecessors of the jihadis who've toppled Bashar al-Thad had |
| 1:42.7 | systematically destroyed and desecrated the town's churches and monasteries. |
| 1:48.1 | Orthodox nuns were kidnapped and held to ransom. |
| 1:51.1 | Young men had been singled out and executed when they refused to convert to the extremist version of Islam. |
| 1:58.3 | Will it happen again? |
... |
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