Christians in Syria are being kidnapped from their homes, shops and roads, with gunmen demanding enormous ransoms and, in at least one case, calling the payment “jizya.” Apparently, the ransom invoice now comes by the kilogram of gold.
The latest case involves Christian goldsmith Maher Nours Sankari, who was abducted on October 19 outside his home in the predominantly Christian town of Suqaylabiyah in Hama province. Surveillance video reportedly shows a black Hyundai Avante striking Sankari as he sat on his motorcycle. Masked men then beat him and dragged him away while his wife tried to intervene.
On November 6, the kidnappers demanded 120 kilograms of gold, estimated by SyriacPress at about $15 million. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, or SOHR, put the demand at 125 kilograms. Sankari’s family has appealed to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X Yazigi for help. SOHR also reported that a walkie-talkie dropped at the scene was taken by security personnel. Some people close to the case suspect security-agency involvement, although SOHR said no independent evidence confirms that suspicion.
Another Christian gold merchant, Fadi Jamil Semaan, was seized near Saydnaya on August 2, 2026, by gunmen wearing security-force uniforms. His family later received voice messages in which Semaan begged them to pay a $5 million ransom.
Christian Solidarity International documented additional cases between July and September 2026. Fadi al-Shaer, a Christian from Kafr Buhum, was abducted with his daughter on July 8 and later killed. Samia al-Nasser, a 24-year-old Christian woman, disappeared while traveling from Homs province to Damascus. George Abu Nassar was kidnapped in Sweida on July 27. CSI also cited reports of Christians in Saydnaya, Jaramana and Wadi al-Nasara being imprisoned by officials seeking money from their families.
The pressure has turned deadly before. In July 2025, masked gunmen shot Syriac Christian goldsmith George Ishoh outside his Homs home after he refused to pay protection money. SOHR also obtained recordings showing members of Syria’s military telling Christians to convert to Islam or pay “jizya,” while warning them against raising the cross in Damascus. On June 22, 2025, a suicide bomber killed 25 people at the Greek Orthodox Mar Elias Church in Damascus. Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility, citing unspecified “provocations” by Damascus Christians.
This persecution has a grim history. In 2008, gunmen abducted Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho in Mosul and demanded ransom before he was found dead. In February 2015, ISIS abducted about 230 Assyrian Christians from villages along Syria’s Khabur River. Christian businessmen and the Assyrian church reportedly paid between $25 million and $30 million for their release. The region, once home to 30,000 Syriac Christians, now has only a few hundred, according to journalist Nuri Kino.
The political backdrop offers little comfort. The constitutional declaration signed by al-Sharaa on March 13, 2025, requires Syria’s president to be Muslim and identifies Islamic jurisprudence as the main source of legislation. Al-Sharaa is a former al-Qaeda commander who helped build the Nusra Front with support from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Islamic State of Iraq, before breaking with both organizations. Since he took power, Syria has seen massacres of Alawites, deadly attacks on Druze communities and attacks on Christian churches.
Christians have continued fleeing. Some have sought refuge in Ankawa, the Christian district of Erbil, while others have used Erbil as a stop while applying for resettlement through the UN refugee agency. In fiscal year 2016, only 64 of the 12,587 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States were Christians, according to FactCheck.org’s review of State Department data.
Syria had between 1.5 million and 2 million Christians before the civil war began in 2011. Kino testified at a 2025 U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom hearing that fewer than 300,000 remain. USCIRF’s 2026 Annual Report said religious freedom conditions “dramatically deteriorated” in 2025 and recommended designating Syria a Country of Particular Concern. Congress also required the White House to report every 180 days on whether Damascus is protecting religious and ethnic minorities. That is not paperwork to file and forget. For Syria’s remaining Christians, it is a matter of survival.
Maher Sankari, a goldsmith from the Christian-majority town of Al-Suqaylabiyah in the Hama countryside, was abducted by unidentified assailants at around 8 a.m. on Monday.
Surveillance footage reportedly shows a car deliberately striking Sankari as he sat on his motorcycle… pic.twitter.com/tKOiC7i45J
— SyriacPress (@SyriacPress) October 19, 2026
Source: The Gateway Pundit
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