Update: another threatening message found in Syria

Another message threatening believers has been found near a church in Syria. This follows two other messages of a similar kind discovered on church buildings in November 2025. Please pray for our brothers and sisters as they face increasing fear and uncertainty.

Believers in Aleppo, Syria are under increasing pressure as another threatening message has been found sprayed on a wall near a church. 

In November 2025, the walls of St Elias Church in Maared Saidnaya and St Cyrillos Church were found to have been desecrated by threatening messages. These intensified the sense of fear believers have been experiencing since the bombing in June of the same year at St Elias Church, Dweilla, and this latest message is no different.

Spreading fear 

The message was discovered when a local Open Doors partner went to visit a church in a neighbourhood near Aleppo – one which has suffered greatly because of violence between the government and Kurdish-led SDF forces. 

The text literally reads: “Days between us, you cross worshippers.” Idiomatically, it means: “You will be next, you Christians.” 

“When I read the text, I got scared. Of course, I continued on my way to the church, but such a message spreads fear,” the local partner relates. 

Similar messages have been found on the walls of churches and in streets where there are a significant number of Christians meeting or living. 

• Why is persecution rising in Syria? 

Such warnings are increasing the insecurity felt by many of our brothers and sisters since the bombing attack in June 2025. They serve as heavy reminders of the active threats and animosity towards their faith, and the trauma the church has already endured. 

Please continue to stand with our family in Syria in this time of uncertainty. 

Please pray 

• That God will speak to the hearts of those who want to harm Christians and turn them to Him in repentance 

• For God’s comfort and peace to triumph over fear in believers 

• That churches would be protected and that their witness to their communities would be radiant, transforming those who do not yet know Jesus as Lord. 

11 November 2025

Threatening messages left at two churches in Syria 

Please pray for Christians in Syria, after threatening messages were left at two churches, heightening fear amongst believers.  

“Christian infidel, there is no deity but God, after St Elias Dweila, it’s St Elias Maared’s turn,” said the message on the wall surrounding the compound of St Elias Church in Maared Saidnaya (pictured above), located 30km north east of the capital Damascus. 

The words – which are believed to have been written towards the end of last week – refer to the devastating suicide bomb attack on Saint Elias Church in Dweilla, Damascus, on 22 June that killed 22 believers.    

Premeditated incident 

It comes a week after a similarly threatening words were left on the walls of St Cyrillos Church in Damascus by a man who was caught on camera.  

“There will be no polytheists left in Syria by God’s will. Our meeting is near, you pigs of the cross,” wrote the message (pictured below). There was also a non-recognisable phrase that started with the Shahada (the Islamic declaration of faith): “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.” 

Security cameras captured a young man entering the church in the middle of the night. He was dressed in black and wearing white shoes. He jumped over the wall in a way that suggested prior planning and knowledge of the camera locations, or familiarity with the site.  

After he wrote the offensive words on the walls, he tried to damage a statue of Mary using a stone he brought with him. 

Peace amidst fear 

It’s almost a year since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, with an interim government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa now in control.  

The change has brought some welcome economic and cultural improvements to parts of Syria, but the threat of conflict and violence remains, particularly in the south and north east. Last week, a bus was attacked as it travelled along the highway between Damascus and Suwayda, killing two people and injuring 11. 

These pockets of conflict are affecting Christians. In Aleppo, a local partner had to cancel a Bible competition because of fighting between the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces and the interim government. “A small conflict like this, however, instantly brought back to memory the hard days and memory of losing friends and family members, and the terrifying thought that we might live under siege again,” says Julienne, a Christian in Aleppo. “I went to sleep with tears in my eyes, waiting for the morning and praying that something would change.” Meanwhile, the danger of attack from extremists persists, as these recent threats show. 

Consequently, whilst Christians hold some cautious hope for the future, a deep sense of fear and unease pervades many believers’ hearts.

“We in Aleppo all share a hard life experience of long war days and siege, but we are the children of faith. We know that God holds the rudder of our lives,” said the priest at a recent Sunday service. “His words brought us a sense of peace,” says Julienne.