As the West seeks to legitimize al-Sharaa, Israeli Druze warns of rising terror threat to Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities under jihadist rule

Reporting for ALL ISRAEL NEWS, Mansur Ashkar offers a fresh perspective on the situation in Syria. As a Druze Israeli with relatives in Syria, Ashkar draws on their firsthand accounts and other sources to present a view that contrasts with mainstream media narratives.

“Things are not looking good,” he said.

Recently, there was an attack on Christians at a church in Damascus, followed by another assault on the Druze community, where radical oppressors reportedly tried to kill their daughters. “The minorities in Syria are terrified,” he shared.

“Following the massacre of innocent Alawites all across Syria where we saw these horrific videos of them [the attackers] barking like dogs and walking in the streets, executing them, daughters and children in front of their parents,” Ashkar said that “the minorities in Syria are actually most concerned right now as we speak by the normalization that the West is trying to do” with newly-appointed President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

He points out that while the West is embracing negotiations with al-Sharaa, Syrians still “see him as a terrorist.”

“I mean he does have a very impressive track record of doing almost everything terrorists can do. He was in ISIS, he was in Al Qaeda, he went on and started his own Al Qaeda branch. And he was ordered by ISIS to go and take control over Syria, which, if you want to look at it that way, he actually did. He took over Syria and now he is running this government on behalf of his jihadists,” Ashkar stated.

U.S. President Donald Trump recently met with al-Sharaa and decided to lift the tariffs imposed on Syria in an effort to help advance the country under its new leadership.

Ashkar highlights the differences in Western thought and policy, explaining why this approach may not be in the best interest of Syrians. He argues that it [the al-Sharaa government] is based on a radical religious ideology that seeks to undermine their[Syrian] way of life and poses a threat to their religious identity – even if that threat comes under the guise of coexistence.

“It's very easy to fall [for] this narrative that if we give money to terrorists in the Middle East, and if we ask them nicely to try to become a democracy and open Starbucks and Kentucky Fried Chicken that things will be solved, but that never worked. In the Middle East there's a serious problem and in Syria the problem is Sunni right now. I'll say that again the problem is the radical Sunnis that have control over this country. They see this conflict as a religious conflict. Either they're trying to oppress anyone who's not Sunni or they're going in the defense and saying 'you are attacking us because we are Sunni, '” Ashkar explained.

“I'm all for this country to get out of the ashes of the destruction of the oppression of the Bashar al-Assad regime and the Iranian regime that was in it. The Muslim brother that completely came and destroyed this country with Hezbollah, with Hamas, with everyone involved. Like literally it was a Mad Max of the Arab world.”

Ashkar shared that he wants Syria “to become a better country,” but emphasized that the benchmark for a nation's health is how it treats its minority groups – such as Christians, Druze, Alawites, Yazidis, Kurds, and others in this case.

Referring to the recent attack on the church in Damascus, Ashkar noted how unusually little is known about the attacker’s identity – suggesting this secrecy is intentional. He believes there is an agenda behind keeping those details hidden.

“What we know from the Syrian people that I've been talking to, the terrorist was a known figure that was walking around Damascus with a pickup truck and a big megaphone trying to make people to convert to Islam, sending this, you know, to all the infidels around, come to Islam, join this religion of peace before it's too late,” Ashkar revealed.

According to Ashkar, the attacker took matters into his own hands:

“He grabbed a suicide dress, a machine gun that allegedly he was not on his own.” Additionally, “he had a team of two to three people with him that were planning to come when everybody, when all the people come to run to their families to go and suicide bomb on everyone, ended up fleeing, catching them up.”

The bombing killed approximately 25 Christians and injured more than 60, he reported.

“As per the Syrians, that terrorist was connected to the government. He was an ex-HTS soldier operator. You name it, he had military-graded C4 on him and weapons. And apparently by some of the testimonies that came out of the field, the local authorities not only knew about the attack that was happening, they didn't do anything to stop it. They had a chance to intervene and to stop it, but they didn't get involved,” Ashkar said.

Once again, Syria failed to prevent a massacre – another attempted genocide against minority communities. As Ashkar said, this “should be something very concerning for the Western community.”

He went on to draw a comparison between Syria and Gaza, pointing to what happened after the West lifted sanctions and sent humanitarian and financial support to Gaza. After 16 years,

“They didn't build schools, they didn't improve the infrastructure of that country, they didn't start creating science programs… [Hamas] stole all that money to build dungeons and bunkers under the ground, whole tunnel infrastructure that they used later on to orchestrate October 7 and hide in these bunkers while stealing their own people's food and not providing shelter for their own people and actually using their own people as human shields,” he argued.

Ashkar criticized the propaganda methods used by Hamas and similar groups:

“Dead babies, women and children,” he said, are used to manipulate global opinion. Then, “the plug is pulled and a declaration is made that ‘let’s stop this war…it’s too much…ceasefire now.’”

He calls this system “the radical Muslim startup world.”

Through control of the nation and its education system, Ashkar explained, radical jihadists gain the upper hand – pushing agendas that are “antisemitic, anti-West, and anti-Christian.” This emotional manipulation taps into Western empathy, triggering financial support that ends up arming terrorists and fueling further cycles of violence and repression against anyone whose ideology or theology does not align.

Amid all this, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, targeting Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure – including large stockpiles of ballistic missiles and launchers. The global community expressed hope that the offensive might spell the end of the Ayatollah regime and freedom for the Iranian people.

However, after the U.S. assisted Israel in bombing three of Iran’s main nuclear sites – the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, the Natanz Nuclear Facility, and the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center – President Trump stated there would be no further military engagement unless absolutely necessary. This announcement sparked concern among global leaders and many Iranians, who now find themselves more exposed than ever and questioning the stability of the Iranian regime.

Ashkar noted that after the attack, many Iranians “opened up and they went outside and said ‘yes, we support you we don't hate the west, we don't hate the Jews we want a better life’” – but now those individuals are in danger. Their names were reportedly shared with supporters of the Ayatollah regime, and some 700 people – many of whom are Jews – have been arrested for allegedly “conspiring against the Ayatollah.”

Ashkar warns that the situation will worsen:

“It is going to get worse for the Christians, the Druze, the Alawites, the Atheists, anyone, the Muslims – the free, peace-loving Muslims – that are living there. The situation is just gonna get worse,” as a result of the “ecosystem” created by both the oppressed minorities and the well-meaning West.

Ashkar noted that while pursuing peace, Western governments often send financial aid that unintentionally fuels terrorism and prolongs the suffering of those they hope to help.