TOM BASILE: The Long Road To Damascus For The World’s Christians

On the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus, who we would later come to know as St. Paul, saw a blinding light and from it heard the voice of Christ who asked, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” It is a question that has been asked by Christians now for millennia as they struggle for freedom against oppression.

The new Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who took control of the government after the ousting of Bashar al Assad late last year, announced a new transitional cabinet of 23 at the end of March. They are tasked with drafting a new Constitution and organizing Syria’s first elections after more than a decade of civil war. (RELATED: TOM BASILE: The Questions We Should Be Asking About Signal)

The only woman among the nearly two dozen named is a Catholic who was appointed Minister of Labor and Social Affairs. Alawite, Druze, and Kurdish minorities were also included in the mostly, Sunni Arab governing body.

Mr. al-Sharaa is a former member of Al-Qaida in Iraq and until the waning days of the Biden Administration, he had a $10 million bounty on his head.

Now, he’s pledging to maintain a government that is more inclusive of the country’s diverse ethnic and religious groups. This could be a positive step for endangered Syrian Christians, or it could be a ruse to deflect international pressure. Time will tell.

The days of the Colosseum are still with us and in dozens of countries, the road to Damascus is more than a metaphor for Christians. They wait for Ananias – for leaders of nations to make their plight a priority.

The free world relies heavily on religious liberty. It is not enough that religious minorities are tolerated or are permitted to simply exist. Like all people, they deserve to have agency and the ability to play a role in shaping the destiny of their communities and nations.

Freedom to worship is necessary for human flourishing and therefore not the apex of human societal structure but the foundation upon which that structure is built. Those values are not a destination but a necessary first stop on the journey to the kind of empowerment that Americans believe is endowed by our Creator.

The plight of Christians like those in Syria should not be relegated to a footnote in the larger struggles of our modern world. It is closely connected to the Arab Israeli conflict which at its core is about the religious intolerance of radical Islamists backed by Iran.

Tolerating the marginalization, killing or abuse of one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, or any other, is no less horrific than the atrocities of ISIS, the Soviet liquidation of clergy, China’s forced organ harvesting of religious minorities, their enslavement of the Uyghurs or their sex trade snaring Christian girls from Pakistan. Nigerian brutality against Christ’s followers, systemic oppression in Nicaragua and “thoughtcrime” in European nations, show the true depth of the broader crisis.

During this Holy Week, Christians and all freedom-loving people must realize that whenever this ancient struggle persists anywhere, it can exist everywhere.

Americans should have a greater appreciation for that simple fact after the last four years of Leftist intolerance infecting our own borders.

These souls in far flung places – some of which were the cradle of Christianity – are worthy of our national attention.

America leading on issues of Religious Liberty was not possible during the Biden Administration because of its own attacks on religious freedom.

President Trump’s commitment to end anti-Christian bias, protect Jews from antisemitism and realign the activities of law enforcement to interdict hate crimes against people and institutions of faith, has given the U.S. the moral ammunition to advocate for these imperiled groups.

In this important fight, again we face the stark reality that Europe will not lead.

The Left’s infiltration into institutions from schools to Hollywood has created a global culture over the last several decades where religious intolerance is tolerated as a natural consequence of religion itself. The senseless killing is meant to reinforce the Left’s atheistic narrative.

That is fortunately changing, albeit slowly, as we wake up to the fact that bending to corporeal, material and physical desires doesn’t translate into spiritual fulfillment.

Our foreign policy must be more courageous. We must recognize the indisputable truth that religious intolerance is linked to so many of the global challenges we face as a human community and setting religious liberty as a firm marker is critical to ensuring democracy thrives in the face of rising authoritarianism.

America must continue to lead by example on these issues and make clear that nations who oppress people of faith – including those in Europe – risk being left in the dark.

President Trump, praise God, appears to understand the linkages associated with this challenge. In his Holy Week message he said, “we pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our beloved Nation. We pray that America will remain a beacon of faith, hope, and freedom for the entire world, and we pray to achieve a future that reflects the truth, beauty, and goodness of Christ’s eternal kingdom in Heaven.”

The world needs those who can be Ananias for our world. It needs leaders and citizens, who while they may be afraid to buck today’s conventions, have the courage to take concrete steps to defend those oppressed for their faith.

President al Sharaa and so many others, have miles to travel before their redemption. It’s a long road and we must take steps to hasten the journey.

Tom Basile is the Host of ‘America Right Now’ on Newsmax, conservative columnist, speaker, author of Tough Sell: Fighting the Media War in Iraq and a former Bush Administration official. Follow him on X @Tom_Basile. Learn more at www.TomBasile.com

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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