Religious Freedom and U.S. Policy in Post-Assad Syria

At the end of 2024, over 13 years since the onset of Syria’s protracted civil war, the country’s political landscape dramatically shifted when a coalition of Islamist rebels toppled the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Since then, religious freedom remains under threat from a variety of actors, including loyalists to the transitional authorities, who have targeted civilians with mass sectarian attacks. This policy update provides an overview of religious freedom conditions since the fall of Assad, refining USCIRF’s most recent policy recommendations to the U.S. government to address Syria’s rapidly evolving religious freedom conditions.