A Kurdish Baptist pastor recently faced a two-week detention in Syria for practicing his faith, shining a light on the severe persecution confronting evangelists in the region.



When most people picture evangelism, they imagine traveling to foreign countries, sharing the Gospel with strangers or hosting worship nights in different languages. What we often forget, however, is that sharing the name of Jesus and the Word of God is actually persecuted in many places. When pastors and leading evangelists share, they can and do often end up imprisoned, tortured or dead. For one Baptist preacher in Syria, that has certainly been the case.

Nihad Hassan, a Kurdish Baptist pastor and leader of a Kurdish-speaking congregation in Beirut, Lebanon, was detained for the last two weeks (July 20- Aug. 3) while visiting family in Afrin, Syria, due to practicing a religion that’s “offensive to Islam and the Prophet of Islam.”

According to the Baptist Standard, though Hassan was recently released, arrests for people of the faith have become increasingly more common. Christian men have specifically been targeted by the Syrian national security.

Mervyn Thomas, founder of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, explained the persecution this way: “While news that Pastor Hassan has been released and reunited with his family is welcome, we are concerned that he was detained for two weeks without charge and call on the transitional government of Syria to work towards ending the use of arbitrary arrest and detention in areas under its control,” Thomas said.

Encouraging leaders of the faith to come together and stand against sectarianism through peace, justice and reconciliation, Thomas has begged Syrian government officials to address issues like these with full transparency “in accordance with law.”

According to the Christian Post, Christian persecution has grown since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in late 2024 and the new government’s inability to bring order to groups standing in grave opposition. CSW adds that the arrests have been in an attempt to find “Christian men accused of having taken part in atrocities under the Assad regime, adding that fewer than five of them have been arrested.”

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