Writing this week for The Hill, Congressman Frank Wolf observes that “history does not merely repeat itself — it warns us.” Informed by decades of public service on Capitol Hill, and intermittent visits throughout his career to global hot spots of intense persecution, Wolf draws our attention to the deteriorating religious freedom landscape in Syria. He writes:

In 1998, I was proud to lead the charge for the International Religious Freedom Act. I believed then, as I do now, that the right to worship is the foundational pulse of a free society. But today, that pulse is weakening in Syria. 

Syria is the cradle of Christianity. It is the land where the Apostle Paul was blinded by light on the road to Damascus. Yet today, the ancient communities of Christians, Druze, Alawites, Yezidis and Kurds are facing a surge of violence, including killings and displacements. 

Christians are fleeing Syria to the point where their ancient communities may disappear. In its just released 2026 annual report the bipartisan U.S Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended Syria as a Country of Particular Concern, a designation reserved for the most egregious violators of religious freedom. 

The current instability under the leadership of Ahmed al-Sharaa is not merely a regional hiccup. It is a global security fuse. As president, al-Sharaa brings a pedigree of association with al Qaeda, a history that cannot be ignored. His apparent lack of control over his own forces has turned Syria into a vacuum of accountability where minority groups are the primary victims. 

The numbers should haunt us: U.S. intelligence officials estimate that 15,000-20,000 former ISIS fighters were recently released or escaped from Syrian prisons. While some have been moved to Iraq temporarily for later possible return to their more than 67 countries of origin, many remain unaccounted for. As someone who represented constituents killed in the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, I see the shadows of the past lengthening. If we allow Syria to become a playground for reorganized terror cells, we aren’t just abandoning religious minorities; we could be inviting the next 9/11 to our own shores. 

Read the full article: “Don’t let the cradle of Christianity become its graveyard.”