Sam Brownback Warns: Don't Let Genocide Happen Again in Syria

U.S. Senator, Governor of Kansas, and Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback—one of the world's foremost experts on religious persecution—sounds the alarm: America must not repeat the deadly mistakes of Iraq.

There, ignored warnings led to the genocide of Christians and Yazidis, with populations plummeting from 1.5 million Christians under Saddam Hussein to fewer than 250,000 today, and over 500,000 Yazidis to about 300,000. Now, Syria's vulnerable minorities—Christians, Yazidis, Kurds, Alawites, Druze, and others—face the same existential threats from violence, massacres, and erasure under the new Syrian regime, whose forces have been implicated in atrocities.

Brownback writes: "The same will happen in Syria if we don’t insist on the safety of the country’s many religious and ethnic minorities." He adds, "If America looks away, radical elements in Syria will slaughter religious and ethnic minorities that lack independent means for their protection. Their only choices will be to flee, be forcibly converted or die." 

This urgent warning comes on the heels of ADFA founder Nuri Kino's compelling Newsweek op-ed—published yesterday—sharing harrowing voices from inside Syria about the cultural genocide facing Christians and other minorities. Kino reports Syria's Christian population has dwindled from up to 1.5 million before 2011 to fewer than 300,000 today, with incidents like the June 22, 2025, bombing at Saint Elias Church in Damascus killing 25, including 19-year-old Maryana, and broader targeting of Alawites, Druze, Kurds, and Yazidis through killings, abductions, and destruction of sacred sites.

A Syrian lawyer tells Kino: "This is cultural genocide, silent, watched by the world." Kino calls for conditioned U.S. aid with benchmarks, protection of sacred sites, funding for minority defenders, and a special envoy—echoing Brownback's plea to prevent "never again" from becoming "yet again."

Read Brownback's full WSJ op-ed: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/syrias-minorities-need-american-help-13be2458  

Read Nuri Kino in Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/cultural-genocide-syrias-christians-may-be-erased-opinion-11545318