Damascus protesters took to the streets Sunday in Bab Touma, a Christian neighborhood, to challenge new government limits on alcohol sales and consumption that they said risk undermining personal freedoms and religious minority rights. The Associated Press reported that crowds of residents from multiple religious sects assembled in a grassy square, chanting and holding signs urging authorities to safeguard liberties.
In interviews with the crowd, Isa Qazah described the protest as a fight for rights rather than a campaign over whether people drink. “This is not about whether we want to drink alcohol, this is about personal freedom,” the AP reported him as saying, as he stood near the medieval stone lanes by Damascus’ Old City.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Bab Touma, and the AP reported that heavily armed security forces surrounded the demonstration. The report said the rally passed without incident.
The unrest erupted after the governor of Damascus issued a decree banning “the provision of alcoholic beverages of all kinds in restaurants and nightclubs” across the capital. The decree set a three-month deadline for restaurants to remove wine lists and for bar and club owners to change their licenses for cafe permits, according to the AP report.
The decree and its enforcement timeline come as Syria’s Islamist-led interim government tries to consolidate control after the overthrow of Bashar Assad more than a year earlier. The AP said the interim government is led by former Islamist rebel and now President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and that al-Sharaa has not publicly weighed in on the alcohol dispute despite growing pressure from hard-liners to impose more conservative social rules.
Opponents of the restrictions said the policy could exacerbate existing sectarian tensions in the capital and beyond. The AP reported that sectarian attacks by pro-government Sunni fighters have killed hundreds of Alawites and Druze over the past year, and protesters said they feared the alcohol curbs could intensify those anxieties.
Under the decree’s district-specific rules, the AP reported that authorities allow alcohol to be sold in three neighborhoods that include Christian areas—Bab Touma, al-Qassaa and Bab Sharqi—but not served on site. In those areas, establishments cannot serve alcohol, and shops can sell alcohol only in sealed take-away bottles, the report said.
The decree also includes geographic placement rules, according to the AP: vendors must keep at least 75 meters (246 feet) away from mosques and schools, and at least 20 meters (65 feet) away from police stations and government offices. Some protesters said the restrictions singled out Christians by framing them as responsible for what the decree describes as “violations of public morals,” even though Damascus has secular Muslims and other communities in addition to Christians, the AP reported.
Fawaz Bahauddin Khawja, a Christian lawyer at the rally, told the AP that the targeting was unfair and that protesters were focused on representing Syria rather than advancing a religious grievance. “This is the real face of Damascus. The only flag we raise is the Syrian flag,” the AP reported him as saying.
As criticism spread before Sunday’s demonstration, Damascus authorities issued a statement late Saturday apologizing to the city’s Christian population “for any misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the decision,” the AP said. The authorities also clarified that hotels would not be subject to the alcohol restrictions, and the statement said the regulation “does not interfere with citizens’ personal freedoms,” adding that “the regulation of alcohol sales exists in all countries,” though with differences in enforcement.
The decree’s restrictions and the backlash to them underline concerns among residents as Syria continues its postwar transition and as different groups test what pluralism will look like in daily life in Damascus, the AP reported.