The conversion which changed Saul of Tarsus from a zealous opponent of the new Christian schism into the Apostle Paul took place outside of modern-day Damascus. Paul's greatest contribution to Christian theology - his acceptance of gentiles into what had until then been predominantly a Jewish sect - came during his stay in the Syrian capital of Antioch (a region today claimed by Turkey). The Ummayad Mosque was formerly a church, and contains a tomb which allegedly houses the head of St. John the Baptist. Today, the country which has given the world eight Popes and countless priests, bishops and saints is considered by many to be a junior member of the "Axis of Evil" and a hotbed of "Islamic terrorism." Yet almost 10% of Syrians profess one of a variety of Christian faiths and Christmas and Easter are still celebrated as national holidays. Syria may be a Moslem nation, but it is one in which a strong Christian presence remains.

Syria may have been one of the birthplaces of Christianity, but the religion - like the region - soon came under outside control. The Byzantine Emperors who took over after the fall of Rome ruled the area autocratically. They burdened the people with heavy taxes, and fought ruthlessly against the various flavors of "heresy" which regularly arose from the region. Arius, the 4th century Bishop who postulated that Christ was an inferior "second God" who stood between Man and the Divine rather than "True God from True God," was raised and educated in Antioch; his Arian heresy would remain a threat to Orthodox Catholicism for over 400 years. The Monophysites took their cue from Neoplatonism; since they considered the material world to be an imperfect reflection of the heavenly realms, they could not imagine a savior who was both "true god and true man." These debates were heard not only in the churches and universities but on the streets, as riots and wars broke out over questions like "Was Mary the Mother of God or merely the Mother of Christ?"

As it is today, there were political factors behind many of these religious debates. The Monophysite and Arian schools of Christianity were seen as a purer and more native form of Christianity, as opposed to the beliefs of the Greek imperial court. Indeed, those Syrian Catholics who remained faithful to Greek (and later Roman) Catholic teachings were called royalists, or in Syro-Aramiac, "Melkites" - a name which persists to this day. And as today, these heresies were seen as a threat to the established order. The Emperor Justin, and later his son Justinian, would fight ruthlessly to destroy these "unbelievers" … only to see their tactics backfire spectacularly. While the Byzantines were persecuting the Monophysites as "heretics," the new faith which had arisen among the Arabs and Nabateans promised them safety and respect as "people of the Book." Unsurprisingly, many of Syria's Christians welcomed the Islamic armies with open arms… and, later, found themselves seduced by Islam's stern monotheism. As a result, what had once been Byzantine territory was quickly annexed into the Islamic empire. By 635 Damascus was under Islamic control; soon Damascus would be the capital of an empire which stretched from south of France to west of China.

Even after the great Syrian conversion, Syria remained relatively tolerant of Christians. After the Armenian Genocide, many refugees made new homes in northern Syria. Today they are well-integrated into Syrian society, and have faced little in the way of persecution from their Moslem neighbors. The same can be said of the Syriac Orthodox, Christians who hold their services in the Aramaic tongue originally spoken by Jesus and his disciples. While the Syrian Constitution requires that the President be Moslem, it also guarantees freedom of religion. Although Arabic is the official language in public schools, the Government permits the teaching of Armenian, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Chaldean in some schools on the basis that these are "liturgical languages."

While the Syrian government is strongly anti-Israel, it is also aggressively secular: Assad has shown far less tolerance for Islamic fundamentalism than for the Christians of Syria. This may largely be due to self-interest: Syrian president Bashir Assad is a member of the Alawites, a crypto-Islamic sect which has incorporated a fair degree of Christian imagery and ideation into its practices and which is considered heretical by most fundamentalist Moslems. Indeed, Assad has at times attempted to play on Christian anti-Semitism, most notoriously in a 2001 speech wherein he asserted that the Jews were untrustworthy because they had betrayed Jesus.