Daughter of jailed Syrian Christian leader says ordeal has bolstered her faith: 'God protected my father'

WASHINGTON — The daughter of the imprisoned former mayor of a Syrian Christian town says her father’s ordeal has strengthened her faith in God for keeping him alive, as she works alongside religious freedom advocacy groups to secure his release.

The advocacy group In Defense of Christians (IDC) held an advocacy day Tuesday on behalf of persecuted Christians in the Middle East. Before heading to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers and their staff, IDC Executive Director Richard Ghazal gave remarks at IDC Headquarters highlighting the challenges faced by Christians in the Middle East as well as the imprisonment of Syrian Christian Suleiman Khalil.

Khalil, who has been imprisoned for over a year and a half, served as mayor of Sadad, one of the world’s oldest Christian towns, from 2012 to 2016. He is well-known for successfully driving the Islamic State out of his town when it came under attack in November 2015.

The Syrian Transitional Government, which took over after the fall of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, abducted Khalil from his home in February 2025. He has been held in a Syrian prison without charges and without access to legal counsel, medical care and the freedom to practice his religion. IDC warned that Khalil’s arrest sends the message that “Christians have no future in Syria.”

“My father did his job protecting his town and his family,” his daughter, Natalie Khalil, said in her remarks at IDC Headquarters Tuesday. “It’s time to do my part to protect him and get him free.”

Natalie Khalil told The Christian Post that she last saw her father in person in May 2025 when she visited him in prison.

“I visited him for like five minutes. That’s the only time that I went there, and I visited him,” she noted, recalling how both she and her mother were forced to remove crosses around their necks and wear a hijab while visiting her father.

Natalie Khalil's communication with her father has been limited since then, but she remains aware of his situation.

“He might be able to send like a piece of paper having some notes within the clothes that he sent, the old clothes,” she added.

The daughter said prison conditions are quite cramped. 

“They have a lot of people inside," she said. "They’re really like having a lot of people in the same room with no beds. It’s really dirty in there, really humid.”

The prison’s food supply is insufficient, with the daughter lamenting that her family used to be able to give her father food, but that ability has now been “restricted.”

Khalil was also required to fast during Ramadan for two years in a row by going 16 hours a day without food or water, she explained. 

Despite the difficulties faced by her father, Natalie Khalil sees his imprisonment as “an experience from God."

“I hope we will get through it, and this made me believe more in God because He protected my father," she said. 

“He’s alive, and we know where he is right now, and we have the faith to fight for him,” she added, thanking the lawmakers she had spoken with as well as the religious freedom advocates gathered in attendance at IDC Headquarters for their “interest” and “empathy.”

Joel Veldkamp, who serves as the director for public advocacy at Christian Solidarity International, is working to secure Suleiman Khalil’s release. 

“We know that Ambassador Tom Barrack is aware of the case,” Veldkamp said of the U.S. special envoy for Syria and Iraq.

IDC, along with Christian Solidarity International, former United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Co-Chair Nadine Maenza and former U.S. Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, sent him a letter to Barrack in June.

“We heard back from the ambassador’s office,” Veldkamp acknowledged. “They said: ‘We’re aware of the case. We’re concerned about it.’ We haven’t seen any action since then.”

The advocacy day itinerary includes a meeting with the U.S. State Department. Veldkamp is “hopeful that they will take some action.” IDC and Christian Solidarity International are working to get lawmakers to sign onto a letter to Barrack. Veldkamp confirmed that Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., is one of the lawmakers who has committed to the effort.

In addition to the letter to Barrack from the Christian advocacy groups, Natalie Khalil wrote a letter to President Donald Trump on behalf of her father. In the letter, which was shared with CP, Natalie stated: “I believe in God, and I continue to believe that compassion and justice can reach even the most difficult situations.”

“I am humbly asking you to please look into my father’s case and, if there is any lawful way to help, to do so. I am not asking for special treatment. I am asking for justice, compassion, and a fair review of my father’s case,” she added. “Mr. President, you have championed the protection of persecuted Christians, and I am asking you to do this again for my father, my hero, Suleiman Khalil. To the world he may be one man but to me, he is my father, my role model, and my hero. I am simply a daughter asking for help to bring her father home.”

In Syria, there were 2 million Christians in 2011, comprising 10% of the total population. As of 2025, there were fewer than 250,000 Christians in Syria, constituting less than 1% of the total population.

The situation in Syria for Christians has gotten worse following the fall of Assad in December 2024 and his replacement with the Syrian Transitional Government, which human rights advocates at the briefing say consists of “Islamists” who have created a “culture of impunity” that empowers “Islamist-led security forces & rogue jihadist militias.”

The decline in the Christian population in the Middle East is not limited to Syria. Statistics shared at the briefing suggest that while Christians comprised 20% of the Middle East at the beginning of the 20th century, they now make up only 1% of the population.