Christian worshippers attend Christmas Eve mass at the Greek Melkite Catholic Patriarchate, also known as the Zaitoun ("Olive") Church, in Damascus. Syria's rulers who toppled Assad's government on December 8 have since sought to assure religious and ethnic minorities that their rights would be upheld. But for some in the Christian community of several hundred thousand, the promises made by the new Islamist leadership have done little to soothe their fears in a country scarred by years of civil war.
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