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The decision, which authorities said was made \u201cat the request of the local community,\u201d came as the interim government of former Islamist rebel and now President Ahmed al-Sharaa faces growing pressure from hard-liners to impose more conservative religious values. Al-Sharaa has not publicly weighed in on the alcohol debate.<\/p>\n
More than a year after his movement ousted former President Bashar Assad, Syria is still reeling from 14 years of civil war and five decades of dictatorship as it struggles to define its future.<\/p>\n
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A member of the Alawite religious minority, Assad espoused a secular ideology to retain the support of fellow minorities in the Sunni-majority nation. Under his family dynasty, Syrians had little in the way of civic or political freedoms. But they could drink alcohol, party at nightclubs and dress how they pleased.<\/p>\n
After being named the interim president, al-Sharaa vowed to unite the country and respect pluralism. He has so far tread lightly when it comes to imposing social restrictions. Yet Syria\u2019s many religious and ethnic groups remain on edge.<\/p>\n
Sectarian attacks by pro-government Sunni fighters have killed hundreds of Alawites and Druze over the past year.<\/p>\n
Concerns over fresh violence <\/p>\n
Protesters on Sunday said they feared the latest alcohol restrictions could further fuel those tensions, as the decree allows alcohol to be sold in three predominantly Christian neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
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Still, establishments in Bab Touma, al-Qassaa and Bab Sharqi can’t serve booze on site, and shops in those three areas can sell alcohol only in sealed take-away bottles. Vendors also must keep at least 75 meters (246 feet) away from mosques and schools, and 20 meters (65 feet) away from police stations and government offices.<\/p>\n
Some said that in singling out Christians, authorities are framing them as responsible for what the decree describes as \u201cviolations of public morals.” Although Islamic law prohibits the consumption of alcohol, Damascus is full of secular Muslims.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow our are neighborhoods are violating public etiquette? The division this creates is unfair and irresponsible,\u201d said Fawaz Bahauddin Khawja, a Christian lawyer at the rally. \u201cThis is the real face of Damascus. The only flag we raise is the Syrian flag.\u201d<\/p>\n
As criticism flared ahead of the protest, Damascus authorities issued a statement late Saturday apologizing to the city’s Christian population \u201cfor any misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the decision.” It also clarified that hotels will be spared the booze restrictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision does not interfere with citizens\u2019 personal freedoms,\u201d the statement read. \u201cThe regulation of alcohol sales exists in all countries, with differences in how it’s applied and enforced.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Beirut contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protesters hold signs during a demonstration against against new alcohol restrictions that limit sales largely to Christian areas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[672,887,670,3284,3285,3282,3283,12512,3286,95,14480],"class_list":{"0":"post-31103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-syria","8":"tag-ahmed-al-sharaa","9":"tag-bashar-assad","10":"tag-damascus","11":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","12":"tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","13":"tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","14":"tag-product-32505-ap-online-middle-east-news","15":"tag-product-32509-ap-online-religion-columns","16":"tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","17":"tag-syria","18":"tag-syria-alsharaa-alcohol-ban-christians"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116273637273527027","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}