De facto Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa — whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fighters drove President Bashar al-Assad from power last month — recently met with the Mideast nation’s Christian leadership after a string of menacing attacks on religious minorities, giving some observers hope the sanctioned militants are ushering in an era of greater inclusion and tolerance, though others remain skeptical. Protests broke out in Syria over the Dec. 23 burning of a Christmas tree in a Christian-majority town in Hama amid other reports of harassment, prompting calls for the new Islamist authorities to take steps to safeguard ethnic minorities. According
