The protests come a little over two weeks since the toppling of Assad’s government on Dec. 8.Anwar Amro/Getty Images

Hundreds protest in Syria after Christmas tree set alight – POLITICO

by · POLITICO

Demonstrators took to the streets across Syria on Tuesday to protest the burning of a Christmas tree, two weeks after the dramatic toppling of dictator Bashar Assad.

The protests emerged after a video spread on social media showing two masked men setting a Christmas tree on fire on Monday evening in the in the main square of the Suqaylabiyah, a Christian-majority town in the province of Hama.

“We demand the rights of Christians,” protesters chanted as they marched through the streets of Damascus. “If we’re not allowed to live our Christian faith in our country, as we used to, then we don’t belong here any more,” a demonstrator told AFP.