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00:00In front of the St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral, these Aleppo Christians are preparing for
00:05mass.
00:06Since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham swept through the city, the fate of minorities is on everybody's
00:12mind.
00:13The Bishop Hanna Jalouf knows them well.
00:16He used to work in Idlib, controlled by the Islamists since 2017.
00:20They promised us, and I think their promises are honest, that everything would be left
00:27untouched.
00:29They didn't come to disturb the community mix.
00:31They came to topple a corrupt regime.
00:34Now the regime has fallen.
00:45During the service, he went to great lengths to reassure his congregation, saying they
00:49had nothing to fear.
00:53Today, they have offered us their hand.
00:57We must accept it, and we are optimistic that by accepting it, we will rebuild our
01:01country.
01:05But as the churchgoers streamed out, doubts lingered in the minds of some.
01:12We're still scared, scared that there are extremists among them.
01:16Fear is still there.
01:18It's the first time I've been to mass since Aleppo was captured.
01:21We always stay at home because we are scared.
01:27For me, the first time I saw them was when I came here.
01:31They were standing here.
01:33I spoke to one of them.
01:34He told me everything was fine.
01:36He said, don't be afraid, you can go wherever you like.
01:40Up to 300,000 Christians lived in Aleppo before the start of the Syrian civil war.
01:45Now roughly 30,000 remain.
01:48Like other minorities, Kurds, Armenians, amongst others, they want to believe that Syria's
01:53new Islamist rulers will keep their word and won't discriminate against their faith.