Thousands of Syrians took to the streets of Homs on Saturday, demanding justice for two young men from the Murshidi religious minority killed in a brutal attack. The victims, Hadi Muhammed Qasim and Muhammed Walid Dervish, were shot dead at their workplace, sparking widespread outrage. Protests erupted in Homs’s Al-Louz neighbourhood and the rural town of Ghasaniyeh, with demonstrators urging authorities to identify the perpetrators and protect their community.
The attack occurred in Homs’s Adawiyeh, where armed assailants stormed the Ambirat electricity distribution office, vandalised it, and stole a motorcycle, a laptop and cash. The victims’ bodies were later found behind a medical centre in the Khalidiya neighbourhood and taken to Al-Zahra Hospital. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, reported the incident, noting it as part of a wave of violence against the Murshidi minority since the fall of the Ba’ath regime on 8 December 2024.
The Murshidi community, a small religious sect related to Syria’s Alawites, has faced increasing attacks in recent months, with the SOHR documenting at least 60 Murshidi deaths since the regime’s collapse. The sect, concentrated in Homs and the coastal regions, follows the teachings of Sulayman al-Murshid, from the first half of the 20th-century.
Protesters in Homs voiced fears of escalating persecution, accusing local militias of exploiting Syria’s fragile security under the transitional government led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni group. “We demand the killers be brought to justice,” a protester told Hawar News Agency (ANHA). “Our community cannot live in fear any longer.”
The demonstrations highlight broader sectarian tensions in post-Assad Syria, where minorities like Murshidis, Alawites and Druze face reprisals from some Sunni factions seeking retribution for perceived ties to the former regime. The transitional government has promised investigations into such attacks, but no suspects have been identified in this case, fuelling distrust. “The authorities must act swiftly to protect all Syrians,” said an Al-Louz resident, speaking to ANHA.
