The constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic guarantees freedom of religion. Syria has had two constitutions: one passed in 1973, and one in 2012 through the 2012 Syrian constitutional referendum. Opposition groups rejected the referendum; claiming that the vote was rigged.

Syria has come under international condemnation over its sectarian policies towards Syrian Sunnis, prohibition on religious groups like Jehovah's Witnesses, suppression of Protestant churches and for normalising antisemitic tropes through state media.

In 2023, the country was scored 2 out of 4 for religious freedom, with the government controlling the appointment of Muslim religious leaders.

In the same year, the country was ranked as the 12th most difficult place in the world to be a Christian.

History of the constitutional clauses (1973)

Early Ba'athist rule: 1963–1970 After a great deal of struggle between various groups for power, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath party seized power in Syria during the 1963 Syrian coup d'état. As an Arab socialist theoretician opposed to religion in general, the Ba'athist ideologue Michel Aflaq associated religion with the old corrupt social order, oppression, and exploitation of the weak; seeming to have been influenced by a mixture of radical Hobbesian and Marxist views.Barry Rubin, but About Syria 37 (Palgrave Macmillan 2007).

Like Marxists, Syrian Ba'athist ideologues viewed religion as a tool used by traditional elites to oppress the weaker sections of the society and reinforce their conservative social order. Anti-religious propaganda has been a common ideological theme in the literature published by Syrian Ba'ath party. Militant secularism was emphasized in the "Declaration of Principles" manifesto published by the Ba'ath party in 1960; which declared that the party's "educational policy" was to build a "new generation of Arabs that believes in the unity of the nation and the eternity of its mission." Syrian Ba'athist documents regularly depicted religion as a social institution that advanced "the values of feudalism and imperialism". The manifesto also stated that this envisaged Ba'athist generation would be "committed to scientific thought freed from the shackles of superstition and backward customs" and replace religion with Arab nationalism as their belief system.

Despite the Ba'ath party's hardline anti-religious ideological stance, the Ba'athist Syrian constitution of 1964 stated in one of its clauses that "Islamic jurisprudence shall be the main source for legislation".Derek Hopwood, Syria 1945–1986: Politics and Society 168 (Academic Division of Unwin Hyman 1988). Despite this proviso, there were a number of Sunni Muslims who felt that the secularization of the country had gone too far. They pressed for Islam as a state religion, demanding that all laws contrary to Islam should be abrogated. Their beliefs encompassed the understanding that the essential elements of the unity of Syria is the shari'a, which includes laws adequate to organize all aspects of life; at the level of the individual, the family, the nation and the state.

Salah Jadid's reign: 1966–1970 After the 1966 Syrian coup d'état launched by the neo-Ba'athist faction led by Salah Jadid, the Ba'ath party postured itself as a strongly anti-religious political entity; adhering to the Marxist–Leninist approach of top-down regimentation of the society through liquidation of what it regarded as "reactionary" classes such as the traditional ulema. The Grand Mufti's official status was downgraded by the Ba'athist government and the conventional role of religious clergy in state functioning was curtailed. While state ministers, officials, educators, etc. regularly preached about the "perils of religion"; party periodicals and magazines during the 1960s regularly made predictions about the "impending demise" of religion through the socialist revolution.

During Salah Jadid's reign in power, neo-Ba'athist ideologues openly denounced religion as a source of what they considered as the backwardness of the Arabs. Jadid regime also banned religious preaching, restricted religious education, intensified government control of religious institutions and persecuted the religious clergy. Religious scholars and activists alleged to be critical of the Ba'ath regime were detained, tortured or killed by the Ba'athist secret police.

Assadist rule: 1970–2024 Following popular revulsion against Jadid's blatant anti-religious policies, Hafez al-Assad began to tone down the secularisation programme during the 1970s, by co-opting some pro-government clerics like Ramadan al-Bouti to counter the Islamic opposition and granted them a degree of autonomy from the regime. Simultaneously, the regime began the "nationalization" of religious discourse through a loyal clerical network, and condemned anyone deviating from the state-promoted "Ba'thist version of Islam" as a threat to the society. The state-sponsored religious discourse during the rule of Hafez al-Assad promoted a left-wing nationalist worldview that sought to anathematize Islamists and re-inforce loyalty towards the Alawite president.

In 1973, a new constitution was drafted after demands from the opposition for stricter Islamic law. The Constitution was adopted by the People's Council at the end of January 1973 but had no provision to that effect. Viewing the Constitution as the product of an Alawite-dominated, secular, Ba'athist ruling elite, Sunni militants staged a series of riots in February 1973 in conservative and predominantly Sunni cities such as Hamah and Homs. Numerous demonstrators were killed or wounded in clashes between the troops and demonstrators. After these demonstrations took place, the Assad government had the draft charter amended to include a provision that the President of Syria must be Muslim, and that Islamic law is a main source of legislation as a compromise to the Islamists. On March 13, 1973, the new Constitution (which is no longer applicable, having been amended in 2012) went into effect.

Paragraph 2 of Article 3 declares that Islamic jurisprudence is "a" source of law, but not "the" absolute source.KAMEL KHALI, AL-QANUN AL-DUSTURI WA AL-NUZUM AL-SIYASIYYA [Syrian Constitutional Law and Political System] AT 560 (University of Aleppo Press 1996). Bernard Botiveau notes that from a Ba'athist perspective "Islam was one of the fundamental components of Arabness, but required to be located at the religious, and not the political end.""[...] l'islam était considéré comme l'une des composantes fondamentales de l'arabité mais devait être situé sur un plan religieux et non politique [...]. BERNARD BOTIVEAU, LOI ISLAMIQUE ET DROIT DANS LES SOCIÉTÉS ARABES 236 (Karthala 1993). Sunni Shaykh Muhammad al-Habash interprets the provision to mean that it "refers to the situation where there is another source of law. Islam is a main source, but not the unique source. There are other sources for a wide area of law."Interview with Muhammad al-Habash, His Eminence Shaykh Muhammad al-Habash, Member of the Syrian Parliament, in Damascus (Jan. 15, 2007), in MARCEL STÜSSI, MODELS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 375 ff. (Lit 2012). Scholarly commentator Nael Georges supposes that if there is no Islamic law that regulates a specific circumstance, secular law is applied. However, Georges concludes that there is not strict separation between Islam and the state in its present constitutional setup.For a similar conclusion Nael Georges, Le droit des minorités: le cas des chrétiens en Orient arabe 207 (Université Grenoble II, Ph.D. dissertation) (on file with University Library 2010). Despite this Article in the Constitution, Syria identifies itself as secular, and does not follow Islamic law. In Bashar al-Assad's speech in 2013, he reaffirmed his commitment to keeping Syria a secular state.

Religious and ethnic landscape Syria's eighteen million population is a mosaic of ethnically, culturally, and religiously distinct communities. Ninety percent of the Syrians adhere to an Arab identity; another roughly nine percent is Kurdish, Armenian, Circassian, and Turkomans filling out the mix.The official language, Arabic, is spoken by nearly ninety percent of the population. Kurdish, Armenian, Turkish, and Syriac is spoken by small minority groups. Some French and English is spoken in cities. Richard F. Nyrop et al., Area Handbook for Syria (U.S. Government 1971). It is estimated that Sunni Muslims make up seventy-four percent of Syria's overall population. As such, Sunnis provide the central symbolic and cultural orientation. Of these, a minority are of Kurdish descent, reducing the core Sunni Arab majority to roughly two-thirds of the populace.Flynt Leverett, Inheriting Syria: Bashar's Trial By Fire 2 (Brookings Institution Press 2005). Approximately another sixteen percent of the population, while Arab in ethnicity, consists of a few Twelver Shi`a, and various offshoots of Shi'a Islam – Alawite, Druze, and Isma'ilis. The 'Alawis are by far the largest community in the category of non-Sunni Muslims. Their number is estimated at eleven percent of the overall population. Christians, of various Eastern Orthodox and Uniate traditions and the Latin Rite, along with a smattering of Protestants, make up ten percent of the population. Syria's Arab Jewish community has, to a great extent, disappeared as a result of emigration in the early 1990s.Israel reveals immigration of over 1,200 Syrian Jews . Associated Press (18 October 1994) In 1993, it was reported that there were 3,655 individuals of the Jewish faith comprising 584 families distributed throughout the various Syrian governantes.

Religious clauses are constitutionally entrenched The Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic that was passed in 2012 guaranteed religious freedom in Article 3 and Article 33. Article 3 stipulates:

Despite claiming to be a secular state, the 2012 constitution also states in Article 3 that the President must be a Muslim, and that the majority of laws will based on Islam. Despite being prevalent in the constitution, Syria is seen as a secular state without having its laws based on Islam.

Personal status laws In Syria, two kinds of judicial systems exist: a secular and a religious one.Abd al-Rahman al-Sabuni, sharh qanun al-ahwal al-shakhsiyya al-suri, al-zawaj wa atharuh 263 (Interpretation of Syrian Personal Status Laws, Marriage and its Effects) (Volume I, University of Aleppo Press 1994). Secular courts hear matters of public, civil and criminal law. Religious courts that exercise specialized jurisdiction are divided into shari'a courts, doctrinal courts, and spiritual courts. They hear personal status law cases only. Shari'a courts regulate disputes among Syrian Muslims, whereas doctrinal courts are empowered to guarantee the personal status decisions of members of the Druze faith. Spiritual courts can also settle personal status matters for Jewish, Christian and other non-Muslim groups.Al-marsum al-tashri' [Parliamentary Decree] No. 133 of October 8, 1953; also United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Programme on Governance in the Arab Region on Syria, http://www.pogar.org/ (search for "Syria;" then follow "UNDP-POGAR: Arab Countries" hyperlink); also DINA CHARIF FELLER, LA GARDE (HADANAH) EN DROIT MUSULMAN ET DANS LES DROITS ÉGYPTIEN, SYRIEN ET TUNISIEN 36 (Librairie Droz 1996). Decisions of all of the religious courts may be appealed to the canonical and spiritual divisions of the Court of Cassation.Qanun [Act] No. 432 of October 19, 1955.

However, in 2016 the de facto autonomous Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava for the first time in Syrian history introduced and started to promote civil marriage as a move towards a secular open society and intermarriage between people of different religious backgrounds.

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