Syria
Before 2011: Authoritarian consolidation & sectarian strain
1970–2000 – Hafez al-Assad’s rule. Ba’athist police state expands security services and prisons; Islamists and regime opponents are jailed/tortured. Tensions sharpen between the Alawite-led regime and largely Sunni opposition. Encyclopedia Britannica+1
Feb 1982 – Hama massacre. After years of Islamist insurgency, regime forces besiege Hama for weeks, killing thousands of (mostly Sunni) residents and crushing the Muslim Brotherhood. It becomes a defining episode of state violence against Sunni dissent. Wikipedia
2011–2012: Uprising and violent crackdown
March 2011 – Daraa spark. Arrest/torture of teenagers over anti-regime graffiti ignites protests; security forces respond with live fire, mass detentions, and torture—abuses HRW said likely amounted to crimes against humanity. Human Rights Watch+1
2011–2012 – From protests to war. Suppression spreads nationwide; opposition militarizes; communities in Sunni-majority areas (Daraa, Homs, Hama, Idlib, Damascus suburbs) bear heavy bombardment, raids, and arrests. Encyclopedia Britannica
2013–2016: Sieges, mass detention, and chemical attacks
2013 onward – Starvation sieges. Regime “encircle, starve, surrender, evacuate” strategy devastates besieged Sunni districts (e.g., Eastern Ghouta, Homs). UN investigators document starvation as a method of warfare. OHCHR
Aug 2013 – Ghouta sarin attack. UN mission confirms use of sarin in the Damascus suburbs; hundreds killed—overwhelmingly civilians. Security Council Report
2014–2016 – Barrel bombs/indiscriminate strikes. Human Rights Watch documents widespread barrel-bombing of populated Sunni areas by government aircraft. Human Rights Watch
2011 onward – Systematic detention/torture. Networks of prisons (e.g., Sednaya) hold tens of thousands; torture and deaths in custody are extensively reported by rights groups and defectors (“Caesar” files). State Department
2017–2018: Confirmed CW use and the fall of Eastern Ghouta
Apr 2017 – Khan Shaykhun sarin. OPCW confirms civilians were exposed to sarin; a UN-OPCW mechanism later attributes responsibility to the Syrian government. OPCWUN Documentation
2017–2018 – Eastern Ghouta offensive. UN and media document mass bombardment, siege starvation, attacks on hospitals, and forced evacuations from this Sunni-majority enclave until its fall in April 2018. TIME The Guardian
Throughout the war: Attacks on health care & displacement
2011→ – Attacks on clinics and medics. Physicians for Human Rights maps hundreds of strikes on medical facilities/personnel—war crimes that disproportionately hit opposition-held, largely Sunni areas. PHRsyriamap.phr.org
Refugees & IDPs. Millions of Syrians—mostly Muslims—fled or were displaced; UNHCR tracks regional refugee figures in Türkiye, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and North Africa. UNHCR Data
Abuses by non-state armed groups (also largely affecting Muslims)
ISIS & other jihadist factions (2013→). Executions, sectarian attacks, kidnappings, child soldier use, and shelling of civilians—including Sunni Muslims who opposed them. Human Rights Watch
2019–present: Continuing repression under fragmented control
Ongoing arbitrary arrests/disappearances. The Syrian Network for Human Rights continues to document new detentions and large numbers of the disappeared each year. snhr.org+1
Continuing hostilities/humanitarian crisis. UN bodies repeatedly report renewed fighting and a persistent pattern of violations against civilians. OHCHRUN Documentation
What “oppression of Muslims” has looked like in practice
Collective punishment of Sunni-majority districts via sieges, indiscriminate shelling/airstrikes, and forced displacement. OHCHRHuman Rights Watch
Systematic detention/torture of perceived opponents (overwhelmingly drawn from Sunni communities in opposition areas). State Department
Chemical-weapons attacks confirmed by international mechanisms in opposition-held (largely Sunni) locales. OPCWUN Documentation
Targeting of medical care, crippling civilian survival in besieged/contested Sunni regions. PHR
Abuses by ISIS and other armed groups against civilians—including Sunni Muslims—through executions, coercion, and bombardment. Human Rights Watch
Context: Syria is overwhelmingly Muslim, with Sunnis making up about three-quarters of the population; so most victims of every side in the conflict have been Muslims. That includes abuses by the state and by anti-state armed groups. Encyclopedia Britannica