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Charlie Kirk is the Founder and President of Turning Point USA, the largest and fastest growing conservative youth activist organization in the country with over 250,000 student members, over 150 full-time staff, and a presence on over 2,000 high school and college campuses nationwide. Charlie is also the Chairman of Students for Trump, which aims to activate one million new college voters on campuses in battleground states in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. His social media reaches over 100 million people per month and according to Axios, he is one of the "top 10 most engaged" Twitter handles in the world. He is also the host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” which regularly ranks among the top news shows on Apple podcast charts.
Charlie Kirk and Mansur Ashkar Expose Ethnic Cleansing of Druze Christians in Syria Under New Regime
Charlie Kirk speaks with Israeli Druze former IDF officer Mansur Ashkar about the horrific ethnic cleansing targeting Druze and Christian minorities in Syria under the new Ahmad al-Sharaa regime. Ashkar reveals firsthand accounts of villages under siege, families forced to defend their homes, and how Israeli intervention stopped what he describes as the fourth genocidal attempt in the Middle East in two years. While mainstream media focused on Israel's strikes in Syria, they ignored the systematic slaughter of religious minorities by jihadist forces connected to the new Syrian government. This conversation exposes the true story behind the headlines and why Israel acted to prevent another genocide.
Charlie Kirk sat down with Mansur Ashkar, an Israeli Druze and former IDF special forces officer, to discuss what he describes as a genocide attempt against the Druze community in Syria that mainstream media has largely ignored. Ashkar explained how the world only paid attention when Israel conducted airstrikes in Syria, but failed to report on the three days of systematic slaughter that preceded those strikes.
According to Ashkar, the new Syrian government under Ahmad al-Sharaa, alongside ISIS and al-Qaeda fighters, launched coordinated attacks on Druze villages using tanks, artillery, and Russian-made missiles. The attacks mirrored tactics seen on October 7th, with entire hospitals slaughtered, babies killed, and elderly religious leaders humiliated before execution. Christians also faced persecution, with churches burned and communities targeted.
Understanding the Druze Community
For Americans unfamiliar with the Druze, Ashkar provided context. The Druze practice a monotheistic religion that branched from Islam approximately a thousand years ago. They keep many of their religious beliefs private from outsiders. In Israel, approximately 150,000 Druze live, making up about 10% of Arab citizens and roughly half the population of the Golan Heights. The global Druze population stands at around one million.
The Druze trace their lineage to Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, which creates a connection to Judaism and Christianity. Religious Druze men grow distinctive beards and mustaches as signs of their devotion, detaching from earthly vanity when they commit to religious life.
The Systematic Campaign Against Minorities
Ashkar shared disturbing details about the coordinated attacks. He translated an audio message from Syrian government officials instructing soldiers to "stop using cameras" when attacking Druze villages. The instructions explicitly ordered soldiers to shave beards, slaughter civilians, and burn houses, but to avoid filming these acts to prevent international backlash. The message referenced mistakes made "in the coast" when they killed Christians and those attacks were documented.
The humiliation of shaving the beards of elderly Druze religious leaders before execution carries particular significance. Ashkar compared it to the treatment of Jewish rabbis during the Holocaust. One 80-year-old sheikh was photographed having his beard shaved by Syrian army personnel before being executed, an act designed to strip dignity before death.
A Personal Account From the Front Lines
Ashkar shared a deeply personal story that brought the crisis home. After the Assad regime fell, a relative he never knew existed contacted him from Syria. The young man sent a desperate message: jihadists were outside his house, coming to kill his family. His father had given him a gun and told him he had just become a man, instructing him not to let them take his mother or sister alive.
For three days, Ashkar heard nothing and feared the worst. When contact resumed, his relative described how Syrian forces had gathered families, begun torture and interrogation, and were preparing to execute them when Israeli fighter jets appeared overhead. The roar of the jets scared off the jihadists long enough for Druze fighters to grab weapons and mount a defense. The families escaped under fire from tanks, artillery, and military drones reportedly provided by Qatar and Turkey.
When survivors returned to their villages after Israeli forces intervened, they found their homes burned and looted. Videos showed Bedouins and jihadists driving trucks filled with stolen chandeliers, crosses, and religious items from churches, homes, and synagogues, which they planned to melt down.
Israel's Intervention and Netanyahu's Statement
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement explaining Israel's actions in Syria. He outlined a clear policy of demilitarization in the area south of Damascus, from the Golan Heights to the Jabal Druze region. Netanyahu shared words from Sheikh Mafak Tarif, leader of the Druze community in Israel, who drew a parallel to the Holocaust: "During the Holocaust, when your people, the Jews, were being slaughtered, you cried out for help and no one came. Today, our people, the Druze, are being slaughtered and we are calling for the help of the state of Israel."
Netanyahu responded that Israel acted and would continue to act as needed. The Israeli military targeted the Syrian Ministry of Defense and destroyed tanks advancing on Druze villages, actions that Ashkar credits with stopping the genocide.
Addressing Critics and the Media Narrative
When critics accused Netanyahu of conducting a land grab in southern Syria, Ashkar called the accusation "the silliest thing in the world." He pointed out that Israel has been engaged in warfare on seven fronts for over 600 days, with a depleted and exhausted military. The idea that Israel would seek another war in foreign territory to save non-citizen, non-Jewish people from their own government made no sense from a strategic standpoint.
Ashkar argued that Israel acted because it was the right thing to do, fulfilling the mandate to be "a light unto the nations." He expressed hope that America and other countries would similarly protect persecuted Christians around the world.
The Pattern of Genocidal Attempts
Ashkar identified what he described as four genocidal attempts in the Middle East over the past two years, all stopped by Israel. First, Hamas attempted to kill all Jews in Israel on October 7th. Second, Hezbollah planned similar attacks from Lebanon. Third, Iran pursued nuclear weapons aimed at Israel. Fourth, Syrian forces under the new regime attempted to ethnically cleanse the Druze population.
In each case, Ashkar argued, only Israeli intervention prevented mass slaughter. Without the Israeli Defense Forces, the Druze men defending their villages would have fallen, leaving women and children defenseless against house-to-house killings, beheadings, and worse atrocities seen previously under ISIS control.
The Leader of Syria and His Olympic Record
Ashkar expressed bewilderment at how Ahmad al-Sharaa transformed his image from terrorist to accepted leader. Al-Sharaa served as a general in both al-Qaeda and ISIS during their peak, then formed his own terrorist organization. According to Ashkar, one day he simply put on a jacket, adopted a hipster appearance, and Western media began treating him as legitimate.
Everything documented since al-Sharaa took power indicates clear intentions to kill anyone in Syria who is not Sunni Muslim. Christians, Alawites, and Druze have all faced systematic persecution under his regime. The orders Ashkar translated showed government officials directing these campaigns while instructing fighters to use human shields against Israeli airstrikes, employing Hamas-style tactics.
The Call to Protect Christians
Kirk and Ashkar concluded with agreement on the need to protect Christian communities in Syria and throughout the world. The persecution of Christians by the new Syrian regime mirrors the attacks on the Druze, with churches burned and believers killed. Yet these stories received minimal coverage from mainstream media, which focused instead on criticizing Israel's defensive actions.
Ashkar, speaking as someone with family across Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, emphasized that these are not distant political conflicts but real people facing extinction-level threats from jihadist forces now operating as an official government.
