al-Qaeda seizes village that still speaks the ancient language of Christ

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...of-Christ.html

Syria crisis: al-Qaeda seizes village that still speaks the ancient language of Christ

A branch of al-Qaeda fighting in the Syrian civil war has seized one of the few remaining villages where the original language of Christ is still spoken, residents say.

A Syrian rebel vehicle with a heavy machine gun driving in Maaloula.

Fighting raged through the picturesque mountain village of Maaloula, near Damascus, on Thursday, as the regime launched a counter-attack against the rebels.

"They entered the main square and smashed a statue of the Virgin Mary," said one resident of the area, speaking by phone and too frightened to give his name. "They shelled us from the nearby mountain. Two shells hit the St Thecla convent."

Maaloula, tucked into the honey-coloured cliffs of a mountain range north of Damascus and on a "tentative" list of applicants for Unesco world heritage status, is associated with the earliest days of Christianity.

St Thecla, who is supposedly buried in the convent, was a follower of St Paul who fled to the village in Syria to avoid marriage, having taken an oath of chastity. It is said that the cleft of rock in which the convent is placed opened up to allow her to escape her pursuers.

The inhabitants are mostly Melkite Greek Catholic and Orthodox Christians, but have historically lived peacefully alongside a Sunni Muslim minority. It is one of only three places in the world where Western Aramaic, a dialect of the language spoken by Christ, is still used.

Until recently, the town had managed to remain mostly unaffected by the civil war that has already claimed more than 100,000 lives. A visit by The Daily Telegraph last year found it ringed by government checkpoints but suffering from the lack of pilgrims and tourists who are normally vital to its economy.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, rebel groups, a mix of the extremist Jabhat al-Nusra and the more moderate Free Syrian Army (FSA), attacked with full force.

"First they took a brick factory owned by a Christian guy, who is now missing," said the resident. "Then at around 5.30am, a car bomb detonated at the checkpoint at the entrance to the village.

"Some of the rebels entered a home near the checkpoint belonging to Yousef Haddad, a Christian. They tried to force him to convert to Islam."

A nun living in a convent in the village told the Associated press that 27 orphans living in the convent were taken to nearby caves for shelter.

Video footage posted on YouTube showed rebel fighters on a pick up truck with an anti-aircraft gun mounted on the back firing erratically from inside the mountain town.

Christians, who make up approximately 10 per cent of Syria's population, have increasingly become targets in the conflict as sectarian-minded foreign jihadists gain influence in the opposition ranks. Almost a third of the Syriac Christian population has fled the rebel-held northern town of Hassakeh after Christians became targets for kidnappings and assassinations.

Mousab Abu Qatada, a spokesman for the FSA in Damascus and the Damascus suburbs, denied that the attack on Maaloula had been sectarian.

"We are trying to protect the minorities and the holy sites of Syria. We promise to protect it against the criminal regime," he said.

Residents said the rebels had been pushed back to Safir hotel in the mountains, where they had been based since March this year.

The resident said: "They have been annoying the Christian people of the village since then. A Christian farmer cannot go up there to his land unless he is accompanied by a Muslim resident of the village."

The people that Nobel Peace Prize winner President O'Bomber and Middle East Peace Envoy Tony Bliar want to arm and help.

You couldn't make this **** up. But why are all the people on this forum who backed Obama in 2008 and 2012 silent?

Thoughts?

[Ardemax]

I literally cannot understand why anyone would launch an attack like this on innocent people. Madness.

The whole situation will be made a thousand times worse if these rebels get into power.

[oli]

When groups like this are involved I don't care much for collateral damage, I just want them gone.

[Eoin247]

Of course since they ''speaks the ancient language of Christ'', this is a particularly awful atrocity :rolleyes: . I really don't like news articles that serve only to promote the typical christian fear of those darned 'evil muslims'.

I mean just look at these quotes before you even get halfway through the article: "They entered the main square and smashed a statue of the Virgin Mary," Two shells hit the St Thecla convent." ''associated with the earliest days of Christianity.'' ''St Thecla, who is supposedly buried in the convent,was a follower of St Paul '' ''the language spoken by Christ, is still used. ''

Of course this was a terrible thing, but it's no more terrible than the rest of the atrocities happening there.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Of course since they ''speaks the ancient language of Christ'', this is a particularly awful atrocity :rolleyes: . I really don't like news articles that serve only to promote the typical christian fear of those darned 'evil muslims'.

You know what I can't stand? I can't stand it when people become apologists for Islam when any rational thinking person would accept that Islam has some very serious problems within itself and that pretty much all Islamic countries are incompatible with our western values. I don't hate or dislike Islam - infact i've been down time and time again defending Islam as a religion by saying that I believe without Islam the Middle East would be a much worse place.

But does that mean that in every negative article that is TRUE I have to jump in and call it the Religion of Peace when it's record says otherwise? no. The parts of Islam that treat Christians like this, the elements in Islam which treat women as filth and gays as subhuman - I will criticise Islam on that and so should you. It's time you and other westerners stop being spineless on this issue and for once stand up for what is right rather than kowtow to a religion that often uses threats and violence to silence it's opponents. And if you'd like me to provide examples for any of this then i'd be happy to provide - or alternatively listen to Christopher Hitchens provide them:

Of course this was a terrible thing, but it's no more terrible than the rest of the atrocities happening there.

Nobody said it was, it's a news report on a part of Syria that has now been taken which happens to be Christian. The underlying theme and backdrop to the article is to point out how Syria's secular government has in many ways protected minorities over the past few decades, hence why support for the Assad Government is strongest among the Alawites, Druze and Christian populations.

[Eoin247]

You know what I can't stand? I can't stand it when people become apologists for Islam when any rational thinking person would accept that Islam has some very serious problems within itself and that pretty much all Islamic countries are incompatible with our western values. I don't hate or dislike Islam - infact i've been down time and time again defending Islam as a religion by saying that I believe without Islam the Middle East would be a much worse place.

But does that mean that in every negative article that is TRUE I have to jump in and call it the Religion of Peace when it's record says otherwise? no. The parts of Islam that treat Christians like this, the elements in Islam which treat women as filth and gays as subhuman - I will criticise Islam on that and so should you. It's time you and other westerners stop being spineless on this issue and for once stand up for what is right rather than kowtow to a religion that often uses threats and violence to silence it's opponents. And if you'd like me to provide examples for any of this then i'd be happy to provide - or alternatively listen to Christopher Hitchens provide them:

Hey, i agree with you. Many parts of islam have serious problems, more so than even Christianity. I do criticize Islam for many things, and i have never defended it (So i'm probably more critical of it than you are in that sense). I'm not defending it here either. Rather i'm criticizing the article and its purpose.

However surely you can see that this article was written with an aim of pitting the religions against each other? Just look at some of the quotes i picked out from the first half of the article in my last post. I didn't like the article for that reason, as it serves more as religious propaganda than unbiased views of the war.

Nobody said it was, it's a news report on a part of Syria that has now been taken which happens to be Christian. The underlying theme and backdrop to the article is to point out how Syria's secular government has in many ways protected minorities over the past few decades, hence why support for the Assad Government is strongest among the Alawites, Druze and Christian populations.

Of course nobody said it was. But that is the articles purpose. To the average western Christian this is the way they are going to see it, whether they admit it or not.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Hey, i agree with you. Many parts of islam have serious problems, more so than even Christianity. I do criticize Islam for many things, and i have never defended it (So i'm probably more critical of it than you are in that sense). I'm not defending it here either. Rather i'm criticizing the article and its purpose.

However surely you can see that this article was written with an aim of pitting the religions against each other? Just look at some of the quotes i picked out from the first half of the article in my last post. I didn't like the article for that reason, as it serves more as religious propaganda than unbiased views of the war.

Eh? what? pitting religions against one another? no, the only people pitting religions against one another are the al-Qaeda rebels who entered a Christian village and smashed a Virgin Mary statue along with persecuting Christian land owners - acts which are clearly committed based on religion. The only ones 'pitting' against one another are the al-Qaeda savages who invaded the village and did all of this - not the news report that is merely reporting on it (which i'm very surprised at I must say).

If a report said 'A UKIP member smashed a bag of chips over Labour leader Ed Miliband's head at the Labour conference' would that be 'pitting political groups against one another' no - it'd be reporting the relevent facts.

Of course nobody said it was. But that is the articles purpose. To the average western Christian this is the way they are going to see it, whether they admit it or not.

Because that is what is happening - Christians are being persecuted now that the secular Assad Government is under siege.

[karter]

But does that mean that in every negative article that is TRUE I have to jump in and call it the Religion of Peace when it's record says otherwise? no. The parts of Islam that treat Christians like this, the elements in Islam which treat women as filth and gays as subhuman - I will criticise Islam on that and so should you. It's time you and other westerners stop being spineless on this issue and for once stand up for what is right rather than kowtow to a religion that often uses threats and violence to silence it's opponents. And if you'd like me to provide examples for any of this then i'd be happy to provide - or alternatively listen to Christopher Hitchens provide them:

Islam doesn't tell people to treat women as filth, the Quran although slightly discriminating, says that men and women are equal (However it tells that it's a solemn duty of a woman is to be obedient and caring towards her husband and the duty of a man is to maintain his wife) and as for homosexuality, I think the Bible says the same

The religion, does not use the means of violence, a few of its followers do

[-:Undertaker:-]

Islam doesn't tell people to treat women as filth

Do not twist my words, I never said Islam 'tells' - I said elements of Islam do treat women and gays as subhuman. I never once made a claim about what the textual scripts of Islam say so don't drag me onto territory which I wasn't even debating.

But now that you mention it, i'll retort this - you have read and know of the moderated Islamic book ... you must understand that there are many different interpretations of the book and different books, the Wa'abhani sect book and teachings in Arabia for example is a lot different to what you could buy over the counter here in Britain. For you say say that the moderated book is the 'true version' of Islam is exactly what huge numbers of muslims will say who read the Saudi version of the book - and who believe in it.

the Quran although slightly discriminating, says that men and women are equal (However it tells that it's a solemn duty of a woman is to be obedient and caring towards her husband and the duty of a man is to maintain his wife) and as for homosexuality, I think the Bible says the same

The religion, does not use the means of violence, a few of its followers do

When I say religion, i'm not debating the book itself - i'm discussing the religion and everything that stems from it, ie the religious culture. In very much the same way that Chrisitianity as we understand it today is very different to what it was 2,000 years ago or what is written in the Bible. But here are the facts (amongst western muslims).

Islamic attitudes on Homosexuality
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/m...-homosexuality
https://www.google.co.uk/#q=british+...+homosexuality (various links)

Islamic attitudes to any criticism of Islam
https://www.google.co.uk/#q=fitna The film and reactions criticising Islam
The murder of Dutch poltician Pym Fortuyn for criticising Islam https://www.google.co.uk/#q=pim+fortuyn
The fatwa placed on the author Salman Rushdie for criticising Islam https://www.google.co.uk/#q=salman+rushdie
The death threats placed against Geert Wilders for daring to critixise Islam https://www.google.co.uk/#q=geert+wilders+threats

Islamic attitudes on women
https://www.google.co.uk/#q=iranian+revolution&spell=1 Reaction in Iran by Islam after secular values introduced.



It all reminds me of the video above. There you have a high profile Liberal Democrat politician actually criticising the fact that a author in the west dared to exercise his free speech and subject Islam to the same criticism and mockery that Christians and Jews are subjected to weekly - yet look at the reaction from Islam to any sort of criticism.

And yet Shirley Williams and the spineless audience think Rushdie shouldn't have been knighted out of fear of offending Islam - a religion that seems to be offended all the time and over everything. Enough is enough - no other religion acts in the same childish brutual and absolutist manner. The fact is - whenever Christianity or Judaism is insulted we do not see the same reaction as we do from Islam.

[Eoin247]

Eh? what? pitting religions against one another? no, the only people pitting religions against one another are the al-Qaeda rebels who entered a Christian village and smashed a Virgin Mary statue along with persecuting Christian land owners - acts which are clearly committed based on religion. The only ones 'pitting' against one another are the al-Qaeda savages who invaded the village and did all of this - not the news report that is merely reporting on it (which i'm very surprised at I must say).

Well i cannot convince you of how i am reading this article. I think though, that if you read it again carefully at perhaps a later date when you don't have as strong opinions on the crisis then you might see what i see.

If a report said 'A UKIP member smashed a bag of chips over Labour leader Ed Miliband's head at the Labour conference' would that be 'pitting political groups against one another' no - it'd be reporting the relevent facts.

Because that is what is happening - Christians are being persecuted now that the secular Assad Government is under siege.

Yes. But that would be the equivalent of this article being no more than ''Rebels attack christian village". Which this article isn't.