Τετάρτη 16 Οκτωβρίου 2013
Τρίτη 15 Οκτωβρίου 2013
Κυριακή 13 Οκτωβρίου 2013
Σάββατο 12 Οκτωβρίου 2013
They aren’t real Muslims’: Radical mercenaries kidnap, kill both Syria Christians and Muslims
‘They aren’t real Muslims’: Radical mercenaries kidnap, kill both Syria Christians and Muslims
Nadezhda Kevorkova is a war correspondent who has covered the events of the Arab Spring, military and religious conflicts around the world, and the anti-globalization movement.
Get short URLPublished time: October 11, 2013 00:56
Syrian Orthodox Christians light candles before a mass marking the Palm Sunday in the Syrian capital in Damascus (AFP Photo / Louai Beshara)
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TrendsSyria unrest
TagsBashar Assad, Opposition, Religion,Terrorism, Violence, War witness
Christians of the East view the war in Syria neither as civil nor as sectarian, Orthodox Bishop Elias Kfoury told RT. He also spoke of those who unleashed a conflict in Syrian society which hadn’t seen any religious hostilities in the past.
Metropolitan Elias Kfoury of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, Southern Lebanon and Western Beqaa spoke with RT’s observer Nadezhda Kevorkova in the biblical city of Sidon, located on the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon, in a church constructed in the building where the final meeting of the Apostles Peter and Paul took place in 58AD.
The Metropolitan’s residence is located in the very heart of the old city. It’s not easy to find, however any passing Muslim would show you the way to Metropolitan Elias’s place. Some of his parishes are located in the area populated by Shiites and controlled by Hezbollah. Others are on the territory of Sunni homes and Palestinian refugee camps. Presently the largest Syrian refugee camp is also located there. The cave where Mary was waiting for Jesus, and the cave where the evangelical wedding in Cana took place are a part of his eparchy. For 22 years some of his congregation lived under Israeli occupation. Twice, in 2000 and in 2006, their churches were bombed and destroyed by Israelis. During open hostilities campaigns anyone could find a shelter in Orthodox churches in spite of their religion, whether they were Sunni, Shiites, Druse or Catholics. So the Metropolitan has quite a profound understanding of the current situation that has been developing in Syria and is about to overtake Lebanon. He’s been walking this ground and talking to these people for a long time.
RT: Your Eminence, two Orthodox bishops, Metropolitan Paul of Aleppo and Metropolitan Gregory of the Siro-Jacobite Church were abducted at the Syrian border with Turkey in April of 2013. Rumor had it they were killed last summer but then media refuted this information. What’s the latest on their whereabouts?
Metropolitan Elias Kfoury: All we know is what people are saying. There haven’t been any official reports about their kidnappers or the location of these bishops. Two weeks ago we heard that someone saw them both safe and sound, that they were taking walks, and working out, and eating well. But there hasn’t been any real evidence, or any certain information regarding these bishops. What’s really sad and frustrating is that the abductions were performed by foreigners who had entered Syria. They are allegedly Muslims but their actions contradict Islamic principles. Those people aren’t the real Muslims. They abducted faithful individuals who had been sharing love and peace, who were not military actors!
Those people abduct civilians, Christians, Muslims, or pilgrims. All these things really remind of times when pagans used to kill believers.
RT: In the Western world, every abduction or murder of Christians in Syria is viewed as proof of Islam’s war against Christianity, like it was previously in relation to Iraq.
EK: Muslims and Christians are brothers. We can talk a lot about it. The Koran speaks very highly of Christians, and Muslims know it. The Prophet Mohammed sent his people to the Habeshi kind of Ethiopia to inform him that his people were believers and that they would not kill or hurt them. Whereas these foreigners are given arms, they are sent to wage war and to kill. They burn down churches and contaminate the Christian cross.
Several sacred Christian sites of global significance are located in the town of Maaloula 30 km from Damascus. In September 2013 rebel units occupied this settlement. They besieged the Orthodox monastery and destroyed the 4th century Catholic Monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus.
We have to ask the rulers of Muslims countries: why are you doing this? We are hurting because these alien people perform their deeds in the name of Islam.
Why did they occupy Maaloula? It’s a place where only civilians lived. There were no armed units or army troops there. Let the Arab countries answer this question – who are they sending to Syria, who are they arming.
RT: What’s the scope of destruction and atrocities in relation to Christians?
EK: Dozens of churches were destroyed all over the country wherever the rebels showed up. The patriarchy keeps track of them – in Homs, Aleppo, Raqqa, and Damascus. They attacked one church in Arbine, 10 km from Damascus, and fire destroyed all of it. I prayed there among its ashes.
Two metropolitans and three Orthodox priests were kidnapped. Two of the priests died. They blinded father Fadi Haddad, an Orthodox priest from Aleppo. In Hama, another priest, father Basilios Nassar took his friend and went to rescue a wounded man, and was shot dead by a sniper.
AFP Photo / Louai Beshara
RT: Do you think they treat Orthodox Christians with deliberate, selective cruelty? They did kill the Catholics as well.
EK: It’s a difficult question. We don’t know what’s on their mind in terms of this issue. Not all of the insurgents are acting this way. There are some decent rebels representing the good Syrians. But those performing such atrocities are mere terrorists who do not recognize any religion. They don’t even recognize Muslims. We don’t know what their objective is. But we see that the very existence of Christians in the East is now jeopardized.
RT: Who has an interest in forcing Christians to flee from the East?
EK: These are terrorist groups that act on behalf of Al Qaeda. And these groups have been mushrooming: there’s Jabhat al–Nusra, there’s the ISIL and others. And they all consist of radical militants who oppose everyone, including Muslims. Anyone who thinks differently must be killed, first and foremost Christians, they say. And new groups keep emerging.
RT: But why would they do this? What is the reason for radicalism and zero tolerance to communities that have co-existed here for centuries?
EK: They have a different understanding of Islam. They are not Syrians. Those who kidnapped our priests are not Syrians.
We know what the Syrian people are like. I’ve lived in Syria for twenty years. Syrians don’t care about your religion. When you visit a Muslim home, the hosts will give you the warmest welcome ever. They are very kind-hearted people, who respect others. Unfortunately some of them are illiterate, they lack education – I’ve met such people. But they don’t hate Christians or Christianity. They may be illiterate, but they are nice people – that’s what Syrians are like.
I can’t really figure out where all these radicals come from. This is so untypical of Syria and just as hard to explain.
These people come from Libya, Saudi Arabia, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tunisia – everywhere.
We are convinced that Syrians are the least aggressive nation in the East and they would never perpetrate such evil acts. We know the Syrian people very well.
The Saidnaya Monastery, a well-known Christian shrine in Syria, is visited by more Christians than Muslims, which proves that Syrians cannot do any harm to Christians. In Saida, I am often invited to visit Muslim families in their homes and I can say they are very friendly.
Syrian Christians attend Christmas Day mass at the Saint George Monastery in Mishtaya, some 50 kms from Homs (AFP Photo / Louai Beshara)
RT: The West is trying to find explanations for today’s events in the past. Are there indeed any clues in history that would perhaps help to understand what’s happening now? Is this a religious war, or a civil war? Do we still run the risk of the Syrian conflict spilling over to Lebanon?
EK: Our history has been marked by repeated clashes between Christians and Muslims, between various Muslim communities, between the Druse and the Christians. We walked some rough paths in our history – just like Catholics and Orthodox Christians had differences, blaming one another and fighting with one another. We, however, have mostly preferred to wage a war of words.
But what we see today looks like a political plot to start a war under religious slogans. And we can see the groundwork for this already underway.
Some time ago Baalbek, a Shia-dominated town in Lebanon, saw a minor clash between the Shia and the Sunni. Now, everyone talks about the Shia-Sunni tensions these days. Then a skirmish happens – as if to confirm these speculations. This is scary. This looks like part of a plot to drive a wedge between Syria and Lebanon and destroy them both. That’s why we have Jabhat al-Nusra and others on the ground – they even have their agents here in Tyr, in a Palestinian refugee camp.
Those who have come to destroy our nation are using religion as a disguise.
RT: Don’t you think that efforts to stave off the US strike against Syria or the UN decision to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal has somewhat eased the tensions?
EK: We know it’s a long way to go. There has been too much devastation, too much misunderstanding between various groups. There are so many Sunni and Shia Muslims, Christians, Druse, Alawites who know too little about religion. And so when somebody tells them to view Muslims or Christians as their enemies who have connections with the West, labeling Christians as crusaders, these people take this message as an instruction manual and start maltreating Christians.
We like to say that man is his own ignorant enemy. Whenever someone calls me a crusader, I tell him he should learn more about me and about where I stand. Before you judge me, get to know me better first – that’s my opinion.
RT: Thank you very much, Your Eminence.
EK: We have been bound together throughout history: our church and the Russian church, our nation and the Russian nation. I would like to thank the Russian Church and the Russian government for their role in preserving peace and aiding the weak and the poor in our region. We are very grateful to you. Our people love the Russian people. Some even have portraits of Vladimir Putin in their homes. Patriarch Kirill is in our hearts. We love Russians because we feel how close they are to our people. We feel that they protect us not for their own benefit, but because they feel like doing it and because it’s just so human.
Παρασκευή 11 Οκτωβρίου 2013
Πέμπτη 10 Οκτωβρίου 2013
Τετάρτη 9 Οκτωβρίου 2013
Τρίτη 8 Οκτωβρίου 2013
Δευτέρα 7 Οκτωβρίου 2013
Κυριακή 6 Οκτωβρίου 2013
INTERNASIONAL NEWS
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Posted: 05 Oct 2013 10:19 AM PDT
Al Qaeda's affiliate in East Africa claimed it repelled a nighttime raid by Western special operations forces in the southern Somali coastal town of Barawe. The location of the purported raid is the same town where a top al Qaeda and Shabaab commander was killed by US special operations forces four years ago.
"Local witnesses reported on VOA Somali Service that unidentified foreign troops 'came from the coast with boats and helicopters' and raided a house in Barawe around 2am local time Saturday morning," according to Garowe Online.
Shabaab's military spokesman, Sheikh Abdulaziz Abu Musab, confirmed the report and said that his fighters "repelled" the attack.
"We fought back against the white infidel soldiers with bombs and bullets, and they ran back to their boats," he said according to Garowe Online. "One member of Al Shabaab was killed and the white infidel soldiers failed their mission. We found blood and equipment near the coast in the morning."
Fighting between Shabaab forces and the unidentified Western troops lasted for more than an hour, Abu Musab claimed.
American intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not comment on the reports of the raid in Barawe. Given the nature of the raid -- which was carried out at night using both air and sea assets -- the US, France, and Britain are the only countries with the capabilities to carry out such a mission.
Barawe, which is halfway between Kismayo and Marka, is a known command and control hub for Shabaab. The coastal town is fully under the control of Shabaab, despite an offensive that was launched by Somali and African Union forces more than two years ago. Kenyan forces attacked Shabaab forces from the south and took control of Kismayo, but halted their advance after taking the southern city. Shabaab still controls much of the rural areas of Somalia as well as several smaller towns.
US and French special operations forces are known to have operated in Somalia in the past. In one of the two most high-profile raids, US special operations forces killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in Barawe in September 2009. Nabhan was one of the most sought out al Qaeda operatives in Africa. He was wanted for involvement in al Qaeda's 1998 suicide attacks against US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He served as a top leader in both Shabaab and Al Qaeda East Africa, and also was instrumental in facilitating the official merger between al Qaeda and Shabaab.
Most recently, in January 2013, French commandos launched a failed raid in the town of Bula Marer to free a French intelligence official who was captured by Shabaab in 2009. Shabaab fighters repelled the attack and captured a French commando, who later died in custody. Shabaab released photographs of the captured soldier and weapons and gear seized during the raid, and then executed the French intelligence official.
The US has also conducted several air strikes and naval bombardments against Shabaab in the past. In one such attack, Sheikh Aden Hashi Ayro, the military commander of Shabaab, was killed during a US airstrike in May 2008.
Today's reported raid took place just two weeks after Shabaab forces launched a deadly, Mumbai-like raid on an upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya, that resulted in the deaths of more than 65 civilians, including Europeans and Americans. Shabaab assault teams executed civilians and controlled the mall for 80 hours before explosions led to the collapse of a section of the four-story mall, which ended the siege.
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Posted: 05 Oct 2013 08:37 AM PDT
President Bashir al Assad made perhaps the most ironic statement of the year when he attacked Turkey for supporting rebel and terrorists groups fighting in Syria. From Reuters:
In an interview with Turkey's Halk TV due to be broadcast later on Friday, Assad called Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan "bigoted" and said Ankara was allowing terrorists to cross into Syria to attack the army and Syrian civilians.
Assad is actually right: Countries that attempt to ride the tiger by backing al Qaeda and allied groups have ultimately paid a heavy price. Look no further than Pakistan, which has supported, and continues to support, the Taliban in Afghanistan and a host of local Pakistani jihadist outfits to fight the Indians in Kashmir. These groups have since turned around and bitten the hand that feeds them.
Assad has made the same mistakes. He allowed al Qaeda in Iraq and other Islamist insurgent groups to use Syria as a base to attack US and Iraqi forces from 2003 up until the Syrian insurgency began in 2011. The US grew so frustrated with Assad's support that it took the unusual step of launching a cross-border raid to decapitate a dangerous facilitation network that operated in eastern Syria in October 2008.
Al Qaeda in Iraq has since morphed into the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (or Syria) and the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant; both groups have become dangerous foes and are instrumental in radicalizing the Syrian insurgency. Assad probably never saw this one coming, but he should have.
Welcome to the party, Assad.
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Posted: 04 Oct 2013 05:13 PM PDT
A report in today's Copenhagen Post describing a new letter-writing campaign launched by Danish Salafists to Muslims in Danish prisonsnoted that the campaign coincides with the reported death of Danish Salafist leader Shiraz Tariq in Syria. Tariq, also known as Abu Musa, is the leader of Kaldet til Islam ("Called to Islam"), the group conducting the campaign.
Reports of Tariq's death arose after a martyrdom video about him surfaced over the past week. A post on the video sharing website LiveLeak alleged that Tariq had been killed in Syria's Latakia province on the morning of Sept. 25; it also said that the "whereabouts and condition of his pupil Abu Khattab" were unknown. Khattab is also a member of Kaldet til Islam.
On Aug. 15, Khattab was featured in the first Danish-language jihadist video from Syria posted on the Internet, according to theCopenhagen Post. In the video, he appealed to Danish Muslims to come to Syria for jihad, calling it the "forgotten implication." Khattab is known in Salafist circles in Denmark. [See Threat Matrix report, Denmark looking at support networks for Syrian jihadists.]
The recently released martyrdom video for Tariq claims that he died while fighting alongside the Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, or Emigrants Army, which is made up of more than 2,000 foreign fighters and thousands of Syrians. The Emigrants Army is linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, one of two al Qaeda affiliates operating in Syria.
According to the LiveLeak post, Tariq is said to have been in Syria for some time, along with several other Danish jihadists, for whom he served as a leader. An Aug. 30 article in the Danish paper Politiken described the 34-year-old Tariq as "the spider" in the Danish Salafist environment, a committed jihadist who for years had pulled the strings in the background. He had been questioned in several terrorism cases and arrested once. His family came from the Sialkot region of Pakistan, according to Politiken.
Danish authorities have estimated that 65 Danes have gone to Syria for jihad, but the actual number may higher, as Islamist forces continue to extend their reach in the increasingly chaotic country. Authorities believe that so far six Danish jihadists have died in Syria. In May, jihadist forums released a video announcing the death of Danish jihadist Kenneth Sørensen, who had fought with the Muhajireen Brigade (Emigrants Army). [See LWJ report, Danish jihadist killed while fighting for Muhajireen Brigade in Syria.]
Just a few days after Tariq's reported death, Politiken noted that Danish authorities are looking for another jihadist in Syria, a 23-year-old from Bellahoj identified only as "A.S." One of the problems faced by Danish authorities is the fact that Danish law does not currently prevent persons from traveling to Syria to fight; only those who participate in the abuse or killing of civilians or join a terrorist organization can be prosecuted.
Neither of al Qaeda's two Syrian affiliates, the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, appear on the European Union's list of designated terrorist organizations; nor has the ISIL-linked foreign fighter group, the Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, or Emigrants Army, been listed as a banned organization.
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Posted: 04 Oct 2013 01:53 PM PDT
In a statement released to jihadist forums today, al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya in Sinai threatened to kill anyone found aiding Egyptian security forces. The group's statement, translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, further denounced the army for waging "war on Islam and Muslims" and trying to push through a "new idolatrous constitution."
Anyone providing Egyptian security forces with "information and spies for them, and those who participate in their sinful campaigns against the villages, and works as a guide for them...is merely an apostate and deserves to be killed by us," the jihadist group declared. "We will get him, Allah permitting, even if all the forces of the army and the police protect him. We will reach him, by the help of Allah, even if at his home," the statement continued.
In a message directed specifically at tribal leaders, al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya warned that "the treacherous agent will only get the sword."
The statement concluded by offering a chance for those aiding Egyptian security forces to repent. "[T]he door of repentance is open to all who were tainted with agency, and we accept it from him no matter what his past actions," the statement said.
Along with its threats against those cooperating with Egyptian security forces, the jihadist group reiterated accusations that the army is killing innocent people in its operations in the Sinai. Security forces are "attacking everyone who has any Islamic appearance," the statement charged. According to al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya, the "war on the mujahideen" has become "a war on the innocent residents of Sinai."
The jihadist group further contended that Egyptian authorities, described as "apostate forces," are targeting those who live along the border in order "to create a buffer zone to protect the Jews from any jihadi operations from Sinai."
Al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya did not announce the death of anyone in the statement, but claimed that "[t]he mujahideen anticipated the bad intentions of the army in targeting the residents with the excuse of having mujahideen among them, so the mujahedeen preferred to withdraw in order to save the residents from this war and that criminality." In a Sept. 10 statement, Ansar Jerusalem (Ansar Bayt al Maqdis), another Sinai-based jihadist group, similarly alleged that it knew what the security forces were going to target in their recent operations. "[We] had learned of the targets of this campaign from the way it was launched and the formations of the forces in it and through information they received," the communique stated. As a result, "the mujahideen ... undertook a studied evacuation operation that would make this operation lose its goal."
In jihadist forums, along with the statement the Sinai-based group provided links to recent video releases from the Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center as well as Ansar Jerusalem detailing some of the alleged crimes of the Egyptian security forces in the Sinai.
Today's statement from al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya comes a month after the group charged that the Egyptian army was lying about its operations in the Sinai Peninsula. In that communiqué, the group argued that Egyptian operations in the Sinai must be "repulsed and thwarted." [T]his is what the mujahideen are doing every day with operations that harm them and destroy [the army's] powers," the statement said.
A few weeks earlier, on Aug. 22, the jihadist group released a statement calling on Muslims to fight the "apostate" Egyptian army. The communiqué was particularly notable, as last fall the group had said that "the army and the police are not our targets and that our weapons are directed at the enemies and the enemies of our Ummah the Jews." And similarly, in mid-May, the jihadist group had said "the target of the Salafist Jihadist current in Sinai is the Zionist enemy and its operations are directed to them, and the Egyptian soldiers are not a target for us."
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