"Franciscan Father Francois Murad is said to have died after fighters linked to the jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra attacked the monastery he was staying at, local sources say.
Catholic Online links to amateur footage purporting to show the 49-year-old's horrific death and reports: "The Vatican is confirming the death by beheading of Franciscan Father, Francois Murad, who was martyred by Syrian jihadists on June 23."" Huff post
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The Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land now say hat Father Murad was shot in his church by the al-Nusra Front.
This was the act of the allies of the United States, Britain, France, Jordan and Mursi's Egypt.
For shame! For shame! pl
I see this is Huffintong Post UK. On the US site we find front page links to ‘The Hills” star wearing a bikini, 2013 BET Awards show photos, another 1/2 dozen hollywood/celebrity gossip links, and the usual abortion/guns/gays linkage. The killing of Christians by ‘rebels’ supported – and now apparently armed and trained – by the Obama administration, Ms. Huffington apparently doesn’t think Americans need to know about.
Col: I wonder if any “journalists” in Washington will actually ask Obama about this?
How can arming these medievalist’s not blow back.
And here we have our very own McCain…
John McCain: U.S. must arm Syria rebels to deter Iran from nuclear ambitions
“http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/john-mccain-u-s-must-arm-syria-rebels-to-deter-iran-from-nuclear-ambitions-1.533132”
In AD634, Damascus became the first major Syrian city to fall to the Muslims. In AD1453, the long holding action of the Eastern Christian Empire finally ended, when Constantinople fell to Mehmet II – whose wonder weapons were the cannon cast by the Hungarian Urban.
However, Christian communities, with links going back to the time of Christ, survived, under the Ottomans, and their successor states. Perhaps they may even survive the imbecilic alliance of the likes of Barack Obama, William Hague, with the Sunni fundamentalists.
The cowardice of our national institutions shows the rot at the heart of country through and through.
Where from here, thought? What steps can we take against Judas McCain and ilk, doing the bidding of his neoliberal masters? How can we protect and aid our brothers and sisters over there?
This is a nightmare that is unfolding. Where is the moral leadership – Sen John McCain and the rest of the neocon tools should be ashamed of themselves – why are they not ?
Quite right, Fred. A quick Google search gets hits from Catholic and UK publications but not much else. Judging by coverage on Chicken Noodle News and Faux, it doesn’t rate any interest. A pity.
Colonel,
This is senseless and tragic. Wasn’t 9/11 a good enough lesson that financing and arming Sunni Jihadists blows back? War only begets more war.
Syria is America’s enemy because it is next door to Israel and has aligned itself with Shiite Iran. Since the revolution Iran has refused to kowtow to the USA. Money and arms from the EU, America and Oil Sheiks is instigating a Sunni Shiite holy war.
Meanwhile, Argentina is fighting against Wall Street “Vulture Funds” that endanger sovereign debt relief. Most of the Bankers’ bad debt from the 2008 crash worldwide is now sovereign debt owed by the people. After Iran, is the next stop for American troops Argentina, Ecuador, Peru or Venezuela?
America’s Elite are hard at work making money by creating a world filled with riots, insurrections, and disasters rather than trying to contain evil and promote peace and happiness for everyone.
Vietnam Veteran
“Wasn’t 9/11 a good enough lesson that financing and arming Sunni Jihadists blows back?” One more time. I was a participant in these events that you reference in Afghanistan. We did not fund, arm or train the Sayyaf Group. Neither we nor the ISI dealt with the Sayyaf Group. They were funded out of the Gulf principally by the Saudis. The Taliban and AQ were derived from them to include UBL. pl
Tyler,
It is looking more like the Syrian debacle that D.C. (President Obama/Senator McCain/Senator Edwards/and the assorted Israel’s sand-fleas (agents) that reside in our Congress) wants to get involved in is just like the Iraq war was — all about Israel, and squat to do with U.S. interests.
Will D.C. ever put U.S. interests first ahead of ‘foreign'(Israeli) ones? I wonder, and worry for our kids that they leave holding the bag of messes they unnecessarily stir up.
D.C. needs to hang its head in shame for allying themselves with putrid trash like the ones who murdered Father Murad.
This is indeed a global holy war that the Islamic faith(yes, I include every last one of them) is more than anxious to see come full force. This is but one example of why the Buddhist population in Myanmar will put them out to no end. Why the political force of the US and the UK is so determined to be careful of what they say so as not to offend or hurt feelings is beyond me.
You Sir are simply wrong. I live next door to the biggest Muslim nation in the world, Indonesia, and “world domination” is the farthest thing from their mind and I have been going there for Thirty years.
Please distinguish between the various sects of Islam, and you might also like to contrast some of them with the Christian “dominionist” nutcases who wish for something similar. The only difference between some Islamists and Christianises is that the Christianises have had another 600 years to mature compared to Islam and thus refrain from beheading people any more.
To quote a WWII propaganda poster: Business as usual. America open your eyes!
Francois Murad may you rest in peace!
Why would Allah condone such barbaric murder as sport? What were all those cellphone cameras about? Another weekend party to be filmed and shared on twitter.
Conflicts reach a level of hate when people become devoid of humanity. What are we doing in these places? Yes, another abstraction for a commissar.
Shame indeed.
Guten Tag, Brian.
In other words, beheadings of people of faith by Salafists in Syria – who are funded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama – justifies torching of Rohingyas in Myanmar by another Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi the daughter of Japanese appointed War Minister, General Aung San.
“Why the political force of the US and the UK is so determined to be careful of what they say so as not to offend or hurt feelings is beyond me.”
The reason would be the cult of ‘equality’ that infects the world righ now. Its the same drive that saw Paula Dean mau-mau’d for a word years ago, while “Lil Wayne” can stomp on the American flag and its alright.
There’s also fear, as well. There’s a play called “The Book of Mormon” which mocks the LDS crowd pretty heavily. While their beliefs may be weird, most of the Mormons I know are pretty decent people. They’re not not known for decapatating people or eating hearts. They’re soft targets, but if they shot a few people things would change I imagine.
I don’t think we’ll ever see a musical called “The Torah” or “The Koran” in the same light, either.
sir,
I came here to post about this very thing in a slightly different context. I was telling my office colleague who is Keralite Catholic Syrian, that if Bashar goes, then his biblical roots would disappear in a few years once the Sunni ethnic cleansing acts gets underway. Something from St. Thomas time in India to the present day would vanish from the pages of history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syro-Malabar_Catholic_Church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thomas_Christians
I’ve been in conversations where the lull/silence is awful, this was one of them. I regretted bringing up the conversation even though my colleague is worldly wise.
Your post makes me cringe with foreboding.
“Why the political force of the US and the UK is so determined to be careful of what they say so as not to offend or hurt feelings is beyond me.”
You should ask Paula Dean. That’s just a minor cases of ‘political correctness’. Had a black/hispanic/lesbian celebrity chef called men ‘white trash’ the ratings and sales would be up and not a single endorsement trashed.
Christian’s being butchered by our ‘allies’. Well that isn’t going to make the press in the US.
So far not a peep from the state controlled media (e.g. Fox, CNN) re; Father Murad. Nothing about the more general plight of Christians post Iraq War/Arab Spring either.
Disgusting.
I remember well liberal outrage over the Contras and how Reagan was pilloried in the press. Where is liberal outrage now?
Come on Matthew, that is the thing he does best…give non-responsive, high falutin, feel good answers to questions like this. He–hell, most of the little big shots–are past masters at this stuff. And the low hanging fruit harvesters eat it up. He gets asked this question…I bet you dollars to dimes, he winds up making the questioner feel guilty for bringing such an ugly subject up in public…. and the kid WILL feel guilty…because most of the time the questioner is a kid..really. Let me get him in a depo..where i can ask follow up questions, all day long.
Tyler, And Psy, who called for the deaths of American soldiers, in a Rap song, gets invited to the White House.
Walrus,
I agree with you about world domination…that claim is a reach. But almost everywhere Muslims are coming in contact with non-Muslims, there is tension and in many cases violence. From Africa to Asia to Europe, and now, perhaps, in America. Perhaps. I don’t see how one can deny that. Now, as to the causes of this…as to who is the instigator, and so one…that is up for debate. I have my ideas…others have theirs. But something is brewing, and has been, for a while now.
“what are we doing in these places”. Did you see what happened in the heart of London? And almost in Paris, as well? Almost.
So I AM CURIOUS!
All seem to know that Israel is one of the great drivers of USA FP!
On the finance end the banksters though the FED and Treasury Department drive FP!
What are other drivers of US FP? Wall Street generally?
Religion? Economic necessities to keep expending 25% of the world’s resources annually?
The military/industrial complex?
Congress?
Executive Branch bureaucrats?
Think tanks?
Does any consensus exist on USA FP drivers?
I first came across this video for work last week, and from a close watch of it could not tell if it was of the priest or not.
1. The “man” reading the “charges” is obviously not an Arabic speaker, and I could only make his comments out on the second man that was executed.
2. The first man to be killed I presume is the one people though was Murad. Features are similar, but the footage is really grainy.
3. The video was released two days after the Vatican News Agency’s statement, which said the circumstances of his death were unclear. However the Vatican news agency provided a location; Ghassaniyeh, which is in the Idlib area where the video was purportedly shot.
None of this offers clear proof Murad was killed in the video.
Interestingly, the first news network to air the video was Iran’s Al-Alam Arabic language network. (The video first circulated online hours before the network aired it).
News agencies, BBC included, have cited “activists” but this, again, is not proof.
If in the video the non-Syrian speaker had said derogatory comments about Christians or even said one was a priest, I would tend to believe it.
Also, Telegraph offers their own reasoning that this was not in fact Murad.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10153954/Priest-beheaded-in-Syria-video-actually-shot-dead.html
HOWEVER, it seems likely to me that rebels killed the Father, and there is a huge set of evidence of how they have destroyed Christian property and threatened Christians. (Including in Qusayr, which once had a Christian population.)
Because they are necon, AIPAC tools. Throw in the Democratic Leadership Committee (Clintons, Pritzkers, etc) also. Not a bit of difference between necon and neolib. Neolibs are just bringing the pot to a slow boil.
Amir: Home run.
I haven’t watched the video (there is enough sickness coming out of DC).. however, the writeup is very imformative..
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/how-fair-and-how-logical-is-it-to.html
All
The Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land are now saying that Father Murad was shot in his church rather than beheaded. I have no idea. pl
However he was murdered, it does not diminish his martyrdom, nor does it relieve us of our duty to “remember Father Murad.”
McCain is like a herpes infection – he always seems to pop up at the most inopportune time and never goes away.
I think its going to take something serious for this nation to be able to shrug off the ticks that are sucking her lifeblood. Everytime a populist candidate comes up who may do something, we see how the media conspires to destroy them.
DC is shameless. A city of whores, squatting for the world to see. This is all just a game for those in the ivory towers for more money and power.
I guess I would feel more sympathy for Paula Dean if she wasn’t a rabid Obama supporter. I wonder if she knows now this is what they do to you when you’re not the right protected class pour encourager les outres.
You know if they were killing Jews we’d be spinning up the 82nd Airborne because the Holocaust, oy vey.
The guy over at SBPDL made the point that Dean’s sales are through the roof now, so maybe the media is losing hold of the ‘Narrative’ and we’re starting to see a backlash against this political correctness insanity.
Also, don’t forget the slaughter of the Rhodesians in Zimbabwe and the killings of the Afrikaaners in South Africa. Remember all how that went down, with the US leading the charge for ‘moar equality’ and wrecking their econmise and now well look at the mess.
“Not a dimes worth of difference ” Gov George Wallace
Tyler, even mainstream media reported Dean’s new cookbook hit number one in presales before Ballantine dropped out of publishing it. The uproar over this is asinine. You’d think Dean admitted to eating black babies on a weekly basis by the way her spineless sponsors are dropping her. I hope people rally to her like they rallied to Truett Cathy and Chick-fil-A. He runs a good, honest company and made the unforgivable mistake of expressing his personal faith based belief. Hell, I share his belief on the sacrament of marriage. That should be respected based on our first amendment rights. Concerning the legal condition of civil marriage, we surely disagree. I believe in equal protection here. Either remove all civil benefits from the status of marriage or grant them to all.
Sir, the parallel remains strong in my mind for the reason that our government is trying to support the rebels in Syria and “carefully” not funding Jubhat al-Nusra, yet the environment the US promotes obviously supports Saudis spreading their evil influence by extending such support, now reflected in in these recent tragic events. This is just as you say, a scrupuluous policy which is nonetheless not capable of not promoting such killers.
I agree with VV the US should learn to better manage such un-intended consequences, but the US is rather risking possible “radical Islam renaissance” in the myriad factions who find themselves on “our side” in Syria, all for whatever geo-political goals, or to scare other independent minded nations generally.
http://americanoverlook.com/obama-backed-muslims-behead-catholic-priest/10766
Whether you are killed by a bullet, napalmed to death, gassed or beheaded is really besides the point. The savagery of the puppeteers is the problem not the modus operandi of the puppets.
I’ll join you!
We live in a complex world. One of the reasons I like to read here is the expert knowledge and insight shared by our host. Any attempt to try to simplify this complexity, such as Islam bad Christendom good, is laziness.
One of the things you might want to try is to put yourself into the boots of your opponent, not for any empathetic or justification of their actions reason, but to gain perspective.
What is the source of all of this radicalization? When you get past the argument of “who started it” and look at the relative advantages and body count, we might say most people contributing here would be quite intimidated by the Israeli and American advantage in this conflict.
My opinion about the humane thing to do in this general conflict is to tone down the threat and involvement as much as we can outside of our strategic interests. We have already eroded to many of theirs’ and our inalienable rights in the name of “victory” in this absurd war.
Geewhiz … if Prime Minister Cheney had only directed Shrub to occupy Rhiyahd instead of Baghdad .
Meanwhile there are photos of rapper Lil’ Wayne standing on the American flag being spread around facebook. None of the stores dropping Dean are dropping him. Guess desecrating a flag is okay with some.