Maalula Nuns Appear in Video, Say They're Fine, Will 'Leave in 2 Days'
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
A group of nuns reportedly abducted from Syria's Maalula appeared Friday in a video broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, in which they reassured that they are in good health and would be released “in two days.”
“We are fine. We're staying at a beautiful villa and we'll leave in two days,” says one of the nuns in the video.
“We left the monastery because of the intensity of shelling … We call for an end to the shelling of churches and mosques … Our hosts are kind and they have taken care of us,” says another nun.
“We will leave in two days,” says a third nun.
A fourth held woman added: “We were treated in a good manner and we're happy because we were evacuated from the monastery.”
A rebel group calling itself the Ahrar al-Qalamoun Brigades said Friday that the nuns were in a safe place, stressing that will not be released before the realization of several demands, topped by “the release of 1,000 Syrian women detainees from the prisons of the Syrian regime.”
Jihadists and opposition fighters on Monday entered the Syrian Christian town of Maalula and took 12 Lebanese and Syrian Greek Orthodox nuns from the Mar Takla Monastery to the Yabrud area in Qalamoun, near Damascus. The Vatican slammed the move as an “abduction.”
Pope Francis called for prayers Wednesday for the nuns. Religious officials in the region have said the women were abducted, but a Syrian opposition activist said they were merely removed for their own safety.
The 12 nuns join two bishops and a priest who are already believed to be held by hardline rebels, deepening concerns that extremists in the opposition's ranks are targeting Christians.
Speaking to a crowd gathered for the pontiff's general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, the pope invited "everyone to pray for the sisters of the Greek Orthodox monastery of Santa Takla in Maalula, Syria, who were taken by force by armed men two days ago."
The Qalamoun region boasts a sizable Christian population and is home to the ancient Christian village of Maalula and its Mar Takla convent. Church leaders and pro-rebel activists said the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front seized the nuns from Mar Takla on Monday.
Maalula was a popular tourist attraction before the conflict began. Some of its residents still speak a version of Aramaic, a language spoken by Jesus.
06 December 2013, 20:47
1222
see, the assadist/aounist and shia lies being spread about jabhat al nusra. look how happy and smiley these nuns, who were not kidnapped but removed for their own safety are-- such faces, women of integrity, holiness, cannot possibly lie. they are at ease and comfort with their "hosts." i read on travel reviews dot net that saudi arabian and pakistanis were very hospitable to guests, i think the video of the saved syrian nuns re-affirms that.
don't listen to the propaganda folks. all the nusra and ISIS want is democracy, everything else is an assadist atrocity!
06 December 2013, 20:54
166
Have u seen the destruction on the monastery ?
They would have been killed and Assad would have used their death to demonize rebels.
07 December 2013, 08:16
08
Lol watch countless of videos of Al Nusra atrocities that were shown before even Hezbollah intervened, so stop this Saud propaganda already.
07 December 2013, 10:51
08
You guys are funny, I was only joking. I know they are barbarians. Haha, had some excited here...
06 December 2013, 20:50
00
God bless, let's hope Assad's air force does not blitzkrieg them like it did in the case of the Azzaz pilgrims.
06 December 2013, 21:57
144
1- u ignoramus dont even know what salafi means otherwise u're a lying anti-sunnis propagandist.
2- rebels know everybody but few muslim nations is against them, so for what reason would they want to seem christian-friendly ? if they were the barbarians u and ur LF mate like to picture them, they would have beheaded them like takfiris did previously...
3-like skeleton said, why didn't abduct them the first time ?
4- like napoleon said, a picture is worth a thousand words, watch the destructed monastery and the weapons of local rebels. I got a small military background, I can tell u it's not 120mm, spg,rpg or atgw.
07 December 2013, 08:14
07
cedre, both your name and avatar does not reveal the true person you are, you should change your avatar to the saudi flag, and your name to Al Qaeda Takbir.
07 December 2013, 06:56
113
i did notice that people who are against a certain m14 ideology often come up with insults. did any1 else notice this?
06 December 2013, 22:30
011
seriously guys...
post some constructive comments and stop this demeaning ping-pong.
yaane by reading your posts we understand why we have had X years of war and why we are at the brink of another one!!!!
06 December 2013, 22:33
19
Sunni, Shia, salafi, hizbushaitan, christian, muslim, assadist, lf, aounist..........
Things would be a lot easier if we ALL just learn the word LEBANESE!!!!!!!!???????
06 December 2013, 23:03
153
God bless you the FSA for saving the Nuns of from Bachar's blind shelling of the town. God bless the revolution's spirit.
06 December 2013, 23:07
212
Difficult to determine your support for FSA from acidic sarcasm, but goes both ways.
06 December 2013, 23:37
112
The Syrian regime is not holding women detainees,
how can you know?
06 December 2013, 23:40
314
Ever wonder what would happen to the nuns if they said anything else?
They probably saw the statues of Mary being broken by bearded types with flags.
07 December 2013, 00:46
133
why does every1 care about these nuns? are they lebanese or something? am i missing something?
07 December 2013, 01:43
410
If they were only "evacuated" from Maalula, why are they being held against the will?
The time of the FSA-Al Qaeda jihadist terrorists is coming, and they will be brought to justice for their barbarism, massacres, and crimes.
07 December 2013, 02:07
68
Look at these nuns, they look like farsi followers and came straight from the Dahiya. I cant believe we share the same ethnicity as these ladies. Time for partition.
07 December 2013, 02:25
69
hey bro, thanks for your decent reply. I was actually just being sarcastic. Posting something similar to what the usual stooges on this site post when they see a pic of a shia.
07 December 2013, 07:57
29
thefact, I think you need to remind some people that they don't even have to go back more than a one-hundred years and find that ladies dressed in full clothing, often covering their hair, be it in Europe, or north America, in many ways not much different than these nuns, just look at how the pioneers dressed when they moved out west in north America.
07 December 2013, 03:05
75
Do you think Joseph Sader is being held by HA for his safety as well? How about releasing a video of him so he can tell us how hospitable HA is?
07 December 2013, 04:57
113
the m8 people here don't care about lebanon and lebanese joseph sader.
07 December 2013, 03:06
59
To hell with AL qaeda and their supporters, God bless these nuns and their bravery, they probaly say they are safe to protect the orphanage. Wouldn't suprise me, these Nusra/wahabi isis doesn't give a damn about peaceful human beings
07 December 2013, 08:15
18
I'm in favor of destroying all your Al Qaeda brothers throughout the world.
07 December 2013, 03:56
611
One of the many disturbing things about this video is that the nuns have all had the crosses they normally wear removed, as pointed out by As'ad Abu Khalil here. For the demands made by the kidnappers, which gives the lie to the claim that they were removed from their monastery for their own safety, see here.
07 December 2013, 04:32
00
I'm starting to think that maybe Syria under Assad rule is better than rebel control things are spiraling out of control..
07 December 2013, 07:15
123
faces,
hizbullah has allah by its side. didn't u know this already? (:
god ordered them 2 do everything they did. nusralla in person has a hotline se tup and gets in touch with his prophet on a daily basis.
07 December 2013, 07:16
112
not even, they killed the lebanese option party guy who was shia as well. they only care about themselves and their business/criminal associates
07 December 2013, 17:38
40
but you are never sick when bashar commits massacres of civilians? LOL
