Appeals for Humanitarian Organizations to Aid Monastery in Maaloula
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East urged on Tuesday the Syrian Red Crescent, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the governmental and non-governmental organizations NGOs to aid the ancient Syrian Christian village of Maaloula.
“Humanitarian organizations should send aid convoys to the historic Saint Takla convent and those who are trapped in it,” an appeal issued by the Patriarchate said.
The appeal pointed out that convent in the village, which is on a UNESCO list of tentative world heritage sites, is “passing through difficult times.”
“The convent is currently in the middle of an area where fire exchange is taking place, which makes aiding it a daunting and dangerous process.”
"The generator has gone out because of the fighting, halting the supply of water to the convent and threatening the lives of those inside," the statement added.
The rebels launched the assault on Maaloula at the beginning of September after a Nusra fighter blew himself up at a regime checkpoint at the entrance to the mountain village.
The village, about 60 kilometers northeast of Damascus, is home to 3,300 residents, some of whom still speak a version of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ that only small, scattered communities around the world still use today.
It is full of troglodyte caves dating back to the first centuries of Christianity, and also houses the Mar Takla Greek Orthodox convent.
“We call on all the Syrians to engage in dialogue as an only solution to end the rift. And we call on the fighting sides to neutralize all landmarks that indicate the country's distinctive cultural role and avoid harming and Damaging them,” the Patriarchate added.
24 September 2013, 10:09
412
No no, this is not possible. Abadan. FSA-Al Qaeda never attacked Maaloula and pillaged its homes and churches and attacked its citizens! FSA-Al Qaeda never beheaded Christian priests or feasted on the heart and liver of a Syrian soldier! FSA-Al Qaeda is completely secular and they just want a democracy!
24 September 2013, 16:09
08
Karim is right. Much of M14 want to minimize this. Most of the west wants to minimize this. Although I am not pro regime by any means, M14 and the west, have no idea how to manage the growing number of Sunni extremists. You can give me all the thumbs down you like, but if you are M14 you know this is an issue you do not know how to cope with. Again, it is completely clear to me what Assad did to us in Lebanon, but we cannot ignore the threat of the growing Sunni extremism.
24 September 2013, 16:12
09
We never used to have these guys with beards...in Lebanon. They want to kill all of the Christians in the Middle East. Right now there is no organized group of Christians who in the name of Jesus kill Muslims, and if there were, 99% of us would denounce it. There is nobody going crazy and protesting in the west as they attack our churches in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan.... There is nobody in the Christian west attacking Mosques and killing Muslims as a result of them killing our religious leaders and burning our churches in the east. Can someone Muslim admit this? This is what most people want to say in Lebanon, but cannot in public; but all Christians, no matter what the political affiliation, deep down talk about over coffee.
24 September 2013, 17:42
60
Zahleh there is guys like this everywhere in the world, u know the blew metros in france, twin towers in the states enno come on, in tripoli during civil war the guy of tawhid that applied chari3a is still alive and march 8 ( hachem menkara, there was another: said chaaban now his son heads his militia, how nice) anyway the extremism allways exited, nazy, fashism... But laqs are there to cut their wings, assad always play this card, i know many i will hv a lot of reaction but fateh el eslam guy (cheker el absi) was held in syria and by magic fled suria to lebanon... (We still hv lebanese in syria and none of them could run away in 30 years)isn't it weird? Also it is well known that assad facilitated jihadi to irak to fight against US. And last many infos went at the begining of suria uprising that assad set free 1300 islamist in the first monthes of the uprising, enno those are still to be proven but still don't that make u to think... Me or no one... Ou apres moi le deluge..
24 September 2013, 19:55
05
Ya banima,I'm not talking beards, like normal beards, I'm talking like these super long ones, like for the "super religious salafi", you know what I'm talking about. Anyone can have a beard, but I am referring to the number of salafi types we have running around, don't get it twisted. I didn't say a church was recently torched in Lebanon. No where in my post. But if you talk recent like 2000, I remember the nuns killed and tortured in Dinniyeh. You had the nun raped and killed at Beirut University. In 2003, you had the christian missionaries bombed in Tripoli. In 2011, you had the bombing of Our Lady of Zahle. In 2012 you had the kidnapping of a priest by Shiites after he baptized a Muslim girl. In 2012 in Bqosta near Sidon you had two assailants with hunting rifles shoot out windows at the church.
24 September 2013, 19:55
05
In the past decade, we have had it good relative to other Christians in the Muslim world. No doubt. But again, there is not an organized effort by Christians to do this to Muslims. Christians are like a turkey shoot in the Muslim world. Let's not ignore if it is happening in Syria, Iraq and Egypt that we won't be next if we don't get our act together.
24 September 2013, 10:36
133
Karim as weird as it seem i'm born christian but no churche no monastary no sanctuary is worth the blood of thousand syrian ched by this assad mercenaries...
No one will say to u that there is no al nosra and god fanatics in syria, and in time of war most people lise humanity.. That's a fact karim after the world war 2 french hang collaborators on the trees in the midle of town squares;are they less human than us?
Why go to france our long civil war was full of atrocities done by every single milicia (different scales but still all comited attrocity..
Just to tell one story bc u seem to hv firgot that part of our history, hachem menkara a well bearded salafiat from tripoli excetued 40 men and women in one night during civil war, put them in ciment (some of them alive) and threw them in the sea while trying to implemnt chari3a.... Guess what the syrian regime sent him back to tripoli few years ago and is a march 8 ally...
What to think.... Or at least think....
24 September 2013, 11:14
211
The ciment stuff was also a speciality of the Lebanese forces faction of Hobeika.
Attrocities were made on both side but do not believe one side is better then another BUT we know what Assad is capable of and we do know that the salafists are worst for the christians and moreover for all minorities in the middle east.
Entre la peste et le cholera, christians must prefer Assad with whom they can survive against an islamic republic in syria that would lead to their disparition as it happened in Iraq
24 September 2013, 12:26
102
Between assad and takfiri christian must perfer freedome, for once fight for a cause and not only to survive....
24 September 2013, 13:50
010
Christians survived to Assad and kept their freedom,
with the salafists, it is no more a matter of freedom but of survival !
i guess you re missing this point
24 September 2013, 13:58
011
Also try to remember how the christians were massacred in aleppo in 1853, how christians in syria and lebanon were massacred in 1863 (and saved by abdel kadel in damascus and by the french intervention in lebanon) how christians were massacred by the turks in 1916 (200 000 casualities for a total population of 600 000, which should correspond to the definition of genocide but the lebanese are short minded when it comes to national memories) and so on, in 53, how few christians were massacred in north lebanon because they were christians (and because a muslim girl choosed to convert herself to christianism), etc... etc...
i wont talk about what occured since
24 September 2013, 19:58
05
Yes banima, it is documented they are trying to steal the Maronite church land that the church legally bought years ago and have the paperwork for.
24 September 2013, 10:51
133
Christians (not all but the big bulk) are doing the same mistake again and again... Considering themselves away from the problems of the region, taking sides with the opressor against the majority of the population in their mind minorities should get together to survive.. In fact the people should get together to take off the oppressor so all of us can survive, u know syeia is somewhere beyween 20 and 23 milions people i don't think the majority is al qaida, i don't think they are all fanatics... In fact fanatics are a verry small scale of that (even the russian says thouthands so even 100 000 thouthands fanatic on 20 milion people .. Syrian hv all done 2 years military training so give them arms and we'll see...
Yes i might be dreaming but i really wish my children don't leave the nightmare of civil war that i and most of us lived...
Imagine....
24 September 2013, 11:35
211
The civil war in lebanon was ignifugated with 200 palestinian fighters that came to lebanon after the dark tusday in Jordan in 73. So even a low number might lead to a catastrophy
Right now Al Qaida represents half of the rebels in Syria. You just trying to minimise that threat which is a grotesque error
24 September 2013, 12:28
93
200 palestenians?? When my house was burned down there was more that 200 beareded guy in the street... What r u talking about???
24 September 2013, 13:57
011
I am talking about the 200 palestinians fighters that were expelled by jordan with the LPO and that constituted the Saika base. They were those that were the backbones of the palestinians milicia back in the 70
but it seems you did forget how the civil war started and why we fought for our survival
200 palestinians led us in 73 to the civil war of 75. this number must be compared to Fatah al islam militants number of 400 during Nahr Bared fights in 2007 and now to the different fundamentalists groups that are existing
Stating that their number is low is a major mistake you re doing. They shouldn't exist
24 September 2013, 17:45
60
Please review who was al sa3ika and what was surian regime role in it... I was telling life experiences so that we donnot go and bring fact from a past we still donnot agree on... Enno man al sa3ika 200 plo from jordan or syrian army undercover?....
Once again might be wrong...
24 September 2013, 11:50
112
imagine... most fighters are extremists linked to al qaeda ISIS or Al nusra. "Pentagon officials estimate that extreme Islamist groups now constitute more than 50 percent of the rebel force, and it’s growing by the day.”
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/09/20403434-extremist-element-among-syrian-rebels-a-growing-worry?lite
Many are foreign sunni extremist. "western Intelligence" agencies aka cia, estimate that the vast majority of Syrians are pro government and only 10% of syrians are openly siding with the "rebels" with an additional 10% hating the government but also don't like the fsa or foreign extremists.
This means the vast majority of almost 80% of syrians are being held hostage to these terrorists!
Every day more of the rebels become foreign extremists and every day more syrians join the Army or civil defence units to fight them.
The day this Saudi wahhabi/Qatari muslim brotherhood game is defeated, the better the world will be.
24 September 2013, 12:29
92
No he also have russia, iran, hezbollah, irakian brigades, aviation, scuds....
24 September 2013, 11:37
113
As weird as it sems not all christian are LF and co. or FPM and co. , i would like to think that most of them are more inteligent than that..
In anw the current political position of LF is clear and stable since 2005 but here again i am human and hv my weakness the past of the lebanese forces still haunt me... But someday we will all get over our civil war and we might be able to build a country...
And please LF donnot send christian forces to help even if u could cause u will be no more than al nusra and hezbollah killing syrian people..
24 September 2013, 12:31
110
Yes electoral law, it was meant to be like the FPM, every one chose from his own sect... That's a way to build a country...
That is also one reason i donnot approve LF, sorry for that.... (Good think they retracted, but not for the same reasons, saddely.....)
24 September 2013, 11:38
131
All of the Levant is garbage I am ashamed to be the descendant of Lebanon.
24 September 2013, 12:08
103
Don't be ashamed georges we are a land were mist civilisation past, we have a rich culture and someday we will understant this hopefully...
24 September 2013, 12:14
102
Wolf u r right we all so mistakes and we should all repent (and not talking from a religious point of view) but we are all human and hiatory cannot just be ignored... I respect the fact that geagea recognised LF mistakes but untill it is still hard to forget the past... Here i am talking of all our past not only geagea but all the lebanese "leaders" same people, nearly same divisions, same situation as in the 70s... Here it goes again, and now we hv another religious party : hezbollah (even if our friends from fom donnot see it it is still a religious party with a sayed as leader and khomayini as exemple) armed expended in all lebanon and ruling, engaging in wars.... Nobody sees something wrong tvere?..
24 September 2013, 12:37
111
In the south the hez engaged in war against amal, comunists, pnss.... even if the guys now retract from telling this but those are still facts and u can see the papers then to be sure...(even if i'm sure u know that) so gor israely occupation a large fraction of the population faught it and please don't go hez liberated us and all that crap....just for the sake of others martyrs...
24 September 2013, 14:06
92
FT i know that first everyone who engaged uin war comited crimes , there is no such thing that a clean war, be realist man...
Second wich LAF are u talking about? Jeich lebnen el janoubi was part of lebanese army, jeich lebnen el arabi (ahmad el khatib and many of his guys)also, al liwa2 el sedess if i do remember well was fighting with amal so what LAF are u talking about the one that stayed with aoun?....
FT bringing the past is good to learn lessons for the future but please donnot go and chose only parts of it, see the all pictures, maybe if we all do it wont happen again.... Maybe...
24 September 2013, 12:19
102
Ado, u r saying that 80 % of syrian population is with assad??, are u kiding me?? Are u kidding urself?? Al nosra and all the other illuminated (including hezbollah) are outsiders, that is a good thing, i still believe that the 23 milions of syrian will crush all those illuminated sown if well armed...
And seriously how would there been a true unified opposition if the people that were against the regim were either in jail, depoted or in the graves... Wont go for expemples but i'm sure everyone knows that even if tbey don't want to recognize it...
24 September 2013, 12:22
101
And at last it is not the way things go: or assad or takfiri!!! Enno what is this equation? If u count only the people that took the street at the behining of the uprosing they were alreaddy thousands... Please in the name of opressed syrian people, in the name of humanity donnot put the choice between takfiris and assad, there is a way, always... Even if paved with struggle and suffering, liberty has a price, not everone is ghandy (saddely...)...
24 September 2013, 14:07
92
FT i know that first everyone who engaged uin war comited crimes , there is no such thing that a clean war, be realist man...
Second wich LAF are u talking about? Jeich lebnen el janoubi was part of lebanese army, jeich lebnen el arabi (ahmad el khatib and many of his guys)also, al liwa2 el sedess if i do remember well was fighting with amal so what LAF are u talking about the one that stayed with aoun?....
FT bringing the past is good to learn lessons for the future but please donnot go and chose only parts of it, see the all pictures, maybe if we all do it wont happen again.... Maybe...
24 September 2013, 15:53
80
The SSNP are on the rampage again, Tahya Syriia wolf, the only people that make up stories like that are the SSNP . You call yourself a Christian and quote scripture yet harbour so much hate. You are a hypocrite.
