The broken Arab Spring record* just keeps playing the same line.
*For those who are not familiar with American English slang/idiomatic phrases, a broken record/album refers to the old vinyl records that, if they were scratched, caused the needle to continually skip back to the last-played line/part of the song with each revolution and thus keep repeating itself. I have a bad habit of falling back on slang and phrases that are not well known outside the US. With the advent of cassettes, CD's and digital files for music or other audio storage, even younger Americans may have no idea what it means.
Hat tip to Jihad Watch.
Bolding is added.
http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=32111&lan=eng
"Damascus (Agenzia Fides) - A terrorist attack hit innocent Christian faithful and innocent Druzes in the area of Jaramana, a suburb of Damascus: yesterday, August 28, at 2 pm, a bomb in a car was detonated while a crowd of faithful, families, elderly people, women and children, were heading to the cemetery to bury two young people. The two had died the day before, on August 27, also victims of an IED. As the crowd, after the funeral, was accompanying the deceased to the burial, a taxi exploded causing 12 deaths (according to other sources 27), including 5 children, and injuring more than 50 people. In Jarmana about 600 thousand people live, mostly religious minorities: there are 250 thousand Christians (Assyrians, Armenians, Chaldeans, Melkites, Orthodox and other denominations), as well as Druzes and about 120 thousand Iraqi refugees, who fled to Syria in past years.
As reported by Fides sources in Damascus, the Christians in the suburbs of Jaramana (south-west of Damascus) and Zamalka (South-East of the city) are under pressure from armed groups jiahdisti and are terrified. Today in Zamalka a family of Armenian Christians was found murdered, and all members of the family horribly decapitated. The execution brings to mind the work of radical Islamist Salafis.
These acts, which affect innocent people, have generated anger and confusion in the Christian community. A leader of the Latin Catholic community of Damascus, who requested anonymity, told Fides: "These are terrorist acts: we do not know who is behind, some are groups that want to destroy Syria. Armed gangs of jihadists have begun to sow terror. The point is that even in the West, Christians are often portrayed as friends of the regime or collaborators of the repression, but it is not true. Christians are with the Syrian people and just want peace. But this propaganda gives terrorist groups, infiltrators among the rebels, a pretext to attack us." (PA) (Agenzia Fides 29/08/2012)"
The Obama administration continues to ignore the atrocities that visit the Christians of the Middle and Near East. There have even been reports that the CIA, many of whom are probably at least nominal Christians themselves, has operatives on the ground in the region.
Note that the article stresses that our operatives are trying to limit the acquisition of arms to fighters who are not deemed to be anti-US. It's a great relief that we are only helping the rebels that go to great lengths to assure us that they really are nice guys after-all.
As usual, there is more anti-Christian violence, and threats of the same, going on in Syria than your run-of-the-mill bombings and decapitations:
"The Metropolitan Archbishop of Aleppo, His Exc. Mgr. Jean-Clément Jeanbart’s residence was broken into and looted during clashes between militiamen and loyalist troops. The Archbishop, his Vicar and some priests fled a few hours before the episode, which occurred last Thursday, and took refuge in the house of the Franciscans in Aleppo. According to Fides sources in the local Catholic community, those responsible "are unidentified groups, who want to foster a sectarian war and involve the Syrian people in a sectarian strife." As confirmed to Fides by the Franciscan Fr. George Abu Khazen, OFM, Apostolic Pro-Vicar of the Latin Catholic community, who welcomed the greek-Catholic confreres, "Archbishop Jeanbart expressed great concern and dismay over the incident, and he repeated, shaken, in a single word : Why? ". Then he left for Lebanon, where he still stands. In the following days, when the military regained control of the situation, the Mgr. Jeanbat’s Vicar was able to return to his see, noting that the doors had been forced and there were different objects missing (such as a computer and projector).
Fr. George explains that in past days there was a battle in the old city of Aleppo, and the fighting reached Fahrat Square, where all the archbishoprics are. In addition to the greek Catholic (Melkite), also the Maronite Catholic was damaged. Some militants also broke into the Byzantine Christian museum "Maarrat Nahman", damaging some artifacts and icons. "Our sources, for security reasons do not wish to be named, said that "although no threats were made against Christians [There have actually been mnay threats as noted n previous posts], there is growing fear in our community. What is feared are mercenaries and other foreign fighters, some belonging to Al Qaeda. It is these that scare us. With the Syrians, dialogue is possible because we identify ourselves as children of the same nation, but with foreign mercenaries who will defend us?, especially because as Christians we excluded to defend our neighborhoods with arms, because we want to be elements of peace," concludes the sources of Fides"
The above includes some noteworthy points. The Christians have to carefully couch their words in a manner that makes it appear that they are just as afraid of the Syrian army as they are of the rebels. In light of the fact that the Assad regime traditionally has provided some measure of security to Syria's Christians, is it very unlikely that they actually have any appreciable fear of government forces. The rebels also see the Christians as having at least some moral support for the regime, so the Christians need to use diplomatic language to make them look as neutral as possible in order to avoid being targeted en masse once the regime does fall. What follows the comment on the Syrian army illustrates what concerns the Christians the most - foreign fighters who have been arriving and augmenting the ranks of the rebels. These are the ones who have the biggest axe to grind against Christians and are the most likely to engage in widespread and sustained violence against them.
In a post on August 18, 2012, I finally admitted to myself that neither America, Western Europe, nor any other nation(s) were going to left a finger to provide any amount of security to their coreligionists in the region in which Christianity began. I consequently dispensed with my concerns with Russia's apparent willingness to let Iran move forward with its nuclear program and called for the Third Rome to step in and take action in support of Christians in the Middle and Near East. I noted that Russia had already, in the days prior to the greed and jealousy-inspired Western European foolishness of the Crimean War, demanded that she be allowed to have sovereignty over all Christians in the regions then under Ottoman rule. A strong Russian presence would be a major deterrent to those who seek to treat Christians brutally, may have them think twice about attacking landlocked Armenia and her sister Republic of of Nagorno-Karabakh, and give Iran cause to back off from threatening Israel.
It is time that we admit to ourselves that the balance of power and somewhat static condition of the world as we have known to exist for decades is long gone. The Soviet Union and the US are no longer the players on the board in the region. The former is defunct, and its successor nation, no longer encumbered with the burden of advancing the pathetic ideology of Socialism (That's our problem now) not only deserves to, but has a degree of obligation, to play its part. During the Cold War, the great post-WWII powers a least had movements in that region that were somewhat nationalistic or political in nature and could provide or withdraw support to these as the situation dictated.
With the onset of an neo-Islam that is every bit what it was when it burst out of Arabia in the 7th century and more, it is time that it be confronted on the conditions that its adherents are forcing on us. The nature of Islam is to see overtures of peace as weakness. It can only be dealt with by rolling it back against itself until it stagnates, or better yet, collapses completely. The voting bloc of Islamic nations in the UN will howl with protest, but their barbaric system must be stripped of all power.
We need to accept that things need to change. Russia is still a major power, and an extension of her influence has the potential of making her an even greater one. If the arrival in that region of a nation that maintains a paternal attitude towards Christians can afford them some reasonable protection, and this leads to a further strengthening of the Russian state, I can find no argument that this could be a problem. Russia has no designs on conquering either Western Europe or China, and the US has far more in her favor in encouraging mutual business interests between the two nations. Russia is not a true Republic or a Democracy? So what? Russia did not have the benefit of developing free of foreign rule as did the nations of Western Europe. She only fully shook herself free from the rule of the Mongol Khanates when Western Europe had a firm foothold in the modern era. Until that point the Russian principalities were either tribute-paying vassals or frontier states dealing with the last of the Asiatic nomads.
Spain and Portugal too had the same frontier state problems in having to, in piecemeal fashion, reconquer their penisula from Islamic rule. Even with their postion, one that was much less geographically isolated from Western Europe than Russia, was not enough to preclude a period of struggle to create societies that were conducive to the sort of government that GW Bush insisted that Russia adopt immediately or face ostracism. The decades of stagnation that resulted from Soviet Marxism also created a situation from which it was much harder to extricate a society and establish a solid Republic than the one that Spain had bequeathed to it by Franco.
I for one would hold that a more assertive Russia that has a real mission, and a solid sense of identity that goes along with such, would be beneficial to the world scene.
The vicious Anjem Choudary recently, as have dozens of his coreligionists in other Western Europe nations, called for Muslims in the UK to keep having more babies in order to take over the country by demographics. With their declared intentions for Western Europe, and their current oppressive actions in the Middle and Near East, the prospect of an Islam that will tire of its designs of world conquest is basically nil.
We have to be open to major changes; Christians are being wiped out or forced out of the Middle and Near East and Western Culture is being threatened in manner not seen since the period from the first two centuries of Islamic conquest to the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683. The latter event was a mere one hundred years prior to the peace treaty that was signed by the representatives of the United Kingdom and the American Republic.
The global situation that we have come to assume to be relatively permanent is untenable.
-From the earlier post:
It is time that Russia fixes the mess created by GW Bush and perfected by Obama. A move into Syria would be the first logical step. Russia has a naval base in the region, and Lebanon could be occupied at the same time. Once her position is consolidated, the message can be put out that no further acts of violence against Christians in the region will be tolerated. Call him a thug if you want but don't dismiss the man - if I heard such a warning from from Putin, I would not doubt that he was serious.
I would not doubt that such a bold move would result in throngs of foreign volunteers to assist Russia in her efforts. The UN, with its massive Muslim nation voting bloc, will go bananas, but who cares? Unless I misunderstand this, Russia can still exercise a Security Council veto."
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