Thank you Francis Frost…I will be praying for the Lord’s people to know the Truth about just how great His mercy is, and that His mercy can be extended through each and every one of His own…He is faithful.

Can be an act done by the command of Al Qaeda, to put the guilt on the rebels and obtain advantage. Dirty war it is.

Dean,

Thanks for your insightful & well articulated comments. What you’ve expressed is, unfortunately, the sad truth : (…

West is saving Christianity Or Distorting , America and Britain with the help of security council of UNO planing to check action in syria, , is it in favour of christianity or not , syria is governed by Non christian then , then the action by members of security council is in favour or not , estimate it , I can’t understand , please explain .

Robin Massey,
India (Rajasthan) Ajmer

Peter, how will Obama listen when he is suppling the rebells? He will not listen he does what he think is right but what he is doing is wrong, not listening to russian!! God bless the syrians and Assad!!

The fact is that neither the US, nor “the West” played any significant part in the development of the “Arab Spring”. The US has played at best a reactive and extremely reluctant role in this history. To date, the Obama administration is still pondering a response to the gas attacks perpetrated by the Assad regime against civilians in the Damascus suburbs. It has, however, already stated that such response will be limited to what amounts to a symbolic gesture.

For a less histrionic and more nuanced view of recent events, your readers would be well advised to consult Fr Touma Bitar’s “Notes on Arab Orthodoxy web-site:

http://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com

After all, the writers on that site are far more close to the action, not only geographically; but linguistically and culturally.

As an aside, As Safir reports that the kidnapped Archbishops were taken hostage by a Chechen jihadist group. These Chechen jihadists originated in the “Union of the Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus”, a Muslim confederacy, created and funded by the Russian government in the 1990’s and used as proxy armies in the three invasions of Georgia – invasions that resulted in the slaughter of tens of thousands of Orthodox Christians, the ethnic cleansing and exile of 300,000 orthodox Georgians, the destruction of two entire Orthodox dioceses, the desecration and obliteration of Orthodox temples, and the illegal occupation of Georgian territory. Now these same jihadist groups created by Russia’s leaders are doing their dirty work attacking Christians in Syria. This fact alone should put to rest the myth that the mass murdered Putin is some sort of protector of the Orthodox.

The entire As Safir article can be found on the Arab Orthodoxy web blog for this month. You might also note several articles on the current crisis by Fr. Georges Massouh.

Hi Holiness, Patriarch John’s sermon for the Dormition is also posted.

Excerpt from the As Safir article:

Numerous sources agree that the group “Jund al-Khilafa” [Army of the Caliphate] led by Abu Umar al-Kuwaiti carried out the bishops’ kidnapping last April 22, minutes after their passing through a “Free Syrian Army” checkpoint in Mansoura, three kilometers from the northern entrance to Aleppo.

According to experts on Syrian jihadism the kidnapping group, made up of eight Chechens, belongs to  Abu Umar al-Kuwaiti’s group, which until a few months ago was known as “Jund al-Khilafa” before changing its name to “Liwa’ al-Muslimin” [Banner of the Muslims]. Abu Umar al-Kuwaiti leads a group of foreign fighters, including 200 Chechens. Al-Kuwaiti is of Shi’i origin, but his father converted to Sunnism. His real name is Husayn Lari and he has pledged obedience to Muhammad al-Rifa’i, one of the leaders of “Afghan Jihad” residing in London, as caliph of the Muslims.