Posted on 04/21/2014 6:17:09 AM PDT by marshmallow
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's president marked Easter with a tour Sunday of an ancient Christian village recently recaptured by his forces, state media said, as the country's Greek Orthodox Patriarch vowed that country's Christians "will not submit and yield" to extremists.
Syrian state TV and the country's official SANA news agency said President Bashar Assad visited the hilltop hamlet of Maaloula, inspecting the damage done in recent fighting to its monasteries and churches.
Rebels, including fighters from the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front, seized Maaloula several times late last year, most recently in December. Government troops swept through the village on Monday, sending rebel fighters fleeing to nearby hills.
Maaloula is located some 40 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Damascus and is home to a large Christian population. The army's triumph in the village was an important symbolic prize for the government in its quest to be seen as protector of religious minorities, including Syria's Christians, who have largely supported the Assad family's decades of rule.
During his visit to the village Sunday, Assad promised to defend Christians — who make up about 10 percent of Syria's prewar population of 23 million — and protect churches that he said were part of the country's cultural heritage.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Give the Christians guns.
I believe that they have guns and some fought back.
Funny how Putin and Assad are doing more for CHristians than our @sshat in chief.
My husband and I visited there when Hafiz was ruling and we both LOVED Damascus. I still use the Damask tablecloths we bought over there.
1. Putin is a thug who wants to be czar.
2. Assad is a thug, like his father.
3. Obama is useless, never presidential material.
Amen struggle, amen. May they (the Christians) be fully armed. May Assad allow them all the weapons needed because we know obama and his minions are arming the islamists. Is well know islamists, obama and his minions, democrats and even some republicans hate Christians. Time to brew some more TEA.
Correct ... I take the devil Assad over the islamists fighting him though. Yes putin is a thug. obama is a thug also and hates Christians. Could only capitalize Assad. Goodness gracious, what a world.
“Give the Christians guns.”
Several months ago some Christian leaders refused offers of guns from the Syrian government. Others are taking up arms since 2012: http://www.theblogmocracy.com/2012/07/31/syrian-christians-are-now-arming-themselves/
Assad would, if necessary, step right into the "islamist" position at the drop of a hat. I don't underestimate his cruelty. Fruit doesn't fall too far from its tree.
You don't capitalize Putin, a Christian, but capitalize the name of a son of a thug. Interesting view of the world. I guess you don't think that Assad is a thug as well. He is, you know. Sooner or later you will see that side.
Side note: Putin's mother was extremely religious. Just for information.
Wherever there is a Christian/Islam struggle, our coward in chief will side with the jihadists.
Correct again except the devil I know is better than the devil I do not know (imho).
Prayer for Peace in Syria
God of Compassion,
Hear the cries of the people of Syria,
Bring healing to those suffering from the violence,
Bring comfort to those mourning the dead,
Strengthen Syria’s neighbors in their care and welcome for refugees,
Convert the hearts of those who have taken up arms,
And protect those committed to peace.
God of Hope,
Inspire leaders to choose peace over violence and to seek reconciliation with enemies,
Inspire the Church around the world with compassion for the people of Syria,
And give us hope for a future of peace built on justice for all.
We ask this through Jesus Christ,
Prince of Peace and Light of the World,
Amen.
Petition: For the people of Syria, that God may strengthen the resolve of leaders to end the fighting and choose a future of peace.
I should post an article on this subject.
The irony is that we have a guy in the white house who wishes to redistribute wealth in this country, so only a certain few will benefit, but in reality we are all much poorer.
He’s done nothing truly innovative to make us a richer people, or to increase our standard of living. If anything the standard of living for the poor is worse now.
I never did get that aphorism. I have never had an opportunity to use it. I guess you and I have very different thought processes.
His arrogance ALMOST outweighs his lack of ability, brains, conscience and morality. How does he have the presumption, the gall, the conceit to DARE to think that HE can "redistribute" our wealth? Who the hell does he think he is? What ARROGANCE, priggishness, self-importance, superciliousness, pomposity, high-handedness, brass, nerve and ego!
His disdain, hubris, vanity, insolence, conceit and smugness make me glad for every bump in his road. I delight in hearing about every PIMPLE in his life, both public and private.
Thank you, Founding Fathers, for putting in those checks and balances. They are more relevant today than ever before because they keep in check this POTUS fool, jerk, moron, ass, boob, blockhead, dunce, clod, twerp AND bonehead. He is a buffoon.
As for the nincompoops who nominated, banked and voted him into office the first time, they are loons, numbskulls, oafs, dimwits, dopes, saps, imbeciles, ninnies, birdbrains, idiots and cretins.
DOUBLE all that for those voting for him the second time.
Michelle is merely a twit with a big butt. THAT is why she had Oprah Winfrey travel with her, so SOMEONE else would have a bigger butt than hers.
Am I being harsh?
There aren't enough Christians there for a win. They are leaving Iraq and they will continue to do so. The great grandparents will die, then the grandparents. With them gone those whose ties are no more will eventually leave. There is NOTHING there for them.
They are Arabs. They have their history and culture in common. But, there has to be a crisis when their faith is compromised. Taking guns in hand is no solution; never has been and never will be though it will make some people there and here feel good.
They are in a no-win scenario. There are 442 million Arabs in this world and they are, with the few exceptions like the Christian Iraqis, Muslim. My husband and I lived in Saudi Arabia FIVE years. Being surrounded by nothing but Muslims tried my soul, even though 99.9% of them were very nice to me.
Simply put the culture was just to foreign to me. I could always get out and we did, OFTEN.
For the Iraqi Jews it was worse. Most were expelled in the early 1950's. A few hung around for various good reasons. For the Iraqi Christians, it's a 100% no-win, heartbreaking split with their homeland.
Did you ever hear of the MARSH ARABS who live at the delta of the Tigris/Euphrates?
From Google:
The Marsh Arabs (Arabic: عرب الأهوار ʻArab al-Ahwār "Arabs of the Marshlands"), also known as the Maʻdān (Arabic: معدان), are inhabitants of the Tigris-Euphrates marshlands in the south and east of Iraq and along the Iranian border. Comprising members of many different tribes and tribal confederations, such as the Āl Bū Muḥammad, Ferayghāt, Shaghanbah and Banī Lām, the Maʻdān had developed a unique culture centred on the marshes' natural resources. Many of the marshes' inhabitants were displaced when the wetlands were drained during and after the 1991 uprisings in Iraq.
These marsh Arabs are doomed as well. THEY don't want their lives to change, but, their lives would PROBABLY be better if they joined the 21st, 20th, 19th, oh what the heck, the 14th century.
The were SOMETHING else.
~1. Putin is a thug who wants to be czar.
2. Assad is a thug, like his father.~
Who are their alternatives in the Middle East regarding Christian rights?
What is a ‘non-thuggish’ way to deal with Al-Qaeda and protect minorities in a Christian-hating Muslim lands?
1. There are NO alternatives. Christians are a minority by absolutely HUGE numbers. That is why so many are leaving their homeland. It's no place for Christians. I don't think it ever was.
The Muslim governments are NOT anti-Christian in any way, shape or form. You see, we Christians are PEOPLE OF THE BOOK. They respect our Bible VERY much. Their Koran HAS Jesus in it, only His name is ISSA. Mary is MIRIAM. The Koran IS a knockoff of our Bible.
I have a Koran, a gift my husband got from a Saudi contractor. ARAMCO had to eliminate the bribery ability so they made ALL gifts to ARAMCO Americans forbidden EXCEPT for a Koran. So, my husband got one as a gift from one of the Saudi contractors.
It really is a knock-off of our Bible.
THAT is the only reason why we Americans are so acceptable...because we too are PEOPLE OF THE BOOK.
==========================
2. What is a ‘non-thuggish’ way to deal with Al-Qaeda and protect minorities in a Christian-hating Muslim lands?
a. Al-Qaeda: there is no "non-thuggish" way to deal with it because it is a thug of the first order. Shoot to kill. Send our SEAL teams. No mercy.
b. Protect minorities: it isn't our business. Really it isn't. Those countries have their own governments and it is VERY, VERY presumptuous and arrogant of us to think that we have the right to superimpose our values on foreign governments.
We just CAN'T go in there and tell those foreign governments how to run their countries. We have no more right to do that than they would have telling us how to run our business and government. It fact, it is the height of conceit on our part to think we have the right to do that.
We can SUGGEST only and TRY to make those suggestions NOT a demand. That only sets up their bristles.
THERE WAS A TIME when we could bully our way over there because they were all poor as church mice. However, thanks to American NEEDS for more and more and more and more petroleum and THEIR having more petroleum and natural gas than GOD, we have little to say. THEY are the wealthy ones now, thanks to US.
God does have an enormous sense of irony, doesn't He? Lol. Well, why not? He INVENTED irony. HE gave those poor, miserable Bedu, once God's poorest people, ALL the money in the world now.
All the leverage we have now is "please." If we weren't the largest consumers of petroleum and natural gas, we...well, that's water under the bridge now, isn't it?
By the way: EXCELLENT questions.
~Christians are a minority by absolutely HUGE numbers. That is why so many are leaving their homeland. It’s no place for Christians. I don’t think it ever was.~
Why and where should they go? For your information, Middle East is a place where Christianity came from. Our European ancestors were still eating each other for dinner, worshipped fire and water at the time the Christians were already in place in Syria. Why should they leave and where?? To Britain or France there they doesn’t consider Christians an eligible for asylump rotected minority, but no-go sharia zones in inner cities are immediate reality?
~Al-Qaeda: there is no “non-thuggish” way to deal with it because it is a thug of the first order. Shoot to kill. Send our SEAL teams. No mercy.~
Isn’t a “thuggish way” all about that? What not to like regarding our topic?
~Protect minorities: it isn’t our business. Really it isn’t. Those countries have their own governments and it is VERY, VERY presumptuous and arrogant of us to think that we have the right to superimpose our values on foreign governments.~
True, that is why Christians won’t survive without Assad and Putin.
You may question their motives but they are the forces of good, not evil there. It is that simple.
and that is why individual thought processes make each of us unique and there is nothing wrong with individual thought and independent thinking unless independent thought portrays itself, in a manner, which violates my independent thought or my independent thought violates your independent thought. There sometimes is something called a meeting of the minds, where the parties agree and come to terms of an agreement with each party or individual signing off to enact terms of a contract ... and in other situations there maybe is such a thing as the Vulcan mind melt. Scary, but my thoughts to your thoughts and your thoughts to mine which might also be termed a meeting of the minds. Other times there is full disagreement or dissent causing other issues where the meeting of the minds is full blown conflict. Individuals attempt to avoid conflict and rightly so but collective thought normally precedes individual thought whereby the collective in most all cases supersedes the individual thereby leaving the individual little to no voice. The systems (plural) of thought processes amongst individuals is the most complex and complicated known to humans. Both individuals and collectives attain great and destructive goals. The past always finds its way into the present. The devil I know is better than the devil I do not know but in either instance I may be dealing with the devil for most humans are something less than human. My humble opinion cloud.
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