Syria: Fifth column Jesuit pig expelled from the country!

Italian [Jesuit] priest Father Paolo Dall’Oglio created an Interfaith refuge in Syria
[link to www.dp-news.com]

A native of Rome, Dall'Oglio says he developed an interest in Islam as a young man, specialized in Oriental studies and arrived as a priest in Syria 30 years ago. He founded a center for interreligious dialogue in a restored Byzantine monastery, Deir Mar Musa al Habashi (St. Moses the Abyssinian), situated in a breathtaking cliff-side desert site and featuring restored 11th and 12th century frescoes.

The Deir Mar Musa monastery became a kind of fixture on the offbeat, spiritual-tourism circuit, though the conflict has cut off the once-steady flow of foreign visitors whose contributions helped sustain the place.

In February, Dall'Oglio says, 30 masked gunmen stormed the monastery, demanding, "Where are the weapons!" They left after trashing some equipment, but no one was injured, Dall'Oglio says.

The ethnic cleansing of Syria has already begun, warns Dall'Oglio. But he insists that it is a project of the Assad government, not an objective of the Sunni-led guerrilla forces that have inspired such misgivings among Christians and other Syrian minorities, including Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

"The regime is already acting in the logic of division of the country," says Dall'Oglio, citing rumors of contingency plans for an Alawite-run rump state carved from the Mediterranean shore to the Orontes River. "What do you do with most of the Sunni population? They have started to kill them, massively."

Father Paolo was the warm, gregarious soul of Mar Musa. He told us that he had been studying Arabic himself in Damascus years earlier when he heard about the abandoned monastery. He made his way there for the first time in 1982, climbing the hill to find the building in ruins, its small chapel without a roof, its Byzantine-era frescoes fading and peeling in the sun.

He led the monastery’s restoration and then reopened it as a place of refuge, peace and dialogue for visitors of all faiths, or no faith at all.

Father Paolo used to speak of his deep love for Syria and its people, Christians and Muslims. One could not help but be moved by this good man and his long history of building bridges between diverse people and communities.

After he was expelled from his adopted country, Father Paolo told reporters that he hoped to return to Syria, and to Mar Musa.

Looks like the OP is the pig.

Syria: 30K UN troops and Saigon style evac plan, Dall'Oglio
[link to www.ansamed.info]

ROME, JULY 17 - [Jesuit] Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, founder of the Mar Musa interfaith community in Syria, today called on the Italian government to convince Iran, Russia, and the Sunnite majority countries to accept a humanitarian corridor of 30,000 UN peacekeepers to stop the bloodbath in Syria.

Dall'Oglio, who was recently expelled from Syria by the Assad regime and who is a promoter of dialogue between Christians and Muslims, spoke at a House human rights committee hearing today.

[Jesuit] Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, priest expelled from Syria, will ask John Baird for Canada’s help
[link to www.canada.com]

OTTAWA, JULY 25 - Canada has an important role to play in defusing the violent conflict in Syria, according to an Italian Jesuit priest who was recently expelled from the Middle Eastern country.

Father Paolo Dall’Oglio was the leader of the revived Deir Mar Musa monastery in the mountains outside Damascus until last month, when he was ordered deported for openly criticizing the regime of President Bashar Al Assad. He is well-known in Syria for his decades of work fostering religious dialogue between Christians and Muslims, but attracted the ire of the Assad government for supporting calls for freedom of expression.

Dall’Oglio said he would ask Foreign Minister John Baird on Wednesday to use Canadian diplomatic channels with Russia to “find a new way of speaking about Syria.” ...

... The Syrian government ordered Dall’Oglio removed from the country in early 2011, but a public protest delayed the expulsion. Then last May, Dall’Oglio wrote an open letter to former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan — now UN special envoy to Syria — calling for a far bigger UN presence in Syria to hasten the end of the Assad regime. Dall’Oglio was ordered out of the country, and says his new mission is spreading the word about the devastating impact of the conflict. Dall’Oglio is now on a North American tour, organized by Syrian democracy activists, with stops in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles and New York.

You think these motherfuckers aren't political? The church is every bit neo-colonial or neo-feudal as the rest. They all have interests and it sure isn't the bullshit on the surface.

Father Paolo at UCLA, California, Los Angeles
[link to www.youtube.com]

LOS ANGELES, AUGUST 1 - Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, Professor James Gelvin, and NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow Lindsay Gifford.





NYC Press Conference With the Expelled Priest from Syria, Father Paolo: Held by the National Alliance for Syria & Syrian Expatriates Organization
[link to www.prweb.com]

NEW YORK, AUGUST 2 - Rev. Paolo Dall'Oglio, an Italian Jesuit Priest who spent 30 years in Syria as a champion of interfaith dialogue will be in NYC to speak to the realities on the ground in Syria, the role of Christians and other minorities groups, and the expectations of a post-Assad future in Syria.

After the Syrian uprising erupted in March 2011, Father Paolo organized discussions about nonviolent protest, earning the Assad government's anger. The continued shelling and siege of Homs and the displacement of its inhabitants, including 150,000 Christians, drove him to openly criticize the regime’s brutality.

“They got angry because I went to support my courageous people in Homs against those liars and violent thugs,” he said. “I am sure that eventually the protesters will win as they are on the right side, fighting for their freedoms.”

The Jesuit priest was ultimately given a one-way ticket out of Syria after inviting friends of activist filmmaker Bassel Shahade (a Syrian Christian killed in Homs in May) to the Mar Musa Monastery, where they could freely pray and mourn Shahade`s death after his funeral was broken up by regime thugs.

WHAT: Press Conference with Rev. Paolo Dall'Oglio
WHEN: 9:30am statement followed by Q&A, Monday August 6th, 2012
WHERE: Millennium UN Plaza Hotel, One United Nations Plaza, 44th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue.
Sponsored by: National Alliance for Syria, Syrian Expatriates Organization

To RSVP or request interviews, contact
Sarab Al-Jijakli
P# 917-397-2862
or email NAFS(at)AllianceForSyria(dot)org

Christianity in Syria
[link to en.wikipedia.org]
The country's largest Christian denomination is an Eastern Orthodox Church of Antioch (officially known as the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East), closely followed by a Uniate Melkite Greek Catholic Church, and then by an Oriental Syriac Orthodox Church


"It is well known that most Christians in Syria support Assad's regime because they fear what may come instead, given the experience in Iraq and Egypt. But if the regime falls, only certain Christian groups would benefit, while others would be regarded as traitors by the Sunni majority." -Assyrian International News Agency, 6/6/2012 [link to www.aina.org]





Patriarchs Hazim, Iwas, Laham Reject Foreign Interference and Violence
[link to theorthodoxchurch.info] 12/15/2011
Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim of Antioch and All the East for the Greek Orthodox, Patriarch Mar Ignatius Zakka I Iwas of Antioch an All the East for the Syriac Orthodox, and Patriarch of Antioch and All the East for Roman Catholics, Gregory III Laham, stressed on Thursday their rejection of all forms of foreign interference and violence, calling for lifting the sanctions imposed on Syria.



US, Europe 'Sacrificing' Syrian Christians for Political Gain, Says Church Leader
[link to global.christianpost.com] 1/13/2012
A Syrian church leader has accused Western powers of sacrificing Middle Eastern Christians for political and economic gain at a time of an increase in radical Islamism in the region. At issue, according to observers, is the wisdom of supporting pro-democracy protests as the U.S. has done, or the Syrian regime, as many Christians have done.

Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III, head of the Syriac Catholic Church, recently said that Christians of the Middle East are disappointed at the policies pursued by the European Union and the United States, who seem to solely be driven by politics and economics.

Western governments should not be supporting protesters' efforts to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad's regime, as a toppling of the current government could give way to persecution of Christians in Syria, Joseph implied in his statements.



Lebanon’s pro-Assad Maronite Patriarch slammed
[link to arabsaga.blogspot.com] 3/5/2012
Patriarch Beshara Boutros al-Rai, head of Lebanon’s Maronite Church, is accused once more of dancing with wolves over Syria. The blame comes today from Tariq Alhomayed, editor in chief of the leading Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat, after declarations the patriarch made in an interview with Reuters.

Rai was at the center of a nationwide political storm in Lebanon last September over controversial statements he made on Syria during a visit to France for talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy.

He told reporters at the time President Bashar al-Assad should be given a chance to carry out political reforms in the face of protesters demanding his ouster. He also warned the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria would threaten the presence of Christians there.



Syria’s Assad can count on support of Russian Orthodox Church
[link to theorthodoxchurch.info] 6/1/2012
There are many reasons for Russia to support Syria in the face of anger from Western nations outraged at the killings of civilians, including the two countries’ military relationship. But a promise made by President Vladimir Putin to the Russian Orthodox Church to protect Christians in the Middle East could be another factor in Moscow’s support for President Bashar al-Assad.

Russian Orthodox Christians apparently fear that Christian minorities will be the victims of a wave of Islamic fundamentalism in Syria should Assad fall, The New York Times reports.

In a recent meeting with Syrian diplomats in a cathedral near the Kremlin, Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill I shared anxieties about the fate of Syria’s ten per cent minority population of Christians.

So far, Christians in Syria have been reluctant to join the mainly Sunni Muslim opposition to Assad, fearing persecution should the uprising succeed.



Syria: Patriarch Laham growls at accusations of Christian collusion with Assad regime
[link to vaticaninsider.lastampa.it] 7/19/2012
Gregory III Laham, the spiritual leader of the Melkite Church has rejected accusations of scheming with the Assads, stressing bishops’ responsibility for the Christian communities in a country ravaged by civil war.

As ministers are being killed in Damascus and the Syrian regime totters after the blows it has been dealt by the armed opposition, Church leaders are faced with the opening up of a dangerous home front. This is the perception given by the 24 point document published yesterday by the Melkite Patriarch Gregory III Laham, leader of the largest Catholic community in Syria. This is the first time leaders of Christian Churches have dedicated a large chunk of the text to defending themselves against accusations of scheming with the Assad regime.

From his home in the heart of the old city of Damascus, the impetuous Greek-Catholic Patriarch is denouncing the campaign against high level leaders of the Syrian Churches who have been accused of collusion, subjection and indolence which is allegedly proven by the hesitant attitude or veiled hostility shown towards the revolution since the beginning of the crisis. “The State and its leaders,” Gregory assured, “have never suggested or invited pastors to make a declaration or adopt a certain position. The freedom of pastors has been guaranteed everywhere to date, both in behavioural terms and in terms of public and private declarations. I personally did a tour of European capitals last March and did not ask for anyone’s permission or advice; nor did anyone ask me to adopt any particular position.”

Exiled Jesuit from Syria interviewed at the New America Foundation headquarters in Washington, D.C.
[link to newamerica.net] 7/24/2012

Questions from the audience @ 32:33

Sectarianism in the Syrian civil war
[link to en.wikipedia.org]
Sources inside the Syrian Orthodox Church have claimed an "ongoing ethnic cleansing of Christians" is being carried out by the Free Syrian Army. In a communication received by Agenzia Fides, the sources claimed that over 90% of the Christians of Homs have been expelled by militant Islamists of the "al-Faruq Brigade" who went door to door, forcing Christians to flee without their belongings and confiscating their homes.[20] The Christian population of Homs had dropped from a pre-conflict total of 160,000 down to about 1000.[21] Jesuit sources in Homs said the reason for the exodus was the Christians' fears over the situation and that they had left on their own initiative to escape the conflict between government forces and insurgents.[22] However, other charitable organisations and some local Christian families confirmed to Fides that they were expelled from Homs because they were considered "close to the regime". Islamist opposition groups not only targeted those who refused to join the demonstrations, but also other Christians who were in favour of the opposition.[23]

20. "Abuse of the opposition forces, "ethnic cleansing" of Christians in Homs, where Jesuits remains". Agenzia Fides. March 21, 2012. [link to www.fides.org]
21. The Jesuits: "Christians have fled from Homs, not thrown out by Islamists" Agenzia Fides. March 26, 2012. [link to www.news.va]
22. "Are Islamists targeting Christians in Homs? Catholic groups dispute cause of exodus". CatholicCulture.org. March 27, 2012. [link to www.catholicculture.org]
23. "ASIA/SYRIA - Christians being targeted by armed Islamist gangs". Agenzia Fides. March 30, 2012. [link to www.fides.org]





Vladimir Putin, Defender of the Faith?
[link to blogs.the-american-interest.com] 6/23/2012
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the department of external church relations (and thus a sort of ecclesiastical foreign minister), has put what he calls “Christianiphobia” at the top of his agenda. In a statement describing and denouncing the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, he called on Putin to protect these threatened minorities. And Putin promised to do this. His effective defense of the Assad regime, indirectly in the United Nations and, according to reports, directly by the shipments of arms, is now legitimated in terms of a defense of persecuted Christians. ...there is a long pre-Soviet history of Imperial Russia intervening in the Middle East, sincerely or not, under the banner of protector of Orthodox Christians.



Sunni Rebels Occupying Churches, Homes of Syrian Christians
[link to theorthodoxchurch.info] 7/30/2012

Thread: Inside Syria: Christians arm against Islamists 8/3/2012

Asharq Al-Awsat talks to Jesuit priest expelled from Syria
[link to www.asharq-e.com] 6/22/2012
The Jesuit priest also confirmed that “some Christians have joined the fighting and are fighting with the Free Syrian Army [FSA]” stressing that what is happening in Syria is a “civil war”

As for how many Christians are taking part in the revolution, Father Dall’Oglio stressed “the majority of Syrians are staying in their homes for fear of the violence taking place in the streets, and that includes the Christians.” He asked “who are the heroes that will take to the streets under fire, for this requires strong belief, whilst the Christians are used to being second-class citizens and supporters of the regime, so where will they get the determination to take to the streets?”

Father Dall’Oglio also expressed his sadness that the Church has “unfortunately, been used for decades as cover for the Syrian regime” adding that the leaders of the Church have “over the past decades, become used to supporting the regime, as it provides them with comfortable cover for their religious practices.”

Not the first time jesuit priests are "NWO" agets -
and not the last.

The "Jihad Priest" of Syria, Jesuit Father Paolo Dall'oglio

[link to articles.latimes.com]
Resplendent in black cassock and matching skullcap, the bearded Jesuit appears in a YouTube video breaking bread with opposition activists and donating blood at a makeshift rebel clinic, highlighting his solidarity with the Syrian rebellion.

But Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, a brawny bear of a man who enunciates each word with a theatrical sense of certitude, scoffs at the "jihad priest" label. He says he remains committed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict in his adopted homeland -- a "jihad of the spirit, not a jihad of arms," as he declared during a recent stay in the rebel-occupied Syrian town of Qusair.

Still, the Italian-born priest warns: "If nonviolence becomes another name for a lack of responsibility, then I am not with nonviolence anymore. I am with the right to defend people."

Talk like that helped get Dall'Oglio expelled from Syria last month after 30 years in the country, where his devotion to Christian-Muslim "harmony" earned him a global following as a charismatic and pugnacious interfaith visionary.

Expelled Jesuit Priest Calls for UN Peacekeepers in Syria
[link to www.voanews.com] 8/6/2012
A Roman Catholic priest who was expelled from Syria in June after engaging in interfaith dialogue in that country for 30 years called on Monday for U.N. peacekeepers to help create a peaceful Syria.

Father Paolo Dall’Oglio was expelled by Syrian authorities after he offered his desert monastery for an interfaith memorial service to remember an opposition filmmaker who was killed in the city of Homs.

Now in New York, the Jesuit priest told a news conference that he wants Syria to become a place of reconciliation.

“We need now U.N. forces - not U.N. permission for Western forces, but real U.N. forces - coming to separate the civilians that are fighting each other," said Dall’Oglio. "And the presence of the United Nations forces on the ground at the falling of the [Bashar al-Assad] regime will help the Syrian people to have a deal of negotiation, to have a constitution that will warranty rights for all the components of this nation.”

Father Paolo added that if the United Nations does not have a key role in Syria, the international community will assume responsibility for what he called the massacres that will occur.

Syria: Christian [Jesuit] Monastery Assaulted North of Damascus
[link to www.ansamed.info] 8/6/2012
Gunmen attacked the Catholic monastry of Mar Musa, north of Damascus. The old monastery, that dates from the fourth century, had been sacked but no casualties had been reported to Ansa by sources close to the Italian Jesuit founder of the monastic community, father Paolo Dall'Oglio.

Sources affirm that nobody within the monastery had been hurt or assaulted, but "the gunmen stole everything they could steal", including tractors and other agricultural and farming tools.

Last February and April the monastery had already been targeted by gunmen.

Civil Society in Syria: Interfaith Relations during the Syrian Uprising
[link to www.facebook.com]
Public Event · By Lilah Khoja, Laith Mukdad and Lilah FreeSyria

When:
Wednesday, August 1, 2012. Time: 1:30pm until 4:00pm in PDT.

Where:
Humanities 135, UCLA

Description:
featuring special guest [Jesuit] Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, Professor James Gelvin, and NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow Lindsay Gifford.

With the current uprising in Syria, the question that has crossed everyone's mind has been: will there be rise to sectarian violence, as witnessed in neighboring Iraq and Lebanon?

Such a concern is a valid one and has caused a lot of concern for the status of minorities in Syria, as well as a lot of fear amongst the population within Syria and abroad. This event aims to address those concerns by shedding light about the reality on the ground.

The Speakers:
Father Dall'Oglio lived in Syria for 30 years, helping restore a 1,000-year-old monastery, called Deir Mar Musa. He made it into a center for Muslim and Christian understanding. For three decades, he headed a Christian community in an ancient monastery he helped restore in the hills outside Damascus. He invited Muslims and Christians to pray together — and they did — in more peaceful times. When the anti-government demonstrations began last year, Dall'Oglio supported the young Syrians who risked their lives to protest peacefully. The Assad regime has recently expelled him for his outspoken criticism of its crackdown on a popular uprising.

James L. Gelvin is professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his B.A. from Columbia University, his master's in international affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has taught at Boston College, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the American University in Beirut. A specialist in the modern social and cultural history of the Arab East, he is author of four books: The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2012); The Modern Middle East: A History (Oxford University Press, 2004, 2007, 2011); The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War (Cambridge University Press, 2005, 2007, 2013); and Divided Loyalties: Nationalism and Mass Politics in Syria at the Close of Empire (University of California Press, 1998). He is also co-editor of the forthcoming Global Islam in the Age of Steam and Print (University of California Press, 2013), along with numerous articles and chapters in edited volumes.

Lindsay Gifford is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA, supported by the National Science Foundation’s Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (2011-2013). She completed her Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology at Boston University (2009), conducting research on civil society and associational life under the authoritarian state in Damascus’ religiously diverse popular neighborhoods. She recently gave a talk at UCLA entitled "Civility and Sectarianism in Syria: What Now?"

Video of the event, uploaded 8/5/2012:

Lindsay Gifford @19:35 in the video: "The monastery [attacked today, 8/6/2012] was a community gathering place, not just a Christian site as many of the shrines in Syria are and continue to be. In preparation for this event I've been in contact with a number of my informant networks back in Syria as well as Syrian activists and expats in the diaspora who have been able to escape the violence. They ask me in fact to send their best regards to Father Paolo, communicating that they think of him as a real father and a leader in the Syrian community. They see him as an ally and have the utmost appreciation for his work to support human rights in Syria and inter-sectarian relations."

Ironic as it was the Jesuits who created the Muslim Brotherhood.

Putin knows how to purge a country of it zionist scumbags. This is why Russia is always attacked by vile us government zionists.

The Jesuit priest speaks about his interactions with Al-Qaeda members in Syria @1:38:37 in the video posted above. [link to www.youtube.com]
Father Paolo: "I was in a room with people that are 'culturally' Al-Qaeda. We'd been speaking about the coming back of the Mahdi"

[link to www.economist.com]
Father Paolo brokered the release of a Christian held [by Al-Qaeda] in Qusayr, a town close to the mixed city of Homs where the violence has been most fierce. “Those who had taken them—and they were not mainstream members of the opposition—saw the church in full alliance with the regime. The church is endangering Christians,” he says. “But I was comforted by the fact they said they were not against Christians but against those who had collaborated with the regime.”

A Jesuit in NY on Syria Notes Saudi But Neither Qatar Nor the Ben Ali Role of UN Peacekeeping Chief
[link to www.innercitypress.com]

UNITED NATIONS, AUGUST 6 - When Jesuit Paolo Dall'Oglio took questions from a small press conference in the Millennium Hotel across First Avenue on the UN Monday morning, he called for a new diplomatic initiative on Syria to both Russia "and NATO."

Inner City Press asked Dall'Oglio about the role of Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He replied that yes, Saudi Arabia's "project" was to beat Iran in Syria. He noted that some might like a long civil war in Syria, and speculated that even if Damascus falls, fighting may continue to break off the Western or Alawite zone by the sea, on the theory there is enough natural gas there to make autonomy viable.

But Dall'Oglio did not say a word about Qatar.

Inner City Press tweeted [link to twitter.com] out a photo of Dall'Oglio along with this portion of his non-answer.

Replies ranged from questioning why he was under the "rebel" flag -- he called it the flag of the "New Syria" -- to stories of Christian martyrs killed by Syrian rebels to, who is he?

Father Paolo: "They [Al-Qaeda] don't have a democratic project, they have another project. From this point of view they are clandestine on the train of democracy, having their own agenda. But, never the less, are fighting for something they believe in." [link to www.youtube.com]

Father Paolo Dall'Oglio Press Conference by the UN
[link to allianceforsyria.blogspot.com] 8/8/2012
Moderated by Sarab Al-Jijakli (@sarabny) the press conference was sponsored by the National Alliance for Syria, Syrian Expatriates Organization and Syrian Americans for Democracy.

[link to goodjesuitbadjesuit.blogspot.com]
"I am leaving but the monastery is open," said the Italian [Jesuit] priest, who has lived in Syria for 30 years. Dall'Oglio founded his community in 1992 in the ruins of the Mar Musa monastery, which dates back to the 7th century. Christians and Muslims pray side by side at the monastery, which also hosts interfaith seminars.


[link to www.utoronto.ca]
The [Jesuit] monastic community at Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi comprises male and female members. Fr. Paolo D'Oglio is the founder and leader of the community. He first travelled to the Middle East in 1977, and as a young Jesuit priest first stumbled upon the ruins of the then abandoned monastery of St. Moses. Fr. Jacques Mourad, a Syrian Catholic from Aleppo, is also the parish priest of Qaryatayn. Sister Huda Faddoul, from Damascus and of the Greek Catholic church, is the leader of the female community, and is supported by Deema Fayyad, who is still a novice, and is also Greek Catholic, but from Homs. A new novice is Khouloud Marmari with a Syrian Orthodox/Catholic backround from the Wadi Nasara in Western Syria. The monastic community is rounded out by brother Boutros Abo, a deacon of the Syrian church from Hasake in Eastern Syria; brother Jihad Yusuf, a Maronite from Wadi Nasara, and brother Jens Petzold, a previously unbaptised Swiss/German, who came to the monastery as a back-packer.