IS Bombards Social Media With Propaganda in Russian

VOA, IS Bombards Social Media With Propaganda in Russian "The Islamic State (IS) is bombarding social media with Russian language propaganda aimed at attracting new recruits from targeted audiences."

Russia and the West have swapped Spiritual and Cultural Roles

Powerful insights from a Danish theologian and journalist on the spiritual collapse of the post-Christian West and the resurgence of Orthodox Christian Russia, with its renewed love of God, its "poetic and cultured people", and its "fantastic energy, a moral energy":

"The situation in the West is the complete opposite [from that in Russia]. We celebrate death and have surrendered to the satanic view of man in a self-righteous rage and rant against God... We favour euthanasia, abortion on demand, homosexual rights and same-sex marriage while our cities are submerged in Islam and growing segregation."

Russia and the West have swapped Spiritual and Cultural Roles

Interview with Iben Thranholm
Russia Insider � September 7, 2015

The subject of this interview is a Danish journalist and theologian who hosted a series of five programmes, entitled �From Russia with Love� on Danish national public service radio, Radio24syv, with the sub-heading �An Unbiased Look at Putin's Russia.�

Thranholm on a recent trip to Russia

Inspired by Emperor Constantine, she believes Christianity in the West can be rejuvenated by looking to the East. Iben is aware of the sheer enormity of this task. �Such, alas, is the depth to which Western hatred for Christianity has sunk,� says the theologian, who does not hesitate to defend President Putin, on whom the Western media delights in heaping derision and scorn.

�The Pussy Riot case opened the door to Russia for me,� she explains.   

�I understood that Russia is a country that refuses to compromise on Christian values. Russia is not just a country or a nation, Russia is a spiritual concept, a state of mind. Criticism of President Putin was not the crime for which the activists were tried and convicted. Their crime was the invasion of the Christ-The-Saviour Cathedral, the holiest of places, and engaging in a blasphemous act in front of the iconostases.

�They are familiar with the bitter fruit of atheism and have no appetite for the bleak and barren wasteland it produced.�

"In the West, freedom of speech is widely deployed for the purpose of desecrating religion, but Russia does not permit crossing the line into blasphemy. That really fascinated me, and so I travelled to Moscow to learn more and this eventually resulted in a series of radio programmes trying to help Danes move beyond the tedious and unhelpful caricature-like clich�s and provide them with a nuanced view of Russia.�

Russia: Tens of thousands in Cross Procession in Honor of the 700th Anniversary of St. Sergius of Radonezh

Q�What was your impression of Russia?    

�I experienced a fantastic energy, a moral energy similar to America in the '50s with the old moral values. I met helpful, poetic and cultured people with a spirit of self-sacrifice I have not seen before. The atmosphere in Moscow is completely different from that of any capital in Europe, and unlike here in the West, I feel much more spiritually free in the East.   

"While the West is deriding and disowning Christianity and Europe revels in self-loathing, Russians are returning to Christianity in a modern and contemporary context. Bear in mind that Christianity was suppressed under Communism, which was atheistic. Russians are familiar with the bitter fruit of atheism and have no appetite for the bleak and barren wasteland it produced.

�The young, the hip, the wise and the wealthy, express their Christianity as a completely natural and straightforward thing...�

"The interesting thing is, that in Russia, Christianity is associated with being modern and progressive. It is the spirit of the young, the hip, the wise and the wealthy, who express their Christianity as a completely natural and straightforward way of life. Christianity is simply fashionable, but not in the superficial Western pop manner. Christianity�s roots grow deep in the soil of Russian life, and they look with amazement at how we guard, or rather, disregard, our spiritual heritage.

"Not only that: They discern in our obsession with political correctness, and the social liberal opinion policing of the general media and academia, a new manifestation of the terror of totalitarianism they counted themselves blessed to escape after 75 terrible years.

"After the Cold War, East and West swapped roles spiritually, culturally and morally. Cultural Marxism now holds unrestrained sway in the West."

Q�But Communism and Social Democracy are probably not the same?

�Let me put it a different way. During the rule of Communism, Russia found itself in the grip of a culture of death, but she is returning to life, in the sense of Christian culture with a strong awareness of the historical roots and continuity.�  

"The situation in the West is the complete opposite. We celebrate death and have surrendered to the satanic view of man in a self-righteous rage and rant against God. We can divorce with ease on-line. We prioritise work and career above family responsibilities especially raising children. We favour euthanasia, abortion on demand, homosexual rights and same-sex marriage while our cities are submerged in Islam and growing segregation."

�Russians perceive activists like Pussy Riot as latter-day Bolsheviks�

"Russia has chosen a completely different direction, and it is one of the reasons that many Russians perceive activists like Pussy Riot as latter-day Bolsheviks. They invade and desecrate the sanctity of the church, a holy place. The West celebrates this as progress and prosperity. Russians are reminded that the spirit of communism is still alive. It merely assumes new forms and takes up residence in the West, where liberals and progressives love and adore Pussy Riot.

"Today, the spirit of communism shows itself in western worship of human rights, freedom of speech and the elite�s utopian notions of so-called open societies. We are headed for the very wasteland that the Russians were relieved to leave behind. Patriarch Kirill has warned the West: 'Do not take the path we took. We tried it and it leads to destruction!'"   

Q�Recently the Russian military held an exercise based on the scenario of an attack on northern Norway, Aaland, Gotland and Bornholm. Do we just turn the other cheek?

�Well, that's not the true way to look at it. The Russians hold such an exercise because of the geopolitical pressure that NATO creates by deploying hostile military forces along the Ukrainian border and in the old Warsaw Pact countries.

"Russian foreign policy has long been demonized. Russia is compelled to respond to a situation it did not create, which is not the same as aggression. Why should Russia accept being cut off from access to the sea, from Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok? Such a thing is unthinkable.

"With bald-faced hypocrisy, the West makes it look like Russia is our new enemy. The truth is exactly the opposite. The West is its own worst enemy."

Russia: Drone captures massive Eid al-Fitr celebrations in Moscow

Greek Media: "Orthodoxy for the USA is like a Red Flag to a Bull"

Some who follow the media closely are positive that the anti-Church campaign in Greece is financed by the USA.

Pravoslavie � May 26, 2015

Thousands in Greece venerate the relics of St Barbara.
The USA hates the veneration of saints and hates the Orthodox
Church, and therefore is promoting depravity and godlessness
in Greece, Russia, and other traditionally Orthodox nations.

(Athens, May 22, 2015)  An anti-Church campaign is continuing in Greece. It flared up after the holy relics of Great Martyr Barbara had been brought to the country. Some who follow the media closely are positive that the campaign is financed by the USA.

�For the USA, Orthodoxy is like a red flag to a bull� This is because Orthodox peoples are friendly towards Russia. That is why in Greece in every way � through media and Non-Governmental Organizations controlled by the USA � godlessness is being promoted and the faith ridiculed. The huge influx of the faithful to the relics of St. Barbara has startled the West and caused the intensification of this propaganda,� experts of the Defencenet.gr Greek portal are convinced, reports AgionOros.

It should be noted that St. Barbara�s relics, which are permanently kept at the San Marco Basilica of Venice, were brought to Greece, and this caused a wave of negative publications in the liberal media. The event has already been called �unprecedented�.

�When we received the saint�s relics we could not imagine this enormous wave of pilgrimages to the shrine. Masses of people during the course of eight days� The fact that pilgrims are willing to queue for hours in order to venerate the precious relics of Greatmartyr Barbara arouses a bottomless depth of amazement and respect,� said Metropolitan Clement of Methoni.

In his turn, Metropolitan Anthimos of Thessaloniki has commented on the anti-Church campaign in the Greek liberal media: �Some individuals are speaking with shallow, deceitful, unfounded fabrications, thus trying to create conditions for weakening of the Orthodox Church�.

In Metropolitan Anthimos� view, the actions of the enemies of the Church intended for its division are hopeless: �Yes, our opinions on national interests often differ, but when representatives of Local Orthodox Churches gather together, they (whether they are Greeks, Russians, Ukrainians, other European citizens or Americans) find common language and bear witness to the Truth�.

In his speech the metropolitan responded to the critique of some Church�s enemies who are judging the clergy for wearing sumptuous church vestments: �All year round we wear a black cassock. However, according to St. Basil the Great, for the Divine Liturgy we must dress in the best ecclesiastical vestments that we have. All of us � bishops, priests, deacons, monks � wear black garments all the time as a reminder of the Passion of our Savior on the Cross. Some priests of the older generation even do not take off their cassocks at night and sleep in them. But when at the Liturgy we take the Body of Christ in our hands, shouldn�t we really clothe ourselves in other, better vestments?�

Metropolitan Hilarion: Terrorism And Extremism in the Middle East Continue Growing And Spreading Like a Plague

An illuminating discussion of the deadly threat of Islam to Christians and the civilized world, without ever specifically mentioning Islam. 

Highlights include:

• "If the whole world now fails to unite against this new terrible epidemic, the consequences may be irretrievable..."
• "Each country should be concerned by it because sooner or later it will come to its borders too."
• "Russia is a country which will cope... But Western Europe is not at all ready for it. People are too well-off there, too relaxed."

Pravmir � May 16, 2015

On May 2, 2015, Metropolitan Hilarion as presenter of the Church and the World TV program had as his guest the chairman of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society Sergey Stepashin.

Metropolitan Hilarion: Good afternoon, dear brothers and sisters. Christ is Risen! In these Paschal days, the mental eyes of many Orthodox faithful are directed to the Holy Land, the places where our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ lived on earth. Today we will speak about the Holy Land, the Middle East and Palestine with the chairman of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society Sergey Stepashin. Good afternoon, Sergey Vadimovich.

S. Stepashin: Good afternoon, Your Eminence.

Metropolitan Hilarion: Christ is risen!

S. Stepashin: He is truly risen!

Among the main tasks of the Imperial Palestine Society is a serious, thorough and sometimes very dangerous work in the Middle East. I may start with Syria as the most problematic region today, as this country is very close to us in its Christian traditions. Today all the peoples in Syria are going through a very difficult period and Christians have proved to be in the most terrible situation.

Recently we have marked the centenary of the Armenian genocide. You know that the Armenian Church has canonized over a million citizens who were killed in the genocide. I believe today we have a full right to say that what is happening in the Middle East, too, is a Christian genocide.

The Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society is doing everything possible for it to give humanitarian aid to all the victims of this terrible tragedy. We have already sent some 12 cargoes to Syria. It is free aid; we have collected it throughout our Russian world. People gave out whatever they could. I would like to thank the Emergency Ministry and the Syrian Airlines for the assistance they gave.

Another important point is that the world community has at last begun speaking about the problems of the Middle East. Especially important today are statements made at international forums including in the UN about the discrimination and persecution against Christians In spite of the fact that international organizations have different attitudes to Russia, we have been heard for the first time and not only on the Geneva and New York platforms. For the first time in the history of the UN Security Council it was on our initiative jointly with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov that the problem of the protection of Christianity and the situation of Christians in the Middle East was raised at a meeting of the UN Security Council.

Metropolitan Hilarion: We have been working together with you in this area for many years now. Only a few years ago when we spoke out loud on behalf of our Church about what was happening to Christians in the Middle East, the West preferred not to hear us. I remember speaking at a meeting of the UN Third Committee in New York in which about 150 countries were represented. I cited statistics and facts but got full silence in response and a very clear impression that the Western world did not wish to hear about the tragedy of Christians unfolding before our eyes.

Yes, something has begun really changing of late, and if before only Islamophobia and anti-Semitism were discussed and resolutions only this issue were adopted at international platforms, now the persecution against Christians is discussed for the first time. But it began only after in several Middle East countries the so-called �Arab Spring�, inspired not from within but from outside the Arab world, led in fact to the extermination of Christianity.

Only a little over ten years ago in Iraq there were about one million and a half Christians. Now nobody knows exactly how many of them are left there. Various estimates are given from one to four hundred thousand. Most of the Iraqi Christian were either killed or had to leave their homeland. There are almost no Christians left in Libya, where there used to be about one hundred thousand. Tragic events took place for several years in Egypt. Now we can see what has been going in Syria for already several years, where the so-called opposition (actually uncontrolled bands of militants) with the support of Western countries have systematically wiped out the Christian population and the Christian heritage.

All this is taking place before the eyes of the civilized world. And only after videos of mass executions appeared in the Internet, the persecution against Christians began to be voiced at last in Europe and generally in the West. By that time however, dozens and hundreds of people had been already killed and millions had become roofless. And we can no longer wait and limit ourselves only to talks, for resolute actions are needed here and now.

The humanitarian aid given by the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society in the Middle East to people who have found themselves in the situation of humanitarian disaster. And the 12 humanitarian convoys sent to Syria at the Society�s initiative have helped many people, not only Christians but Muslims as well.

S. Stepashin: There is still another task before us, which, to be frank, is seriously complicated by the war situation. You know that the decision was made to build a Russian school in Damascus, the first one after 1914. There is an agreement with the leaders of the country and there are resources, but we will see how the situation will develop.

I should say that last year the Syrian leaders decided (as was announced during a meeting with President Assad) to introduce the compulsory study of the Russian language for all the Syrian schoolchildren. I believe such support is very important too. Today we are engaged in broadening the possibilities for Syrian young people to study in our universities. Immediately upon my arrival from Syria, I had meetings with both the minister of education and leaders of major universities including the rector of Moscow University. I believe it is very important.

I would like to once again emphasize however that it is important that we are heard now. It is important that our voice should be increasingly heard at international arenas in the UN, Geneva, New York, Moscow and in the Middle East. In this respect, I would like to thank our Russian Orthodox Church, with which our Society is inseparable, and the Patriarch of Antioch, a courageous man whose brother was captured by bandits and whose fate is still unknown.

It is high time for us all, not only Orthodox people, not only Christians, but all who love their land, who love peace and respect people, to think over these problems.

Metropolitan Hilarion: A few years ago I was asked to receive a delegation of the so-called Syrian opposition, though it is not the Church�s business of course to interfere in political conflicts. I met with these people and had a talk with them. But for a whole hour I could not see who they actually represent and what they can influence. During a single talk I heard various names and the names of various organizations. Now they said they were not linked with the army in any way, now they were a political wing of the so-called Syrian Liberation Army. All in all, it was difficult to understand.

It seems to me that now in the West there is an understanding that it is too risky to stake on little-controllable people. Actually, what is the result of the support that was given to extremist forces in the Middle East? The result is that terrorism and extremist continue growing and spreading in the Middle East like a plague. And the Western world no longer knows what to do.

Not long ago a resolution was adopted concerning exactly the situation of Christians. It was initiated by Russia, the Vatican and Lebanon. It is a timely resolution but it is time to move from words to deeds. We cannot simply limit ourselves to resolutions and a statement of the fact that it is really a Christian genocide. It is one thing to reflect on centenary-old events and it is quite another thing to see a tragedy unfolding before our own eyes. It is difficult to believe that Western powers, who posses powerful arms and a powerful system of surveillance and intelligence, have not enough resources to stop this �black plague�.

S. Stepashin: An example from another plane. This year we mark the 70th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. Let us remember who it were who led Hitler to power � the same West, the same North American states. Until the Nazi infection had struck the whole Europe, the efforts to unite failed, but eventually they succeeded.

What is going on in Saudi Arabia and Yemen? I do not at all welcome their actions from the point of view of a possible result, but as soon a tight situation developed at the border they immediately united and now have the full support including financial from the USA.

You are quite right � we should work together, first of all, the European countries � France, Germany, Italy, who are the destination of an enormous number of refugees including from Ethiopia. The situation has already spread to it. The military component should be put in action at some time, for sure under a resolution of the UN Security Council, but the most important thing is to stop the support, as it is evident indeed where money, arms and military specialists come from. I have an experience of the first Chechen campaign. I fought in it, and we know who supported it � the same people who, later in 2001, hit the towers in New York.

I would like to stress once again that today we in our focus on Ukraine � our pain, our common disaster because ours are there too � should not ignore the terrible tragedy, the plague that can sweep over the whole world in the 21st century. It is really a satanic plague, I fully agree with you.

Metropolitan Hilarion: That is why the consolidated action of the whole civilized world is so important today.

S. Stepashin: Yes, you met with the Pope of Rome, and our Society�s leader made an official visit to Rome. The Pope supported us both officially and publicly. It is also a good precedent.

Metropolitan Hilarion: The stand taken by the Holy See on such international problems as Ukraine and the Middle East is very close to ours. And here we have no differences in essence.

We are well aware that if the whole world now fails to unite against this new terrible epidemic, the consequences may be irretrievable. First, no Christians may be left in the Middle East. And this will be a real civilizational geopolitical tragedy because the Middle East is the cradle of Christianity, the place where Christians have lived for two thousand years. Secondly, it will open a further access to the whole world for the forces which have already manifested their aggressiveness. I believe each country should be concerned by it because sooner or later it will come to its borders too.

S. Stepashin: Quite right. Perhaps some will disagree with me but Russia is a country which will cope. We are accustomed to cope. We have endured the Caucasus tragedy and held out. But Western Europe is not at all ready for it. People are too well-off there, too relaxed.

I think the awareness of it is coming. First of all in France, where there is now a fairly large number of people who have escaped from other countries, who live and work there and who hold views quite different from Christian ones � just civilized people. You are absolutely right.

We should always seek points of contact rather than division.

Metropolitan Hilarion: Quite right.

S. Stepashin: It is exactly what can bring us seriously together at this stage. It is not accidental that the theme of today�s program in these Paschal days is a serious problem in our world which should be resolved.

Metropolitan Hilarion: Thank you very much, Sergey Vadimovich, for all that you do in the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society to relieve the situation of those who have found themselves in a critical situation, in the situation of humanitarian disaster in the Middle East.

The True Religion of the West

"The idea of a strong and robust nation that holds to traditional Christian values is an idea that Western Europe finds repugnant in the extreme. Why? Because such a nation would be an ideological rival and that is something that the current order can�t tolerate."

by Niko Pafras, Pravoslavie � May 5, 2015

I�m not a professional journalist or an expert in international affairs. Fortunately, one doesn�t need to be either to see what is going on in the popular western media these days. 

Living in America I am bombarded on a daily basis with the �expert� opinions on the Ukrainian crisis by a horde of analysts on the nightly news. The recurring theme in these interviews, regardless of political affiliation or news network, is the outrage felt by western leaders at the supposed �aggression� shown by Russia towards Ukraine. 

Conveniently, the aggression of President Poroshenko towards his fellow citizens in eastern Ukraine vis-a-vis the openly neo-Nazi Azov battalion and its ilk, goes almost entirely unreported. Be that as it may, one must ask, what precisely is it in the psyche of western leaders and pundits that makes them foam at the mouth with outrage at the crisis in Ukraine but turn a blind eye when it comes to similar incidents that are conducted by western countries or their allies?

For example, on July 20th, 1974, NATO member Turkey under the leadership of then Prime Minister B�lent Ecevit launched the invasion of Cyprus known as �Operation Attila�. What reason did Mr. Ecevit give for this naked aggression and violation of international norms? The prevention of �Enosis�, which is Union with the Greek mainland, and the protection of the Turkish minority from alleged pogroms by Greeks whose population, at the time, made up approximately 77% of the Island. The result of the invasion was the bifurcation of Cyprus into the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus and the so-called TRNC or Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus who is only recognized by Turkey. 

On paper, the TRNC is considered by Turkey to be a separate state but in reality, the TRNC is a de facto part of Turkey. In other words, an annexation. Now one would expect, all things being equal, that similar outrage was shown towards Turkey for its illegal invasion and subsequent occupation of northern Cyprus. 

Unfortunately, we live in a world where things are not equal. The Western response? Negligible at best. There was no American castigation of Turkey or heavy sanctions. No military build-up of American forces on the Turkish border or heaping of opprobrium by the western media. And interestingly, there were no Hitler-Ecevit comparisons made on a daily basis like there have ubiquitously been throughout the western press since the reunification of Crimea with Russia. No, on the contrary, Turkey cemented its ties with America and Europe and continues to receive billions of dollars worth of military aid through the Truman doctrine.

Unlike the violent invasion of Cyprus by Turkey, which claimed the lives of thousands, Crimea was received into Russia by a free and fair referendum in which an overwhelming majority of Crimean residents chose unification with Russia. The American response to the Turkish invasion was silence. Yet, when it comes to the people of Crimea exercising their democratic rights and their right to self-determination, which America holds as universal right, the response is outrage, sanctions and threats.

How do we explain this response or rather, lack thereof? Interests. Plain and simple. 

Turkey is a NATO member whose strategic location is vital for NATO (read American) operations in the Middle East, the Caucasus and the black sea region. The Turkish invasion and the American response have led me to only one reasonable conclusion. American outrage for the annexation of Crimea isn�t real. Its entirely manufactured for political purposes in order to continue their grand project of eastward NATO expansion despite the promises Russia was given in the 90�s that no such expansion would occur. 

Considering all of this, I couldn�t help but think about America�s own founding documents. Specifically, the declaration of Independence which states in its first paragraph �When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.� I guess the right to self-determination isn�t universal after all.

But the larger theme here is the western opposition to Orthodox countries who hold traditional Christian values. In many ways the Orthodox world is a thorn in the flesh. It frustrates the west because the Orthodox world, in large measure, never experienced anything like the so-called �Enlightenment� which started the process of secularization and de-Christianization of the west in the 18th century. 

The idea of a strong and robust nation that holds to traditional Christian values is an idea that Western Europe finds repugnant in the extreme. Why? Because such a nation would be an ideological rival and that is something that the current order can�t tolerate. 

Western nations have been globalizing their secular values by branding them as �human rights� and using human rights organizations as a cudgel to browbeat, into submission, those nations who hold to traditional values. 

But of course, this only applies to those traditional countries that do not tow the line of the western agenda. If you are a country like Turkey, a country that has manifold human rights abuses, you get a free pass because you have acquiesced to the program of western hegemony. This is why America and Western Europe are mostly silent on the issue of human rights violations by countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey. But for Orthodox countries like Russia and Serbia, no such pass is given and chastisement abounds. As a friend of mine said, enlightenment liberalism is the true religion of the west and those who refuse to convert can expect no quarter.

Russia's Chechnya becomes Biggest Contributor of Jihadists to ISIS

An important perspective and analysis which gets little reporting in the West. Russia herself seems very strong in responding to internal Islamic jihadi threats, especially considering her relatively large Muslim population (approximately 15% according to some estimates), in one operation alone rounding up 300 Muslim extremists. 

• Russia�s Chechnya becomes biggest contributor of jihadists to ISIS
• Chechen youth from Georgia�s Pansiki Gorge joining ISIS in droves

by John J. Xenakis, Breitbart News � April 18, 2015

Umar al-Shishani (center), ISIS�s military emir in Syria,

is a Kist Chechen from Georgia�s Pankisi Gorge (RFERL)

For years, I have been writing about the very stupid policy of Russia�s president Vladimir Putin of sending money and heavy weapons to Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad�s genocidal attack on innocent Sunni women and children. By 2012, reports made it evident that young Sunni men from around the world were traveling to Syria to fight al-Assad, and this included young men from the North Caucasus (Russia�s southern provinces). I wrote repeatedly that those young men were going to get terrorism training and return to their home countries, in this case Russia.

Since then, those predictions have been coming true with a vengeance. We have seen al-Assad�s genocidal acts, supported by troops and weapons from Russia, bring about the creation of several jihadist groups, most recently the Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh).

Although countries around the world have supplied young jihadists to ISIS, the biggest non-Mideast contributors are not America or European countries. The biggest contributor is Russia. The number of Russian nationals fighting with ISIS has roughly doubled over the past year. Russia�s own Federal Security Service (FSB) estimates that 1,700 militants from Russia have joined ISIS, but that figure seems too low to be plausible. Other estimates range from 3,000 to 5,000.

Many of these are runaway teen Chechens who grew up during Russia�s wars in Chechnya during the 1990s, saw their relatives and friends killed by the Russian military, and are now seeking an opportunity for revenge.

In fact, the Chechnya separatist movement had been waning in influence since the early 2000s, but is rapidly gaining strength again because of the success and glory of ISIS. Now the insurgents from Chechnya and other Caucasian nations have a new opportunity to train and operate with impunity � an opportunity they certainly did not have back home in the Caucasus.

[...] Jamestown and Bloomberg and RFE/RL and Geopolitical Monitor (Sep 2014)

Chechen youth from Georgia�s Pansiki Gorge joining ISIS in droves

Emotions ran high in the Chechen community when it was learned earlier this month that two school children, aged 16 and 18, had run away from their home in Georgia�s Pansiki Gorge and had managed to go through airport controls in Tbilisi, Georgia�s capital city, to leave for Turkey, after which they are presumed to have crossed into Syria to join the Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh). Angry parents and community elders in Pansiki are demanding an explanation from Georgian authorities on how it was possible for minors to board a plane to Turkey unchallenged. Other reports indicate that six people had left Pansiki to join ISIS in Syria between April 6-14.

Georgia�s Pansiki Gorge lies on the border with Russia, on the border of the province of Chechnya in Russia, and is populated mostly by Kists, who are ethnic Chechens. Because it is in a difficult-to-reach geographical location, Georgian authorities have done little to provide security to Pansiki, with the result that it has become practically a free portal for local young radicals and militants to go to Syria or Iraq and join ISIS, and then return. ISIS and its Chechen squadrons have already declared war on Russia and promised to �liberate� the Caucasus.

The Gorge has become a matter of great concern to both Georgia and Russia. It is economically very poor, making it a prime pool for ISIS recruiters to gain adherents.

Georgia�s response to these concerns is to pass a new law making it illegal to join or receive training in illegal armed groups in George and abroad, or to recruit others to do so. Passing a law gives the appearance of government action, but many analysts believe that just passing a law will make little difference. (Isn�t it already illegal to join illegal armed groups, or to recruit others to do so?)

According to one analyst:

In Pankisi�s case, the valley�s crushing poverty and the international demand for Chechen fighters [in Syria, Ukraine, as well as in many other theaters] make for a noxious mix that is difficult to disrupt via legislation.

Al Arabiya and RFE/RL 

Over 600 Russian Cities to Commemorate 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

�Russia is fraternally sharing this sorrow with us.� �Ara Abramyan, Union of Armenians of Russia 

Pravoslavie � April 6, 2015

(Moscow) Several hundred events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide will be held in the Russian Federation, reports TASS. This information was received on Monday by the journalists from head of the Union of Armenians of Russia Ara Abramyan.

�Hundreds of events will take place in 640 Russian cities and towns. They will include a memorial concert at the Column hall of the House of the Unions, round tables with participation of politicians, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Civic Chamber, the State Duma,� he noted. �Russia is fraternally sharing this sorrow with us,� Abramyan added.

The mournful anniversary will be marked on April 24.

In Moscow on April 22 the World without Genocide memorial evening will be held at the Column hall, and on April 19 the Armenian diaspora will give a performance entitled, �The Court is in Session!� featuring Armen Tzhigarkhanyan, Dmitry Kharatyan, Olga Kabo and other noted actors. The drama will present to the audience the documentary evidence collected on the basis of the Berlin archive of 1921.

Furthermore, in April the Russian Academy of Sciences will hold a large-scale academic conference called Genocide in the History of the 20th Century. Photo exhibitions, memorial concerts as well as film screenings dedicated to the tragedy will be arranged in Moscow as well.

The international recognition of the Armenian genocide (including recognition by Turkey) is an inevitable historical process, also said Abramyan.

�Today Armenians have no hatred for the Turkish people, we all understand that the genocide was initiated by the politicians,� he stressed. In Abramyan�s view, �even at the time of the massacres in Turkey there were people who saved Armenians, and nowadays the majority of representatives of the Turkish intelligentsia circles cannot help but recognize the fact of this genocide.�

�The reasons behind the genocide as well as elimination of its consequences depend on the politicians,� said Alexander Mkrtchyan, board member of the Union of Armenians of Russia. �However, various countries still have certain political interests that may lead to a new genocide of different nations: we have witnessed the ongoing tragic events in the Ukraine, for example in Odessa,� he accentuated.

�The present spreading of this policy of tyranny worldwide indicates that now it is especially necessary to raise the voice of the international community in order to prevent repetition of a genocide against other nations,� said Abramyan in conclusion.

Metropolitan Hilarion: There is the genocide of Christians in the Middle East

This is a wide ranging interview, with much to commend it. However, there are also some jarring absurdities and blatantly false assertions made, which provide us with teachable moments. My comments are interspersed in brackets and italics.

Pravmir, April 4, 2015

On March 29, 2015, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, who hosts the Church and the World program on Russia-24 TV network, had as his guest the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Commissioner For Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law, Constantine Dolgov.

Metropolitan Hilarion: Good afternoon, dear brothers and sisters! You are watching the Church and the World program. Today we will again discuss the Middle East and the situation of Christian minorities. My guest today is the Russian Foreign Ministry Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law, Constantine Dolgov. Good afternoon, Constantine Constantinovich.

C. Dolgov: Good afternoon, your Eminence.

This is a really pressing problem. Regrettably, the situation in the Middle East, in which once very numerous Christian communities have found themselves, raises the most serious concern. The region as a whole is going through a turbulent time and certain waves of internal instability raised by the so-called �Arab Spring�. Of course, there are still various conflicts, including old and unresolved. First of all, it is the Arab-Israeli conflict. The armed conflict continues in Syria. There is a threat of international terrorism. We all can see perfectly well the Islamic State militants overstepping the limits in various countries of the region. Not least of all their victims are precisely Christians. There are flagrant violations of human rights, first of all, the fundamental right to life.

Metropolitan Hilarion: In the recent years, the Russian diplomacy has exerted special efforts to improve the situation in the Middle East. The Russian Orthodox Church, primarily in the person of the Patriarch, keeps raising the alarm. We speak of this problem in each place possible, such as international platforms and the mass media, because until recently this problem was hushed up as if non-existent; it was simply ignored. Only after the ISIS militants began terrible mass executions of Christians the world community began speaking about this problem out loud. It happened only after the number of Christians in Iraq decreased by times and almost no Christians remained in Lybia and after the Christian community in Egypt had a hard time. The world community has at last begun speaking out against the background of general instability and uncertainty, against the background of the Arab Spring developments, against the background of what is going on now in Syria, where militants in the occupied territories are systematically eliminating Christians and Christian shrines.

The question arises inevitably here: why the so-called Christian West, at least in the eyes of many Muslims, supports these destructive forces and the so-called opposition in Syria? Why did the West support and actually initiate the overthrow of the regime in Iraq? 

Yes, we understand that the regime that existed in Iraq could be viewed differently and could hardly be regarded as model. But when a regime that somehow or other keeps the whole country from a disaster is overthrown an utter chaos comes in and a civil war begins, for the overthrow of a dictatorship does not at all mean that it will be surely replaced by a democracy. And those who did it now wash their hands saying: We have nothing to do with this; we have done our work; now let them themselves sort it all out. And how they can sort it all out on their own when the whole infrastructure of the country, political and economic, is destroyed and the interreligious and inter-ethnic balances, which existed for centuries, are violated?

Now we have found ourselves in a situation when the whole Middle East is affected by this blight of terrorism, when the fire of civil war and inter-ethnic confrontation is blazing, when Christians are methodically eliminated, that is, when the genocide of Christians is raging. Let us call things by their proper names. True, the western society has paid attention to it at last. Thanks God, they have started speaking about this problem even in the UN. But is it not late?

[His Eminence says, "Let us call things by their proper names." By all means, and that must include dealing straighforwardly with Islam itself, and not obfuscating its supremacist and militant core dogmas with empty platitudes and false assertions.]

C. Dolgov: You are absolutely right in analyzing the actions of western countries, in the first place, the United States of America, as regards a number of countries in the region. Of course, what happened in Iraq (we repeatedly gave our assessment to it) was a glaring violation of international law. Of course, the military operation was undertaken bypassing the UN Security Council, without its sanction. The consequences of these illegal and wrong actions are such as they are.

Really, in Iraq � and I would add Lybia � there was a violation of international law by the coalition of states led by the USA and NATO. Again, we see a situation which is not just far from being ideal in the human rights area but constitutes a glaring violation of the principle of supremacy of law. Of course, it is civilians who suffer in the first place. Regrettably, not least suffering is the Christian population. I agree with your assessment of the situation as genocide. Indeed, many actions including the mass murder of Copts in Egypt confirm it. Not long ago, another terrible incident took place when several dozen Coptic Christians were brutally killed. And certainly, the murder of Christians in Syria can be viewed as genocide in the sense of the 1948 Convention.

Metropolitan Hilarion: We should add Nigeria to the countries you have mentioned as, again, a terrorist group there, who have fully associated themselves with the so-called Islamic State, have massacred the Christian population. They attack villages, burn churches, kill people. And this epidemic is spreading. In this connection, the question arises: Why the civilized world community cannot stop this process?

C. Dolgov: Because certain geopolitical and military-political interests primarily of the West are pursued in what concerns military campaigns and certain conflicts in the Middle East. Hostages to these interests are very many important fundamental problems, including the problems of preservation of inter-confessional peace.

In western countries � Western Europe, USA and other countries � there is a growth of various religious phobias and growing oppression and persecution of Christians as they are pressed to reject their beliefs or not to show their commitment to the Christian faith. There are growing anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

[It is deeply troubling to hear a Russian official warning of "Islamophobia," a concocted term used by Muslim extremist groups to try to shut down legitimate reporting on and criticism of the supremacist core of Islam and how that drives the jihadi movement. When Muslims all throughout the Islamic world are persecuting Christians and other non-Muslims, and basing their actions on the Koran and the example of Muhammad, then warning of that danger is not "Islamophobia," but rather "Islamorealism."]

All these are serious and profoundly systemic problems in the West. It is a very disturbing alarm for the governments of these countries, and we hope that they will still continue taking an active part in the international efforts in this area.

As for extremists and all kinds of terrorists, particularly the Islamic State, in my view, to rock this boat of inter-confessional stability is one of the shortest ways to destabilization of the situation. Apparently, this factor works not only because they may feel hatred towards Christians, though it also the case, but they simply seek to rock the situation in a multi-confessional country, such as Syria. And one of the shortest ways to their goal is the fomenting of hatred among confessions.

Metropolitan Hilarion: There is a serious mistake, even a totality of mistakes in the approach taken by western countries and governments, first, to the very phenomenon of religion and, secondly, to the situation in the Middle East, especially to the interreligious situation. 

The attitude to the phenomenon of religion lies in this: religion is believed to bear an explosive potential, and in order to make people of different faiths live together without conflicts, the religious factor has to be removed altogether from the domain of public life. In other words, Christians should not wear little crosses, Muslims should not wear yashmak, and there must be no religious symbols in public places; any mention of God should be removed from constitutions; oaths should not be made on the Bible. That is, there must be a whole complex of measures for banishing God and any signs of religion from human life. These democratic institutions believe that in this way the potential for interreligious conflict will be reduced to zero.

But this view is wrong because people are constituted differently: they are ready to defend their religious beliefs; many are ready even to die for them.

[And many are ready to kill for them. This is a characteristic unique to Islam, that it contains in its holy texts and in the example of its founder/prophet eternal, divine commandments to subjugate the unbelievers, or kill them if they refuse to submit. What does that say about Islam? What does that say about the god of Islam, that he would issue such commands?] 

If we take the Middle East, it is a region in which religious feelings has always been heightened, in which people take their religious affiliation seriously.

From the point of view of human rights, there are both pluses and minuses in this attitude. Minuses lie in that it is a conflict-prone region, and if there is no restrain � the secular authority which keeps all from confrontation � then this powder keg blows up. From the point of view of a religious person, however, there are great pluses in this attitude because people are ready to defend their shrines, to die for their faith.

The Middle East was always a place of bloody tragedies, such as we see today. Thanks God, for over ten centuries, Muslims and Christians have co-existed in the Middle East. 

[This myth of peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Christians continues to be put forth by both religious and political leaders. Yet the more closely one looks at that "co-existence," the more one sees that Christians were only able to coexist with their Muslim "neighbors" if they accepted the terms of the dhimma, and paid the jizya tax. Christians could coexist with Muslims only as second class citizens, their churches falling into disrepair, unable to openly practice their faith, consigned to a slow martyrdom of attrition, a withering of their spirit and culture. Only where heretical (to Sunnis) branches of Islam developed (such as the Alawites in Syria) which effectively renounced the doctrine of jihad and the supremacist core of Islam, did Christians enjoy a relatively harmonious existence with their Muslim neighbors. The "peaceful coexistence" myth must be persistently countered with the historical truth. See Raymond Ibrahim's Crucified Again, and Mark Durie's The Third Choice.]

For centuries people of different faiths have lived side by side. We remember the pictures of peaceful Syria and peaceful Lybia. I remember Syria well. I have been to that country many times. When you walk on one street, you see a mosque, and further on a Christian church of one confession, then a Christian church of another confession, then shops in which Christians and Muslims are engaged in trade together.

It used to be an absolutely peaceful country. And all of a sudden some external forces decided to put it in �order�. And what result do we see? I believe, the so-call civilized community bears direct responsibility for this chaos in the Middle East. It means that it should take measures to stop all this devilish orgy that is held under religious slogans.

C. Dolgov: I fully agree with you. Some members of the international community bear special responsibility for the critical situation that has developed in various spheres in the Middle East, including in the sphere of persecution of Christians. Indeed, the Middle East is the cradle of several religions. For millennia and centuries, people of various confessions used to live peacefully and to work together in Syria and not only there. Unfortunately, it is a nourishing soil for extremist actions, for enkindling hatred. It is exactly what internal and external forces have used for their narrowly understood and interpreted national and group interests. It is certainly a very dangerous phenomenon.

I would like to pay tribute to the active and productive actions of the Russian Orthodox Church, with which we actively cooperate in this area. The growth of international attention shown to this problem by the UN and OCSE is a result of our common efforts. No doubt, we have many allies. These are countries in which the Christian religion is dominant and many Arab and Muslim countries which share our concern. The recent statement, which was voiced on behalf of 65 states in Geneva, is devoted to this problem of the need to stop the persecution of Christians and people of other confessions and religious communities, first of all in the Middle East.

Metropolitan Hilarion: I would like to remind our viewers that the resolution you have mentioned is signed by 65 countries, but it was initiated by three countries � Russia, the Vatican and Lebanon. It is symbolic in its own way because Russia plays a leading role in the struggle against terrorism. Making a sensible assessment of the situation in the Middle East, Russia keeps attracting the world community�s attention to this problem. The Vatican is our ally in this endeavour.

Lebanon is a country of the Middle East in which an inter-confessional balance has been preserved, though it is surrounded by other countries already caught in the flare of conflict. For this reason we are concerned for the fate of Lebanon.

Symbolically, these three countries united to come out together, and I would like to hope that the world community will hear this call and take real measures to settle the situation in the Middle East. I would like to believe that it is not too late and we will manage to preserve Christians in the places where they used to live for centuries, to stop their mass exodus from these lands and, most importantly, to create or re-create acceptable conditions for the life of all people who have lived in the countries of this region from time immemorial.

Russia: Fatwa denounces Islamic State, says its members should be killed

Robert Spencer investigates the fatwa issued by the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Russia and finds it contains certain historical inaccuracies and misleading assertions.

by Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, March 31, 2015

It is telling that the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Russia recommends that Islamic State members should be killed � apparently it takes for granted the Sharia death penalties for heresy and apostasy. Also, this is still more window dressing to lull the Infidels into complacency, as I show in my comments below.

[RT article indented, Mr. Spencer's comments full width.]

Russian Muslims denounce ISIS as �enemies of Islam'

RT, March 31, 2015:

A major Russian Muslim group has issued a fatwa against the so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) reviling them as �enemies of Islam� and calling for the punishment of all its members as criminals. 

The Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Russia published the text of the fatwa on its website on Tuesday. 

�The members of the Ulama [Islamic scholars] council, on the basis of the Koran and Sunna and other legal sources, have shown and proved that all actions of the organization that calls itself �Islamic State� are contradicting Islam � starting from the creation of the group and calls for resettlement and finishing with their cruelty and public executions,� the document reads. 

�From the point of view of the Muslim canon the members of such criminal groups deserve either capital punishment or full lifelong isolation from the society,� the Russian Muslim leaders stated. However, they noted in the fatwa that every suspect must be convicted by a court verdict that would fully exclude all doubts of his or hers complicity in violence, robberies and killings. 

�The followers of ISIS are mistakenly interpreting Islam as the religion of brutality and cruelty, of violence, torture and killings of all discontent,� the Russian Muslims stated. In reality, the basic principles of Islam forbid to kill civilians, prisoners and envoys � and journalists and workers of humanitarian missions can be described as the latter, they added.

Where could the Islamic State have possibly gotten the idea that brutality and cruelty and violence had anything do with Islam?

Koran 5:33: �This is the recompense of those who fight against Allah and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off; or they shall be banished from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement.�

�Narrated Abu Qilaba: Anas said, �Some people of �Ukl or �Uraina tribe came to Medina and its climate did not suit them. So the Prophet ordered them to go to the herd of (Milch) camels and to drink their milk and urine (as a medicine). So they went as directed and after they became healthy, they killed the shepherd of the Prophet and drove away all the camels. The news reached the Prophet early in the morning and he sent (men) in their pursuit and they were captured and brought at noon. He then ordered to cut their hands and feet (and it was done), and their eyes were branded with heated pieces of iron, They were put in �Al-Harra� and when they asked for water, no water was given to them.� Abu Qilaba said, �Those people committed theft and murder, became infidels after embracing Islam and fought against Allah and His Apostle.'� (Bukhari 1.4.234)

Most importantly, the creation of a caliphate is only possible by approval of all Muslim communities and otherwise is considered a mutiny. �A single-sided declaration of caliphate would cause numerous competing caliphates to appear and this would cause strife and disagreement between Muslims,� the fatwa reads.

�Most importantly, the creation of a caliphate is only possible by approval of all Muslim communities and otherwise is considered a mutiny.� In that case, the Umayyad, Abbasid, Shi�ite Fatimid, and Ottoman caliphates, as well as the caliphate of the Rightly Guided Caliphs Abu Bakr and Ali ibn Abi Talib, were all �a mutiny.� The Umayyad caliphate was established with violent disapproval from the party of Ali � the Shi�ites. The Abbasids supplanted the Umayyads. The Ottomans declared a caliphate while there was still an Abbasid caliph in Cairo. Abu Bakr was chosen despite the objections of the party of Ali, and Ali�s caliphate was contested by Muawiya.

In December last year, the Russian government listed the Islamic State and the Al-Nusra Front as terrorists, outlawing membership or any support for these organizations under threat of criminal prosecution. In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry called upon all nations to recognize the two groups as terrorists, noting that such a step would be backed up by UN Security Council resolutions. 

In March this year, the head of Russia�s State Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, called upon the international community to abandon double standards on terrorism and start fighting the threat in line with universally-recognized norms of international law. 

Patrushev also told reporters that he and other Russian officials preferred to use the term �Islamic State� in quotation marks to avoid insults to true Muslims who, in his view, had no relation to terrorists and extremists. For the same reason he called to refer to it by its original name � the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, or ISIL.

Tajik IS Militants Threaten 'Jihad' At Home (Or Even In The Kremlin)

Tajikistan is a former Soviet Republic which gained independence in 1991 with the breakup of the USSR. Predominantly Muslim, it ranks 45th in the Open Doors 2015 World Watch List of worst countries for persecution of Christians.

Radio Free Europe (RFE) via BigNewsNetwork
March 23, 2015

Screen grab from the Tajiki IS Militants' YouTube video.

A group of Tajik militants who claim to be fighting with the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria has posted a new video in which it threatens to transfer its activities from the Middle East and fight in Tajikistan, RFE/RL's Tajik Service, Radio Ozodi, reports.

The 16-minute video was shared on the Russian-language Odnoklassniki social network on March 19 and shows a group of 16 masked militants, most of whom appear to be Tajiks. It is not possible to independently verify the date or the exact location in which the video was shot.

Tajikistan's security authorities have yet to comment on the video, Radio Ozodi reported.

One masked militant said that the video was the militants' final address from Syria and Iraq and that their next video could be filmed "from the mountains of Tavildara in central Tajikistan, or the Tajik capital, Dushanbe -- or even from the Kremlin."

One of the men in the video appears to be a notorious Tajik militant, known as Nusrat Nazarov or Abu Kholodi Kulobi, who says he is 38 years old and hails from the village of Charmagon in the Kulob district of Tajikistan. Nazarov claims to be now living in a suburb of Raqqa, an IS stronghold in Syria.

Nazarov addressed the Tajik government and pro-government religious leaders, saying that they would be "held accountable" for actions carried out against militants in the Central Asian state.

In with Radio Ozodi, Nazarov said that his goal is to introduce Shari'ah law throughout the world, including among Native Americans.

Nazarov has also claimed that there are as many as 2,000 Tajiks fighting in IS, and that around 500 have been killed, figures that are almost certainly highly exaggerated.

Russia and Central Asia, Tajikistan at lower right, bordering China and Afghanistan.

The State Committee for the National Security of Tajikistan said in November that as many as 300 Tajiks have gone to join the fighting in Syria and Iraq. Edward Lemon from the U.K.'s University of Exeter, who researches and tracks Tajik militants in Iraq and Syria, of over 60 documented Tajiks in Syria.

Nazarov's boasts that he and his fellow IS militants will soon be fighting to impose their version of Shari'ah law in Tajikistan is also likely hyperbole.

There is no evidence that the IS leadership in Syria and Iraq is planning to send militants home to fight for the group.

A video explained that several Tajiks had asked permission from IS's senior leadership to wage "jihad" in Tajikistan with the extremist group Jamaat Ansarullah, but had been refused.

The militant in that video, who gave his nom de guerre as Abu Umariyon, said that IS commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi told the Tajik group that they would "have to wait."

That the IS leadership is not keen to allow its militants to leave Syria and Iraq and fight elsewhere is not surprising. IS cannot afford to risk losing its rank-and-file militants as it faces ongoing military pressure and sustained losses in both Syria and Iraq. In Syria, the militants have taken heavy losses from the U.S.-led coalition and Kurdish militias, while forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are also targeting IS militants. IS in Iraq is facing air strikes from the United States and its allies, as well as ground assaults and opposition from the Kurdish peshmerga and Iran-backed Shi'ite militias.

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan that IS had been weakened in Iraq and Syria.

Though IS is reluctant to allow its militants to leave for "jihad" elsewhere, as the group comes under increased military pressure in Syria and Iraq its leadership has welcomed the expansion of its influence into new parts of the world.

The IS leadership has purportedly accepted the pledges of allegiance made to it by militant groups outside of Syria and Iraq. In November, IS leader Baghdadi accepting pledges of allegiance from groups in "The Haramayn [Saudi Arabia], Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Algeria."

This month, IS from the Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram.

In another sign of the increasing military pressure IS is facing, the group has released a number of videos calling on Western Muslims to carry out attacks on their home soil -- but only if they are unable to join IS in Syria and Iraq.

Indeed, CIA chief Brennan noted that -- even though IS has been weakened in Syria and Iraq -- the group's reach is extending beyond Iraq and Syria and that it will take a combined and extended international effort over the next decade to repel the threat.

-- Joanna Paraszczuk

United Nations Humans Rights Council adopts the first ever statement in support of Christians in the Middle East

On March 13, 2015, the UN Human Rights Council, on the sidelines of its Session XXVII adopted a statement �Supporting the Human Rights of Christians and Other Communities, particularly in the Middle East� initiated by Russia, the Vatican and Lebanon.

Pravmir � March 19, 2015

Our Lady Church in Baghdad

The appearance of this statement has been dictated by the catastrophic situation of Christians in the Middle East who have been subjected to unprecedented persecution by the Islamic State and other terrorist groupings.

�The existence of many religious communities is seriously threatened. Christians are now especially affected. These days even their survival is in question�, the Council points out.

The authors of the documents state, �Millions of people have been either displaced or forced to leave their ancestral lands. Those who stay in conflict zones or areas controlled by terrorist groups live under the permanent threat of human rights violations, repression and abuses. Both communities and individuals fall victim to barbaric acts of violence: they are deprived of homes, driven from their native lands, sold into slavery, killed, beheaded and burnt alive. Dozens of Christian churches and ancient shrines of all religions have been destroyed�.

The countries who have adopted the statement call upon the international community �to support the deeply rooted historical presence of all ethnic and religious communities in the Middle East� and �to reaffirm their commitment to respect the rights of everyone, in particular the right to freedom of religion, which is enshrined in the fundamental international human rights instruments�.

For the first time in international discussions of so high a level, the problem of the persecution and discrimination of Christians in the Middle East has been voiced. The statement was signed by 65 countries. The adoption of this document was initiated by the Russian Federation.

An important role in drafting this document was played by the Russian Orthodox Church and the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society, who held on March 2, 2015, a high-level international conference on the Situation of Christians in the Middle East on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council session. Participating in its work was Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), vice-chairman of the Department for External Church Relations.

On March 27, 2015, France as this month chair of the UN Security Council will initiate a special session for discussing the grievous situation of Christians in the Middle East.

Supreme Mufti of Syria: 'Islamic caliphate more dangerous than World War III'

This odd message from Syria's Supreme Mufti lacks Quranic authority, and flagrantly violates the hundreds of suras and hadiths commanding jihad and the establishing of a worldwide caliphate. He is not to be trusted. My comments interspersed and at end. Read and share widely.

Moscow, October 31, Interfax via Pravmir

Supreme mufti of Syria Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun sees the danger in establishing a "caliphate," as it has happened with the "Islamic state."

�Calls to set up an Islamic state are more dangerous that calls to unleash World War III,� the mufti said at his Moscow press conference.

He stressed that �religion is relations between God and a person,� and it does not have anything in common with a political regimen.

�When they wonder what will be with the state of �Islamic caliphate,� I ask, what state it is. I ask who of prophets commanded to establish it,� the Islamic leader noted.

[Actually, the prophet and founder of Islam, Muhammad, is the one who "commanded to establish" the Islamic caliphate, as seen in these hadiths:

Allah�s Messenger said: �I have been ordered [by Allah] to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah... so if they perform all that, then they save their lives and property from me.� (Sahih Bukhari, 1:2:25, also Sahih Muslim, 1:10:29-35)

Allah's Messenger said, �the earth belongs to Allah and his Apostle.� (Sahih Muslim, Book of Jihad, 3:17:4363; also Bukhari, Book of al-Jizya, 4:58:3167)  

Islam is demonstrably both religion and political ideology. Its purpose is forever linked by its founder to the conquering of the entire globe for Allah. The mufti's protestations don't ring true and are not to be trusted. See my comments at bottom for more...]

According to him, �those, who try to impose any faith, will crush.�

He also warned Russian Muslims from the similar initiatives.

�I want to warn Russian Muslims: be careful, when someone tells you to set up a Muslim state. The destruction you now see in Syria show the danger of these words,� Hassoun said.

Speaking about Syria, the mufti points out that the country is fighting in economic, political and cultural spheres and �it is the fight of truth against lie, the fight of justice against injustice.�

According to him, 83 countries struggle against Syria today, and the Great Britain only spends 8,3 million pounds to bomb Syrian territory.

_______

My comments:

The Syrian Supreme Mufti sounds exactly like Muslim apologists in the West, who invariably seek to convince non-Muslims that the primary meaning of jihad � literally �struggle� � is internal, that is, a Muslim�s inner struggle against his faults and weaknesses, and striving in the way of God, "relations between God and a person," as the Mufti says.

These Muslim apologists often cite a hadith, where Muhammad, returning from battle, said, �We have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad.� Yet not only does this hadith not appear in any of the six canonical hadith collections, it has openly been called into question by many Islamic scholars as inauthentic (see Mark Durie, The Third Choice, pp 65-66.)

The doctrine of jihad warfare as the greater struggle commanded of Muslims is presented in this key passage from Reliance of the Traveller, published by Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, considered to be an authoritative manual of orthodox Sunni Islam:

Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada signifying warfare to establish the religion.

The scriptural basis for jihad, prior to scholarly consensus (def: b7) is such Koranic verses as:

�Fighting is prescribed for you� (Koran 2:216); �Slay them wherever you find them� (Koran 4:89); �Fight the idolators utterly� (Koran 9:36);

and such hadiths as the one related by Bukhari and Muslim that the Prophet said:

�I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Mes- senger of Allah, and perform the prayer, and pay zakat. If they say it, they have saved their blood and possessions from me, except for the rights of Islam over them. And their final reckoning is with Allah�;

and the hadith reported by Muslim,

�To go forth in the morning or evening to fight in the path of Allah is better than the whole world and everything in it.�

Jihad is a communal obligation. (o9.1)

The caliph [meaning that there is to be a caliphate] makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians... until

they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax. (o9.8)
The caliph fights all other peoples until they become Muslim. (o9.9)138

The call for Muslims to wage jihad is global and universal, though not all Muslims wage offensive jihad. Yet if they cannot do so, they are still enjoined to support jihad through other means, such as financial, material, or in their heart and through their prayers (the lesser jihad).

The success of the Islamic State in winning more and more Muslims to their cause of global jihad and an ever-expanding caliphate is due to their zealous adherence to the dictates of Islam in the Quran and the Sunnah. Muslims know the Islamic State is practicing pure, authentic Islam, and they are signing up and lining up in droves to support them (including so called "lone wolves" like the Ottawa jihad attackers and many in the U.S. as well). 

The Islamic Caliphate is not "more dangerous than World War III, it is World War III.

Russia has experienced a Spiritual Resurrection

"In Russia during the last 26 years, 26,000 churches have either been restored or opened, as well as 800 monasteries, filled with young monks and nuns... All this has taken place in the very same era which in the West some call post-Christian."

by Francis Phillips, Catholic Herald
via Pravoslavie � October 24, 2014

I have been reading a book about Russia: Dying Unneeded by Michelle Parsons. It is about the wartime and post-war generation of former Soviet citizens whose lives came to a halt when the USSR collapsed in 1991. The meaning and purpose of their lives had come from the state, from work, from surviving with stoical humour and resignation the problems that arose in daily life from the command economy. The author examines the dramatic mortality rate during the years 1990-1994, when state socialism suddenly ended, to be followed by, as Parsons puts it, �upheaval, disorder, decay, wildness and thievery�.

Overnight, a whole generation of Russians lost their jobs, their pensions and their security. Too old to retrain for new careers they started to experience the poverty and scarcity that they had known during the war and which they had thought was over for good. Men particularly, who had defined themselves through their work, started to drink heaving (not helped by often being paid in vodka rather than in money) and to suffer stress-related heart attacks. Suicides also increased. Women survived better because they simply continued to struggle, as they always, had, with providing for their family�s needs.

Parsons paints a grim picture of a society that had been led along by their secular faith in the Communist ideology, which then failed them spectacularly. Without inner spiritual resources and living for years under the official atheism of the Soviet system, their lives became meaningless. Although she briefly mentions the notion of the �Russian soul� she defines it in a patriotic and community sense � a people held together by suffering and sacrifice, especially in the wartime years when Russia lost 27 million people.

Yet, as Robert Moynihan describes in his article of 20 October, entitled �Light from the East�, there has been a spiritual resurrection in Russia as if, after a long nightmare, people have awoken to different, transcendent sense of reality. As he put it, �An East which, until 25 years ago, was officially atheist and unrelentingly radical in its vision of a �new Soviet man� whose identity was rooted in his economic class�, is now experiencing a reconversion. According to Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church, who is quoted by Moynihan, this turning back towards Christianity began in 1988, during the celebrations for the 1000-year anniversary of the coming of Christianity to Russia.

�From that moment there began�the revival of the Church throughout the former Soviet Union.� By the start of the 1990s hundreds of people were regularly seeking baptism in towns and villages all over the country. In the last 26 years Metropolitan Hilarion says, 26,000 churches have either been restored or opened, as well as 800 monasteries, filled with young monks and nuns. He comments that �all this has taken place in the very same era which in the West some call post-Christian.�

What a strange irony there is in all this; the West, formerly seen as a bastion of civilized values, based on their deeply Christian origins, has slipped almost as fast into a moral wilderness at the same time as the vast country once dominated by Communism has rediscovered its Christian roots and the inner transformation that comes with conversion. Russia might have enormous problems, as Michelle Parsons� book indicates, but denial of the existence of God is no longer one of them.