Syrian 3D Images

APF, 3D Images of Syria Archaeological Treasures Go Online

Natakallam

Quartz, Syrian refugees are offering Arabic lessons to students abroad through Skype "To get started, you fill out a simple questionnaire on Natakallam�s website, then specify your availability in a shared spreadsheet. Classes can be bought singly or in bundles. A Natakallam administrator looks over each prospective student�s level, goals, general interests and preferred schedule, and matches him

American Muslims are proud of taking the right steps towards integration

American Muslims are proud of taking the right steps towards integration. www.AmericanMuslimInstitution.org  

On Friday, November 20, 2015, the American Muslims took a bold step in their journey towards being-one with fellow Americans.  

The American Muslim Institution (AMI) led the demonstrations against Terrorism and Daesh on the steps of Lincoln Memorial;  this historic location was chosen to mirror the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who brought a positive change to the American civil society with his immortal, �I have a dream speech" on the very same steps.

It was indeed a symbolic event for American Muslims, and the foundation for a positive change was laid.The next event was held within hours across the White House by ADAMS Center and another one by APPNA at Dupont Circle the very next day. Now, it is gathering momentum.  

The apprehensions and the conflicts Muslims feel is a result of actions and reactions feeding each other. The Media is blamed for amplifying the negative portrayal of Muslims, while our own attitudes have also contributed towards to the feeding frenzy. It is time to change the equation.  

Mother Teresa had said if you want to make peace with your enemies, go talk with them. Praise the Lord, we have begun the process.  Media is not our enemy; they are merely reflecting the fears of a few, some of them have not taken the time to differentiate between religion and its followers, and have mistaken us with the Daesh, Talibans, Al-Qaeda and their ilk. It is our duty to correct these gross errors on a continual basis. God willing, we hope to conduct seminars and workshops with the media to rectify some of the false perceptions about us. Good and healthy communications can always pave the way for better understanding.

We hear, "the proof is in the pudding", indeed it is. In the following links (four videos), listen to the tone of Sean Hannity, Stuart Varney, and Richard Ray of Fox News. They have responded to positive engagement. There is a new emerging language of understanding and support. What has not worked is disengagement; I would rather engage and fail than cause us to dig in our heels.
This week�s output;    

1. A small step for Muslims, but a giant leap for America - Link

1. Thanksgiving (Interfaith), an  unforgettable story of Appaiah - Link

1. Stuart Varney on Fox -Lincoln Memorial � Link

1. Richard Ray on Fox Dallas -Pastor Jeffress � Link

1. Sean Hannity on Fox about Syrian Refugees � Link

1. Stuart Varney of Fox complains  - Link

1. American Muslims Demonstrate against ISIS - Link

1. War on Terror is the dumbest idea ever floated - Link

1. Islamic way of dealing Terrorism � Link

1. American Muslims Condemn ISIS - Link

1. Rabbi Jonathan Sachs Hugs Mike on the stage. Link

1. Moderate Muslims Speak out? Link

1. What has Sean Hannity done for us? Link (last 9 of the 15 minutes)

The American Muslim Institution is formed with three specific goals - work with the media, mitigate Islamophobia and speed up the process of integration. We hope to get to the point where fellow Americans will see Muslims as their neighbors and fellow citizens, committed to fight against violent extremism and to protect the homeland. No more them against us, it will be all of us working together for a prosperous, secure and cohesive America. . 

Since August 4th, we have been written up in nearly 300 media outlets, this event at Lincoln Memorial has produced nearly 60 Media reports-videos and write ups.  You can Google "American Muslim Institution." Insha Allah, we will upload all of them including our own video and pictures on this site www.AmericanMuslimInstitution.org  within a few weeks.

An integrated society functions effectively when we are all on the same page with our uniqueness.  When we demonstrated against Terrorism and Daesh on the steps of Lincoln Memorial, it resonated with fellow Americans; both of us were against the monsters.  When we celebrate 4th of July in the biggest possible way, it will resonate with fellow Americans; both of us become fellow patriots.  When armed protesters head towards Mosques with a confused intent, we can greet them with kindness and caring hospitality, hoist American flags on our mosques grounds, serve grilled hot dogs and water, the hostility will dissipate and they will view us as fellow Americans instead of perceived hostility. We must connect with them instead alienating them. 

Of course, I suggest our Friday Sermons to teach us in dealing with conflicts in the most simple way.

Islamophobia? Right now 63% of Americans don't see Muslims favorably; we can bring this number down to 32% in 3 years. If you are willing to do certain basic things. I will be happy to give a talk and present practical action plan to your group,  listing seven little and seven big things we can do to shape our future with fellow Americans. We cannot postpone this and live in misery for another decade.  

Mike Ghouse,Executive DirectorAmerican Muslim InstitutionA proactive voice for American MuslimsWashington, DC(214) 325-1916 

Dr. Mike Ghouse is a community consultant, social scientist, thinker, writer, news maker and a speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, Islam,politics, human rights, India, Israel-Palestine,foreign policy and building cohesive societies. Mike offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. More about him in 63 links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at TheGhousediary.com.

Archbishops From Middle East Charge Discrimination Against Christians

"Since October 2014, 906 Muslim refugees from Syria were granted U.S. visas, while only 28 of Syria�s estimated 700,000 Christian refugees were provided with visas."

This further supports Raymond Ibrahim's important article, Obama Throws Christian Refugees to Lions.

by Warren Mass, The New American � September 16, 2015

Two archbishops from the Middle East have complained that the United States unfairly discriminates against Christians from their region when they apply for U.S. visas.

Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq, and Melkite Archbishop Jean-Cl�ment Jeanbart of Aleppo, Syria, aired their grievances at an August 4 press conference at the 2015 Knights of Columbus Convention in Philadelphia.

The archbishops cited federal data indicating that, since October 2014, 906 Muslim refugees from Syria were granted U.S. visas, while only 28 of Syria�s estimated 700,000 Christian refugees were provided with visas. They said that even considering that Christians account for just 10 percent of the population of Syria, the number of visas granted to Christians seems widely disproportional.

Although the U.S. government does not track the religious affiliation of immigrants, Christianity Today nevertheless reported that the bishops gathered their information �from official U.S. government sources.� 

Archbishop Warda stated during the press conference:

Our people are asking these questions: how come we apply for the American visa and are denied? 

This is a clear case of persecution. 

They�re being denied visas while others who have participated (in the violence) or at least were silent can go [to America].

The Catholic News Agency reported that Archbishops Warda and Jeanbart would like to see their flocks stay and help rebuild the Christian populations in the Middle East, where Christians have lived since the first decades after Jesus' death. However, they realize they cannot ask people to remain in places where they are endangered by the terrorism and violence.

�We would like our people to stay, we would like [that], but emigration is a personal decision; we cannot encourage [it], but we cannot stop it,� Warda said.

The Catholic News Service report noted:

Iraq alone has seen a massive emigration of Christians. The Christian population has plummeted to 300,000, down from about 1.5 million before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of the country. 

The report reinforces what former Representative Ron Paul noted recently: �The reason so many are fleeing places like Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq is that US and European interventionist foreign policy has left these countries destabilized with no hopes of economic recovery.�

If the turmoil in Iraq and Syria aggravated by our interventionism were not so bad, the question of whom to grant or not grant immigration visas to would be a moot point.  These Middle Eastern people of both Christian and Muslim beliefs would most likely prefer to remain in their homelands.

Related:

• Obama and Co. Middle East Policies Aiding Genocide of Christians
• Obama-backed Syrian Rebels �Ethnic Cleansing� Christians
• Christian Martyrdom Doubled in 2013, Persecution Growing

Obama Throws Christian Refugees to Lions

The anti-Constantine's support for Muslim genocide against Christians is undeniable. 

by Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute � September 25, 2015

Members of California�s Iraqi Christian community and their supporters protest the months-long detention of Iraqi Christian asylum-seekers at the Otay Mesa detention center.

The fate of those Iraqi Christians who had fled from the Islamic State only to be incarcerated in the United States has finally been decided by the Obama administration: they are to be thrown back to the lions, where they will likely be persecuted if not slaughtered like so many Iraqi Christians before them.

Fifteen of the 27 Iraqi Christians that have been held at a detention center in Otay Mesa, California, for approximately six months, are set to be deported in the coming weeks. Some have already been deported and others are being charged with immigration fraud.

Many of the Iraqi Christian community in San Diego�including U.S. citizen family members vouching for the refugees�had hopes that they would eventually be released.  Mark Arabo, a spokesman for the Chaldean community, had argued that �They�ve escaped hell [IS]. Let�s allow them to reunite with their families.�  One of the detained women had begged to see her ailing mother before she died.  The mother died before they could reunite, and now the daughter is to be deported, possibly back to the hell of the Islamic State.

Why are Christian minorities, who are the most to suffer from the chaos engulfing the Middle East, the least wanted in the United States?

The answer is that the Obama administration defines refugees as people �persecuted by their government.�  In other words, the only �real� refugees are those made so due to the actions of Bashar Assad.  As for those who are being raped, slaughtered, and enslaved based on their religious identity by so-called �rebel� forces fighting Assad�including the Islamic State�their status as refugees is evidently considered dubious at best.

As Abraham H. Miller argues in �No room in America for Christian refugees�:  �What difference does it make which army imperils the lives of innocent Christians?  Christians are still be[ing] slaughtered for being Christian, and their government is incapable of protecting them. Does some group have to come along�as Jewish groups did during the Holocaust�and sardonically guarantee that these are real human beings?�

In fact, from the start of Western meddling in the Mideast in the context of the �Arab Spring,� Christians were demonized for being supportive of secular strongmen like Assad.   In a June 4, 2012 article discussing the turmoil in Egypt and Syria, the Independent�s Robert Fisk scoffed at how the Egyptian presidential candidate �Ahmed Shafiq, the Mubarak loyalist, [and rival to the Muslim Brotherhood�s Morsi] has the support of the Christian Copts, and Assad has the support of the Syrian Christians. The Christians support the dictators. Not much of a line, is it?�

More than three years later, the Western-supported �Arab Spring� proved an abysmal failure and the same Christian minorities that Fisk took to task were, as expected, persecuted in ways unprecedented in the modern era.

Even without defining refugees as people �persecuted by their government,� the Obama administration never seems to miss an opportunity to display its bias for Muslims against Christians.  The U.S. State Dept. is in the habit of inviting scores of Muslim representatives but denying visas to solitary Christian representatives.  While habitually ignoring the slaughter of Nigerian Christians at the hands of Boko Haram, the administration called for the �human rights� of the jihadi murderers.  And when persecuted Copts planned on joining the anti-Muslim Brotherhood revolution, Obama said no.  Then there is the fact that every Arab nation the Obama administration has meddled in�especially Libya and Syria�has seen a dramatic nosedive in the human rights of Christian minorities.

The Obama administration�s bias is evident even regarding to the Iraqi Christians� illegal crossing of the U.S.-Mexico border, the occasion on which they were arrested. WND correctly observes: �At the same time the Obama administration [is] deporting Christians, it has over the years allowed in hundreds of Muslim migrants from Africa and the Middle East who crossed the Southern border the same way the Chaldeans did.�

Meanwhile, as the Obama administration nitpicks at the definition of refugee and uses it against severely persecuted Christian minorities, it turns out that four out of five migrants�or 80 percent�are not even from Syria.

And while Christian minorities pose little threat to the United States�indeed, they actually bring benefits to U.S. security�Muslims all around the U.S. are supporting the Islamic State and Muslim clerics are relying on the refugee influx to conquer Western nations, in the Islamic tradition of Hijra, or jihad by emigration.

As Koran 4:100 puts it: �And whoever emigrates for the cause of Allah will find on the earth many locations and abundance. And whoever leaves his home as an emigrant to Allah and His Messenger and then death overtakes him�his reward has already become incumbent upon Allah.�

In Islamic usage, the �cause of Allah� is synonymous with jihad to empower and enforce Allah�s laws on earth, or Sharia.  In this context, immigrating into Western lands is a win-win for Muslims: if they die in the process somehow, paradise is theirs; if they don�t, the �locations and abundance� of the West are theirs.

All the while, true Christian refugees, fleeing the same hostile Muslim forces being allowed to enter Europe and America by the thousands, are thrown back to the lions by the Obama administration.

The Syrian Refugee Crisis Explained Perfectly With a Simple Animation & Video

Pressure Grows to Declare War Against Christians a Genocide

"Christianity in the Middle East is shattered," Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, Nebraska Republican, told the IDC [In Defense of Christians] conference on Sept. 9. "The ancient faith tradition lies beaten, broken and dying. Yet Christians in Iraq and Syria are hanging on in the face of the Islamic State's barbarous onslaught. This is genocide."

As I repeatedly strive to emphasize, "genocide" is a secular term, and while it is accurate in a forensic way, for us, as Orthodox Christians, we must school ourselves to speak of this as a "New Age of Martyrdom." 

Our brothers and sisters in Iraq, Syria and the Middle East � as well as in Egypt and throughout North and Central Africa, as well as in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Indonesia and throughout the entire Islamic world � are ascending a real Golgotha. Christianity is being crucified anew, and the evil is increasing in vast waves of persecution. Europe and North America are next. 

We must wake up, stand with our suffering brothers and sisters, pray for them, honor them as confessors and martyrs, and prepare ourselves for the trials to come through diligently living and practicing our most holy faith.

And, we must clearly state that this "New Age of Martyrdom," this "genocide," is the direct result of devout Muslims following the commands in the Qur'an, imitating Muhammad's example as extolled in the ahadith and the Sira, and applying the doctrines of Islamic jurisprudence. It is not just the Islamic State waging war against and persecuting Christians. It is also ordinary Muslims � neighbors of Christians � who are taking their religion more seriously and acting according to its commands. 

Islam itself is the direct cause of the first genocide of the 21st century, this "New Age of Martyrdom."

Pressure Grows to Declare War Against Christians a Genocide

by Douglas Burton, Washington Times via AINA, September 23, 2015:

Memorial to martyrs killed in 2010 church bombing; Baghdad, Iraq.

Human rights activists see it. Foreign leaders see it. And more than 80 members of the U.S. Congress see it. Together, they are pressuring the leader of the free world to declare there is a Christian genocide going on in the Middle East.

Their campaign -- which was discussed at a Capitol Hill conference earlier this month hosted by the two-year-old In Defense of Christians nonprofit -- has an influential ally on its side.

Pope Francis, making his first visit to the United States on Wednesday, has noted the number of Christians being martyred today exceeds the number martyred during the days of the Roman Empire.

In fact, the sheer numbers of Christians murdered and tortured every year in a dozen countries in the developing world is only getting worse, thanks to the relentless campaign of the ISIS and al-Qaeda terror groups.

For example, in 2014, 2,000 Christians were murdered in Iraq alone, which is the number cited by historian Edward Gibbon as the total number of Christian martyrs in the first three centuries of Christianity.

In Iraq, where Christian churches were planted 1,800 years ago, Christianity has been wiped out except for 200,000 refugees sheltering in Kurdistan and a few in Baghdad. Their language, Aramaic; their homeland, the Nineveh Plain; and their calamity are Biblical in scale. Hundreds have been publicly tortured and executed in Mosul while women and children have suffered severe levels of sexual violence since the Islamic State took control in 2014.

"Christianity in the Middle East is shattered," Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, Nebraska Republican, told the IDC conference on Sept. 9. "The ancient faith tradition lies beaten, broken and dying. Yet Christians in Iraq and Syria are hanging on in the face of the Islamic State's barbarous onslaught. This is genocide."

A year after Congress authorized a special envoy to expedite the humanitarian relief of persecuted minorities in Iraq, the Obama administration has finally chosen a person to fill the spot. Knox Thames has been named the State Department's special adviser for religious minorities in the Near East (NEA) and South and Central Asia (SCA). His appointment was announced Sept. 16 by Ambassador David Saperstein, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. The Christian refugees in Irbil hope that Mr. Thames hits the ground running.

"The appointment represents a positive step toward strengthening the U.S. response to religious persecution in the Middle East," says Delia Kashat, who works for the Nineveh Council of America, a newly established office that raises awareness on the plight of threatened Iraqi minorities, including the Yazidis.

"History is repeating itself," she says of the latest crisis that reminds many refugees of the massacre of 3,000 Assyrian Christians in August 1933 and the Armenian genocide of 1915 that also claimed the lives of many Assyrian Christians.

"Having suffered multiple genocides over time, the true natives of Iraq and Syria serve as the equilibrium and peacemakers of the country," she says. Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians in all provinces have suffered kidnappings, torture and brutal attacks, and massive exodus has followed the ascendance of the Islamic State.

Ms. Kashat grew up in the Detroit metro area, home to around 150,000 Chaldean Christian immigrants, but her parents were born in the Nineveh Plain and fled Iraq in 1973. "They came to this country because this is where is they could freely live and practice their faith," she says.

Whether they call themselves Assyrian or Chaldean, Catholic or Orthodox, Iraqi Christians belong to a common ethnicity and claim descent from the ancient peoples who established Assyria 4,500 years ago.

Currently there are 14 Christian parties seeking seats in the Kurdish regional parliament, and each is tied to a particular church, according to Louay Mikhael, a Chaldean Christian rom Dohuk, who arrived in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and child only in April.

Mr. Mikhael represents the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council of the Kurdish Regional Government (CSA Popular Council), which will open its lobbying office in Washington in the coming weeks. Both Ms. Kashat and Mr. Mikhael are working in Washington to raise awareness on the issues affecting ethnic-religious minority populations.

After the surge of the Islamic State in the summer of 2014 approximately 130,000 people -- virtually the entire population of Christians remaining in the Nineveh Plain near Mosul -- have either fled the country or taken shelter in Kurdish cities.

"On Aug. 6 when ISIS attacked Qaroquosh, approximately 55 miles from Irbil, we had 60,000 people arriving in one day," said Rev. Douglas Bezi, the Chaldean Catholic priest who manages a refugee center in the Christian suburb of Ainkawa.

The city of Irbil and its suburbs have nearly 100,000 Chaldean Catholic refugees sheltering in rented apartments, unfinished buildings or steel shipping containers. "When they arrived, I divided them into two groups, those who wanted to return in one group and those who wanted to leave the country," Father Bezi said. "But after a year, no one wants to return to the Nineveh Plain. More than 60 percent of my people are traumatized, and wake up every day demoralized."

Iraqi Christian advocates are united in their priorities for the United States: They want direct humanitarian assistance and international condemnation of the abuses these vulnerable groups face.

A Congressional resolution introduced Sept. 9 by Mr. Fortenberry and Rep. Anna Eshoo, California Democrat, calls on signers of the United Nations' Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, signed in 1948, to be "reminded of their legal obligations" under the agreement.

It also says those who have forced the migration of religious communities from their ancestral homelands -- especially the Nineveh Plain, the historic home of Yazidis -- be "tracked, sanctioned, arrested, prosecuted and punished."

"Christianity is running the risk of becoming extinct in the region it was born. What is happening to the Christian community in Iraq will happen to all of Christianity in the Middle East if we don't take action," Ms. Kashat said.

Douglas Burton, a former U.S. State Department official in Kirkuk, Iraq, is a former opinion editor of Insight on the News.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury warns against 'Muslim mass immigration to Europe'

"The frustration for those of us who have been calling for compassion for Syrian victims for many months is that the Christian community is yet again left at the bottom of the heap... Britain should make Syrian Christians a priority... We are a Christian nation with an established Church so Syrian Christians will find no challenge to integration...

"There has been too much Muslim mass immigration to Europe. Isn't it high-time instead for the oil-rich Gulf States to open their doors to the many Muslims who are fleeing conflict? Surely if they are concerned for fellow Muslims who prefer to live in Muslim-majority countries, then they have a moral responsibility to intervene...

"It is, of course, quite right that Europe has woken to the sheer scale of human suffering in Syria. It is equally right that our compassionate instincts will drive us to fund-raise and campaign for the innocent victims of the conflict. But that compassion must be realistic and clear-headed." 

� Lord George Carey, Former Archbishop of Canterbury

It is reassuring to hear a Christian leader speak so forthrightly abut the dangers of Muslim Mass Immigration, and the need for the Christian West to care for the Christian victims.


Britain Has a Duty to Rescue Syria's Christians 
by George Carey, the Telegraph via AINA, September 6, 2015:

The dramatic and disturbing developments of the past few days have introduced a new, heart-rending dimension to this refugee crisis. Undoubtedly, the most disturbing aspect is just how impotent Europe is proving itself to be. If the EU is not resilient in the face of this disaster, it could be torn apart.

I can't help thinking of Corporal Jones's catchphrase -- "Don't panic!" But even the Germans are panicking as Angela Merkel, in a desperate attempt to cajole her fellow European leaders into accepting binding quotas, has declared open season for up to 800,000 Syrians to come to Germany.

Isn't it a bit rich for the Germans to criticise other nations, including Britain, for failing to accept refugees? For years, our warm-hearted land has consistently accepted more asylum-seekers than Germany.

Besides, it would be a mistake to give way to bullying calls to immediately open our doors to tens of thousands of refugees. We are a small island and recent immigration figures are highly disturbing. Last year, a net figure of 330,000 people settled among us -- more than the population of Sunderland. Imagine this continuing, year after year.

Alas, the signal that Germany is opening its doors to this influx will make Europe into an even more attractive magnet for those who are genuine refugees -- but also to floods of economic migrants, most of whom are young men travelling alone. We don't even know how many of these have been combatants in the civil war.

If some of what I say sounds harsh or, heaven forbid, a touch unchristian, let me make it clear that I welcome David Cameron's announcement to allow thousands more to enter Britain through refugee camps in Syria's neighbouring countries. In the long term, this strategy will cut out the traffickers and reduce the risk of the sea and land journeys.

But the frustration for those of us who have been calling for compassion for Syrian victims for many months is that the Christian community is yet again left at the bottom of the heap.

According to the Barnabas Fund, a charity which recently resettled some 50 Syrian Christian families in Poland, Mr Cameron's policy inadvertently discriminates against the very Christian communities most victimised by the inhuman butchers of the so-called Islamic State. Christians are not to be found in the UN camps, because they have been attacked and targeted by Islamists and driven from them. They are seeking refuge in private homes, church buildings and with neighbours and family.

They are the most vulnerable and repeatedly targeted victims of this conflict. Indeed, a hundred years after the Armenian and Assyrian genocide, in which over a million Christians are estimated to have been killed by Ottoman Muslims, the same is happening today in the form of an ethnic cleansing of Christians in the region. Christians have been crucified, beheaded, raped, and subjected to forced conversion. The so-called Islamic State and other radical groups are openly glorifying the slaughter of Christians.

Britain should make Syrian Christians a priority because they are a particularly vulnerable group. Furthermore, we are a Christian nation with an established Church so Syrian Christians will find no challenge to integration. The churches are already well-prepared and eager to offer support and accommodation to those escaping the conflict.

Some will not like me saying this, but in recent years, there has been too much Muslim mass immigration to Europe. This has resulted in ghettos of Muslim communities living parallel lives to mainstream society, following their own customs and even their own laws. Isn't it high-time instead for the oil-rich Gulf States to open their doors to the many Muslims who are fleeing conflict? Surely if they are concerned for fellow Muslims who prefer to live in Muslim-majority countries, then they have a moral responsibility to intervene.

It is, of course, quite right that Europe has woken to the sheer scale of human suffering in Syria. It is equally right that our compassionate instincts will drive us to fund-raise and campaign for the innocent victims of the conflict. But that compassion must be realistic and clear-headed.

As a European Union, we should be prepared to close the doors to large numbers of economic migrants and return them to their countries. A proper process of registration must be conducted, ideally in refugee camps on the borders of Europe. And if the numbers get too large, we should be prepared to admit refugees on a provisional and temporary basis, reviewing their status periodically until they can return home.

It's not enough to send aid to refugee camps in the Middle East. There must be renewed military and diplomatic efforts to crush the twin menaces of Islamic State and al-Qaeda once and for all. Make no mistake: this may mean air strikes and other British military assistance to create secure and safe enclaves in Syria.

Lord Carey is a former archbishop of Canterbury.

Syriac Bishop Flavien-Michel Malk� Beatified on 100th Anniversary of His Martyrdom at the hands of the Muslim Turks

Glory be to God for this holy hierarch who laid down his life for his flock and earned his crown as a true witness for Christ. May we learn from him and all the martyrs to stand firm in our faith in Jesus Christ, preferring to die rather than to deny Him who laid down his life for us.

When his friends and acquaintances urged him to withdraw from Gazireh to a safer location, he replied, �Even my blood I will shed for my sheep.� 

One of the bishop�s most striking phrases comes from when he was pressured to renounce the faith and to convert to Islam. Rather than giving in, the bishop replied, �I will defend my faith to the blood.�

Syriac Bishop Will Be Beatified on the 100th Anniversary of His Martyrdom

In 1915, Flavien-Michel Malk� said, �I will defend my faith to the blood.�

National Catholic Register, August 11, 2015

Bishop Flavien-Michel Malk� of the Syriac Diocese

of Gazireh, who was martyred Aug. 29, 1915,

and will be beatified Aug. 29, 2015.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey � On Saturday, Pope Francis approved a decree recognizing the martyrdom of Flavien-Michel Malk�, a Syriac Catholic bishop who was killed in 1915, amid the Ottoman Empire's genocide against its Christian minorities.

The decision was made during an Aug. 8 meeting between Pope Francis and Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Bishop Malk� will be beatified Aug. 29, the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom, during a liturgy celebrated by Ignatius Youssef III Younan, the Syriac patriarch of Antioch, at the convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Lebanon. It is expected that thousands of Syrians and Iraqis displaced by the Islamic State will attend the beatification.

�In these painful times experienced by Christians, especially the Syriac communities in Iraq and Syria, the news of the beatification of one of their martyrs, will surely bring encouragement and consolation to face today's trials of appalling dimension,� read an Aug. 9 statement of the Syriac Patriarchate of Antioch.

�Blessed Martyr Michael, intercede for us, and protect especially the Christians in the Orient and all the world in these hard and painful days.�

Malk� was born in 1858 in the village of Kalaat Mara, a village of the Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey, to a Syriac Orthodox family. He joined a monastery of that Church and was ordained a deacon, but then converted to the Syriac Catholic Church. (Both the Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholics use the West-Syrian rite.)

After his conversion, he was ordained a priest in Aleppo in 1883. He was a member of the Fraternity of St. Ephrem and served parishes in southeastern Turkey, near his home.

Ottoman persecution of Christians began in earnest with the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1897. Malk�'s church and home were sacked and burned in 1895, and many of his parishioners were murdered, including his mother. In total, the massacres killed between 80,000 and 300,000 Christians.

He was selected to become a bishop in the 1890s, serving as a chorbishop and helping in the rebuilding of Christian villages. In 1913, he was consecrated bishop and appointed head of the Syriac Diocese of Gazireh (modern-day Cizre, 150 miles southeast of Diyarbakir).

A second round of persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire began in April 1915. Known as the Armenian Genocide, it targeted the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Christian minorities in the empire. The Assyrian genocide (the portion of the mass killings directed against Syriac and Chaldean Christians) is also known as the Seyfo Massacre, from the Syriac word for sword.

Some 1.5 million Christians were killed, and millions more were displaced during the genocide.

During the summer when the genocide broke out, Bishop Malk� was in the Idil district, near Gazireh. In June 1915, hearing the Ottoman forces were preparing to massacre Gazireh's people, he returned.

According to the Syriac Patriarchate, when his friends and acquaintances urged him to withdraw from Gazireh to a safer location, he replied, �Even my blood I will shed for my sheep.�

Together with four of his priests and the Chaldean bishop of Gazireh, Philippe-Jacques Abraham, he was arrested and imprisoned for two months.

Bishop Malk� refused to convert to Islam, and on Aug. 29, 1915, he was martyred.

He was the last Syriac bishop of Gazireh; after his death, the diocese was suppressed, and, today, the Syriac Catholic Church has no presence in Turkey.

In an Aug. 8 interview with Vatican Radio, the postulator of Bishop Malk�s cause, Father Rami Al Kabalan, spoke of the bishop�s deep spiritual life as well as the relevance his martyrdom has today.

The bishop, he said, �played a fundamental role in encouraging people to defend their faith in the difficulties of the time, during the persecutions of the Ottoman Empire.�

Bishop Malk� lived a life of poverty, even selling his liturgical vestments in order to assist the poor and help fight poverty, Father Al Kabalan said.

In addition to his closeness with the poor, the priest said that Bishop Malk� was extremely zealous in his apostolate and visited all of the parishes within his diocese.

One of the bishop�s most striking phrases, his postulator said, comes from when he was pressured to renounce the faith and to convert to Islam. Rather than giving in, the bishop replied, �I will defend my faith to the blood.�

Exactly 100 years after his death, Bishop Malk�s serves as a prophetic witness because �we Christians of the East are undergoing the same persecutions, even if in a different way,� the priest said. �The image of this martyr gives us courage to defend our faith and to live our faith.�

�I personally think the beatification truly has a very strong ecclesial importance in the context of today. � We are attacked in Iraq, in Mosul, where by now the Christian community no longer exists; and in Aleppo; and now the situation of Al Qaryatain, the Diocese of Homs � we are truly the most wounded Church! We are undergoing persecution everywhere.�

Voicing his hopes for the future, Father Al Kabalan said he prays that the Lord would illuminate world leaders and those who hold power, �so that they make peace!�

Islamic State bulldozes 1,500-year-old Syrian monastery, captures over 200 Syriac Christians

Islam's war against Christianity continues to advance. In this report you see it all: Muslims conquering, destroying Christian sites, taking of captives, offering the "three choices" � convert to Islam, pay the jizya, or death." And tens of thousands of Muslims from all over the world are flocking to the Middle East to join the Islamic State because they see it adhering to pure Islam.

Islamic State bulldozes 1,500-year-old Syrian monastery

by Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch � August 21, 2015

Besides removing supposed temptations to idolatry, Islamic jihadists want to destroy the artifacts of non-Muslim civilizations because doing so testifies to the truth of Islam, as the Qur�an suggests that the destroyed remnants of ancient non-Muslim civilizations are a sign of Allah�s punishment of those who rejected his truth:

Many were the Ways of Life that have passed away before you: travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who rejected Truth. (Qur�an 3:137)

This is one of the foundations of the Islamic idea that pre-Islamic civilizations, and non-Islamic civilizations, are all jahiliyya � the society of unbelievers, which is worthless. Obviously this cuts against the idea of tourism of ancient sites and non-Muslim religious installations. V. S. Naipaul encountered this attitude in his travels through Muslim countries. For many Muslims, he observed in Among the Believers, �The time before Islam is a time of blackness: that is part of Muslim theology. History has to serve theology.� Naipaul recounted that some Pakistani Muslims, far from valuing the nation�s renowned archaeological site at Mohenjo Daro, saw its ruins as a teaching opportunity for Islam, recommending that Qur�an 3:137 be posted there as a teaching tool.

�Isis in Syria: 1,500-year-old Mar Elian monastery bulldozed by Islamic State in Qaryatain,� by Gianluca Mezzofiore, International Business Times, August 21, 2015 (thanks to David):

Islamic State (Isis) militants have bulldozed parts of the ancient monastery of Mar Elian in Qaryatain, a strategic town located in the central Syrian province of Homs which has been seized from forces loyal to president Bashar al-Assad earlier this month. IS-linked Twitter accounts posted pictures of the destruction of the monastery, which was founded in 432 on the claimed spot of St. Elian�s death, for �worshipping a God other than Allah�.

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), IS also transferred dozens of Assyrian Christians, who were kidnapped after the capture of Qaryatain, near its northern Syria de facto capital of Raqqa.

Mar Elian is also the place where priest Jacques Mourad was abducted back in May. Mourad was known to help both Christians and Muslims and was preparing aid for the arrival of hundreds of refugees from Palmyra�.

The jihadist group captured Qaryatain, which lies south-west of Palmyra Roman ruins and 85km from Homs, after heavy clashes with regime forces. Then the group abducted about 230 Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholics. Of those captured, 48 have been released and 110 were transferred to Raqqa, according to SOHR. The Christians would be given the choice of conversion to Islam or paying �jizya�, a tax on non-Muslims.

Earlier in March, IS blew up part of the ancient monastery of Mar Behnam in Iraq near the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh, south-east of Mosul. Photos released by IS members on social media show the 4th-century monastery�s tomb complex of Mar (Saint) Behnam and Mart (Saint) Sarah reduced to rubble.The monastery was also founded in the 4th century and built on the tomb of Berhnam and his sister Sarah, who were converted to Christianity by St Matthew. IS fighters stormed the monastery in July 2014 and expelled its resident monks.

�They�re doing this gradually. They scared the people away and now they�re destroying these people�s heritage. I don�t understand: why would you do that? Why destroy something it�s not yours?,� al-Jeloo said. �No palace, monastery, church, ruins is ours to destroy. It�s the world�s property. That�s why I�m concerned the world�s community is not doing enough to stop Isis.�

In March, an IS-linked Twitter account posted pictures of what appears to be jihadists smashing crosses and defacing statues, Christian murals and paintings at St George Chaldean Catholic monastery near Mosul. The monastery, located on the Ba�werah neighbourhood on a hill north of Mosul on the other side of the Tigris river, was founded by the Assyrian Church of the East in the 10th century but rebuilt as a seminary by the Chaldean Catholic Church in 1846.

Also in March, IS militants reportedly bulldozed the 2,000-year-old city of Hatra, and the Nimrud archaeological site near Mosul. On 26 February, the jihadist group published a video showing militants destroying artefacts in a Mosul museum and at the Nergal Gate to ancient Nineveh.

Slovakia refuses EU plan to resettle Muslim refugees, �will only accept Christians�

Wisdom and prudence from the sovereign state of Slovakia. They (and all Christian countries) should be free to flatly refuse to accept forced Muslim immigration.

Keep Slovakia jihad free!

As of 2011, Slovakia was approximately 62% Roman Catholic, 8.9% Protestant, 3.8% Greek Catholic, and .9% Orthodox Christian, a very small Jewish remnant, the rest Atheist and other; no Muslim population even registered in the survey. No doubt they would like to keep it that way, given the historic problems their neighbors have had from Muslim incursions dating back a millennium (Slovakia herself was attacked by Muslim armies centuries ago), and the current woes suffered by every European country which has Muslim populations (sharia "no-go" zones, crime, etc).

More disturbing, the Islamic State has publicly targeted Slovakia in its 5-year plan to spread the caliphate from Spain to China, no doubt relying on mass Muslim immigration as a key component of their jihad.

The EU's demands amount to civilizational jihad, and would only result in the desolation of Slovakia.

Migrants crisis: Slovakia �will only accept Christians�
Slovakia says it will only accept Christians when it takes in Syrian refugees under a EU relocation scheme
BBC News via Pravmir, August 20, 2015

The country is due to receive 200 people from camps in Turkey, Italy and Greece under the EU plan to resettle 40,000 new arrivals.

Interior ministry spokesman Ivan Netik said Muslims would not be accepted because they would not feel at home.

The UN�s refugee agency (UNHCR) called on countries to take an �inclusive approach� to relocation.

But Mr Netik denied the move was discriminatory and said it was intended to ensure community cohesion.

�Not going to like it�

The number of migrants at the EU�s borders has surged in recent months, reaching a record high of 107,500 in July. Most are Syrians, Afghans, and sub-Saharan Africans, fleeing instability or poverty.

Last month, EU member states agreed to take in 32,000 asylum seekers arriving in Italy and Greece over the next two years � fewer than the 40,000 target.

The scheme was made voluntary after some nations � including Slovakia � refused to accept set quotas.

Mr Netik told the BBC: �We want to really help Europe with this migration wave but� we are only a transit country and the people don�t want to stay in Slovakia.

�We could take 800 Muslims but we don�t have any mosques in Slovakia so how can Muslims be integrated if they are not going to like it here?�

[No doubt they would do what they have done in France, England, Sweden, Denmark and elsewhere: create isolated Muslim enclaves, driving out native Slovakians through intimidation and crime, and eventually establishing sharia "no-go zones" where even police fear to venture.]

EU Commission spokeswoman Annika Breithard said she could not comment directly on the Slovak statement, but stressed that EU states were banned from any form of discrimination.

Meanwhile Babar Baloch, Central Europe spokesman for the UNHCR, said: �Resettlement is greatly needed for many refugees who are at extreme risk among the world�s most vulnerable groups.

�We encourage governments to take an inclusive approach while considering refugees for resettlement and should not base their selection on discrimination.�

More than 240,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean already this year, arriving on the shores of Greece and Italy before travelling on to other destinations.

Germany, the biggest recipient of asylum-seekers in the EU, has said it could receive as many as 800,000 applicants this year.

The numbers are far higher than the record 438,000 asylum applications in 1992 during the Bosnian crisis.

Both the EU and the UN have called on other countries to share the burden.

But EU leaders face a public backlash amid tensions over immigration.

[No doubt those tensions have been caused by a certain specific group of immigrants, namely the ones who bring jihad with them.]

Islamic State Militants Destroy Assyrian Churches Northern Syria

"The group has reportedly destroyed most of the churches in the area before withdrawal, military sources reported."

By Zozan Shekho

ARA News via AINA � May 26, 2015

The Assyrian Virgin Mary Church in Tel Nasri, Syria,

was destroyed by ISIS on April 15.

Hasakah, Syria -- Radicals of the Islamic State's (IS/ISIL) withdrew from several Assyrian villages in Tel Temir countryside in northeastern Syria, after battles with Kurdish and Assyrian forces.

The group has reportedly destroyed most of the churches in the area before withdrawal, military sources reported on Monday.

Speaking to ARA News, Fayez Korko, member of Haras al-Khabur force, said that a huge devastation hit the Assyrian areas in the vicinity of Tel Temir at the hands of IS terrorists, especially the worship places and civilians' property.

"They dropped the church's crosses and crashed them all. They also damaged all contents of the churches and painted anti-Christian slogans on the walls," he added.

"We've expected to witness such a scene after the forced departure of the terrorist group from those villages," Korko said.

The source pointed out that some of the Assyrian families were able to return to their homes in the town of Tel Temir, adding that other displaced families from the countryside are unable to return as their houses were exposed to complete destruction by the radical group.

"The IS brutality caused a mass destruction in agricultural and economic resources of the displaced Assyrian families," Korko told ARA News.

"Many Assyrians fled to Lebanon and northern Iraq after IS terrorists destroyed their churches and houses," he added.

The Assyrian member of the Haras al-Khabur, which was fighting alongside the Kurdish forces of the People Protection Units (YPG) against ISIL, pointed out that the entire Assyrian villages have been liberated, but there are some of them the joint forces did not enter yet.

In February 23, 2015, militant fighters of the Islamic State launched an offensive on the Assyrian-majority villages near Tel Temir in Hasakah province, taking over several villages and abducting more than 200 people. The YPG backed by allied Christian forces of the Haras al-Khabur and the Syriac Military Council retook these villages and forced IS to withdraw.

The joint forces have liberated the Assyrian areas with the support of the U.S.-led coalition's warplanes.

63 Christian churches have been destroyed during the years of war in Syria

Although "churches were destroyed both by the opposition forces and the government army of President Bashar al-Assad... the report accuses only ISIS militants of desecration of Christian crosses... it is impossible to describe all the cases of attacks on Christian churches."

Pravoslavie � May 26, 2015

63 Christian churches have been destroyed during the years of war in Syria. The human rights organization, �Syrian Network for Human Rights� (SNHR), has published a report, entitled �Targeting Christian Places of Work in Syria�, reports Sedmitza.ru.

Authors of the report state that during the four years of war, churches were destroyed both by the opposition forces and the government army of President Bashar al-Assad. According to the 21-page report, directed against the legitimate regime, 14 churches were burned down by the opposition, 7 churches � by extremist groups (ISIS, Al-Nusra Front), while another 40 fell victims of the �ruthless� regime of B. al-Assad.

The report mentions one incident of deliberate desecration of a church in Kasab by the government troops. However, according to �World Watch Monitor�, islamists from �Al-Nusra� are responsible for that crime.

In spite of the consistent criticism of the Syrian government, SNHR admits that the majority of the churches �destroyed by the government forces� were situated on the territories controlled by the opposition.

SNHR also claims its experts verified every single photograph and video provided by local inhabitants and media. The group notes that it is impossible to describe all the cases of attacks on Christian churches.

�Christians and their places of worship are suffering as much as the whole of the Syrian nation. Missiles and bombs do not differentiate the religious from the non-religious,� the experts say.

However, the report accuses only ISIS militants of desecration of Christian crosses. They are accused of breaking down four crosses and converting two churches into military bases. Among the crimes committed by IS militants are ransacking of churches and destruction of icons.

SNHR is blaming the opposition, the extremist groups, and the government forces for committing military crimes by means of �intentional targeting� of churches and is adding that �this was not random destruction.�

The organization is also convinced that using churches as military bases is a violation of international law.

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.