Public Pressure Slows U.S. Rush to War in Syria

From AK: Regarding Syria, please call your Congressional representatives as soon as you can. As you can read in the story below, public pressure is already making a difference. The liars who want this war are in a rush... They know that if the public has the chance to think about it, ordinary citizens in the U.S., U.K., and France will reject this nonsense. This is *war* we're talking about ... Does anyone in his or her right mind want to rush into this, especially when the evidence presented is so flimsy? I still remember Bibi Netanyahu saying back in 2002 that the U.S. had to rush into invading Iraq. How did that turn out? Please call Congress immediately. No to #AnotherIraq.
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Syria resolution dies at U.N., British lawmakers balk
The moves are a setback for the U.S. bid to strike Syria militarily for its alleged chemical weapons use.

By Paul Richter and Henry Chu — 8/28/2013

UN officials investigate attack site
in Syria (United Media Arbeen)

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's move to punish Syria's government for allegedly using chemical weapons in a deadly attack last week appeared to suffer a setback Wednesday when the U.S. failed to get United Nations approval for use of force and British support was thrown into question.

The collapse of diplomatic efforts aimed at securing a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria was expected. The British impediment was not.

The developments came as President Obama warned in a TV interview that chemical weapons "that can have devastating effects could be directed at us" and made clear he is considering limited military action against Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

Pope Francis, other Christian leaders condemn Western intervention in Syria, Warn of 'World War'

“The disappearance of the Christians is a danger not only for Syria, but for all of Europe.” [The presence of Christians in the Middle East] is “the essential condition for a moderate Islam, which exists thanks to the Christians.” — Syrian-born Patriarch Gregoire III Laham

by Hilary White, LifeSiteNews via Pravoslavie.ru — 8/29/2013

Pope Francis, as well as other Christian leaders in the Middle East and around Europe are sounding the alarm of a possible global conflict should the US and other western powers launch an attack on Syria. The Syrian Chaldean Catholic bishop of Aleppo, Antoine Audo, warned of a possible "world war" if the West intervenes in Syria. In an interview with Vatican Radio yesterday, the Syrian Chaldean Catholic bishop of Aleppo, Antoine Audo, said that armed intervention in Syria could unleash a “world war.” “If there is an armed intervention, that would mean, I believe, a world war. That risk has returned,” he said. The comments follow an urgent appeal by Pope Francis this weekend for the world’s powers not to intervene in the escalating Syrian conflict. On Sunday, Pope Francis called on the international community to do everything they could to avoid military action, calling for them “to be more sensitive to this tragic situation and make every effort to help the beloved Syrian nation find a solution to a war that sows destruction and death.” “The increase in violence in a war between brothers, with the proliferation of massacres and atrocities, that we all have been able to see in the terrible images of these days, leads me once again raise my voice that the clatter of arms may cease," he said during the Angelus. "It is not confrontation that offers hope to resolve problems, but rather the ability to meet and dialogue.” Bishop Audo added to Vatican Radio, “We hope that the Pope’s call for real dialogue between the warring parties to find a solution can be a first step to stop the fighting.” L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s quasi-official paper, also criticised the threats by Western powers, accusing US President Obama of pursuing a policy of “political expediency” rather “than of substance.”

Minya, Egypt: Schools, Churches, Orphanages burnt to erase all traces of Christian presence

"Despite of what you did, we ask God to forgive you."

Asia News via Pravoslavie.ru — 8/28/2013

With at least 20 attacks against churches, Christian schools and orphanages, Minya Governorate is the part of Egypt where Islamists struck with greatest violence and brutality. "The Islamists", one resident said, "burnt and destroyed everything. Their goal was to erase all the traces of a Christian presence; even the orphanages were looted and destroyed."

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Tell President Obama not to arm terror groups in Syria.

Obama crosses red line by supporting jihadi terrorism...

... making jokes about Muslim Persecution of Christians.

by Raymond Ibrahim, via Jihad Watch — 8/28/2013

By now it should be obvious that whenever the U.S. interferes in another nation's politics in the name of "human rights," that that is only a pretext. So it is in Syria, as Obama prepares to plunge America in a war with that nation, and, inevitably, its allies. The United States' stated reason for intervention, as articulated by John Kerry, is that Syrian President Assad used chemical weapons on the rebels, many of whom are jihadis -- including terrorists, rapists, and cannibals -- and thus violated their human rights.

Kerry is certainly consistent. Earlier he worried about the "human rights" of Nigeria's genocidal Islamic terrorists, Boko Haram, while ignoring their victims -- thousands of slaughtered Christians and destroyed churches.

Moscow Patriarchate: acting as “international executioner,” the US is sacrificing Muslims and Christians in Syria

Metropolitan Hilarion warns that "radical extremist forces will come to power... with the help of the United States."

AsiaNews via OCP Media — 8/28/2013

Speaking to AsiaNews, Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Department for External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, condemns threats of NATO intervention without a UN mandate. More victims will be “sacrificed on the altar of an imaginary democracy”.

Moscow (AsiaNews) – As a Western military intervention against the regime of Bashar al-Assad appears increasingly likely, the Russian Orthodox Church expresses “strong concern” about possible developments of the crisis, this following US charges that the regime used chemical weapons against civilians.

“Once again, as was the case in Iraq, the United States is acting as an international executioner”, said Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Speaking to AsiaNews, the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church strongly criticised the US position, which is “completely one-sided.”

“Without the endorsement of the United Nations, they want to decide the fate of a whole country of millions of inhabitants.”

“Once again,” Hilarion warned, “thousands of lives will be sacrificed on the altar of an imaginary democracy;” among them, according to the Metropolitan, there are, first of all, “Christians, about whose fate no one cares.”

They are at “risk of becoming hostages to the situation and the main victims of radical extremist forces, who, with the help of the United States, will come to power.”

“The international community,” he concluded, “must do everything to avoid that events develop in this direction.” (M.A.)

Syrian Bishop Warns Intervention Could Spark ‘World War’

Chorus of Christian voices expressing concerns over the West's rush to another war in the Middle East.

AFP via OCP Media — 8/28/2013

A Syrian Chaldean Catholic bishop on Monday warned that an armed intervention in Syria could unleash a “world war”, while the Vatican’s official newspaper called for more “prudence” from Western powers.

“If there is an armed intervention, that would mean, I believe, a world war. That risk has returned,” Monsignor Antoine Audo of Aleppo told Vatican radio.

“We hope that the pope’s call for real dialogue between the warring parties to find a solution can be a first step to stop the fighting,” he said.

Audo is also the head of the Syrian arm of the international Catholic charity Caritas and has repeatedly warned about the human cost of the war.

The Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano, meanwhile criticised Western powers in an editorial.

“The drumbeat of an armed intervention by Western powers is becoming ever more insistent and ever less restrained by prudence,” it said.

“Several representatives of these countries say they are convinced that the accusation that the Syrian army used chemical weapons is founded — a question which the United Nations is investigating,” he said.

Pope Francis on Sunday called for the international community to help find a solution to the civil war.

“I launch an appeal to the international community to be more sensitive to this tragic situation and to commit itself to the maximum to help the dear Syrian nation find a solution to a war which spreads destruction and death,” he said.

© 2013, Assyrian International News Agency.

VIDEO: 'Wasn't it always the Christians who were doing the persecuting?'

This is a must-watch interview with author and scholar Raymond Ibrahim, who in just a few minutes encapsulates the reasons why you must buy, read and share his landmark book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians.

Raymond covers the horrific breadth of Muslim persecution of Christians, from Egypt and Syria and the Middle East, to northern and Sub-Saharan Africa, and east across Asia and Southeast Asia.

The highlight for me was when the interviewer, at about the 1:23 mark, bluntly asks, "Throughout history, wasn't it always the Christians who were doing the persecuting? Why does it seem now the tables have turned?"

Raymond actually chuckles a little as she puts the question out there, not in any way ridiculing the host, but welcoming the question as an opportunity to explain the false Western paradigm, which thinks of Christians as the aggressors, and Muslims as the victims.

For some reason I couldn't get the embed code to work, so watch the video, buy the book, inform your friends and family.

Opposition to US military involvement in Syria

One of my most trusted correspondents, who is a U.S. foreign policy analyst and writer with expertise in the Islamic world, and an Orthodox Christian, shared this with me. Let us heed his advice and register with our elected representatives in Washington our opposition to U.S. support for the Al Qaeda-linked jihadists in Syria, and direct US military involvement against the Syrian government.

Contact Elected Officials via USA.gov

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Feel free to turn this into a post for the "Facing Islam" blog.  I wrote this for my Facebook page, and I don't have time to turn this into a more formal article.  

It is our responsibility as American citizens to contact our political representatives immediately.

Peace...

When I called my congressman and senators, this is what I said. I expressed my strong opposition to a bombing campaign against Syria. I asked what the representative's position was. (All three offices said that their representative hadn't released a public statement yet.) I said that I wanted answers to three questions. 

1) Where is the proof that the Syrian government ordered a chemical-weapons attack? I remember Colin Powell's 2003 presentation to the U.N. regarding Iraqi WMD. Most of the claims have since been revealed to be incorrect. Are we really going to make the same mistakes again? http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0811-09.htm 

2) What will we do if the Syrian government retaliates? If, God forbid, American sailors are killed, are we planning to escalate the conflict? If Syria bombs Saudi Arabia or Jordan or Turkey [or Israel], will we get further involved? 

3) If jihadist groups like the Al-Nusra Front take over Syria, what will we do then? Will American ground troops be sent in to secure Syria's chemical weapons? If we don't want that, why are we planning to bomb the Syrian soldiers who are preventing the jihadists from gaining control of the chemical weapons?  

I cannot believe that after 4400 American soldiers were killed in Iraq, we are about to repeat the same disastrous mistakes regarding Syria. I urge every American citizen to call his or her representatives immediately. 

(I give permission for this post to be copied and re-pasted, in whole.)

'When the evil starts from Syria, start praying!'

by Matushka Constantina — Lessons from a Monastery — 8/28/2013

Below is a translation of a recent prophecy concerning the difficulties that await us.

The ever-memorable Bishop of Sisanion and Siatisti (right)

and Fr. John Kalaidis (left).

I just returned from my spiritual father, [himself] a spiritual child of the late [Bishop] Anthony of Sisanion and Siatisti [2005], who many venerate as a modern saint. [My spiritual] father is solely committed to the salvation of souls, he avoids statements about future events, but in speaking about the ever-memorable Bishop, he revealed some things which he himself was witness to and which demonstrate that the ever-memorable [Bishop], with all the gifts he had, received great revelations from God.

[In the words of the Bishop's spiritual child]:

“He often told us, and many times with sorrow, that  in a time of prosperity, ‘Great famine will come to Greece, my child, great famine…’ and we found it difficult to believe him.

“The last time he was in the hospital after his final surgery, as soon as they brought him in the room he looked across at the icon of the Crucified Lord and cried like a little child, saying in his well-known humble [manner]: ‘Why, my Christ made me worthy and revealed all these things to me!’, it was clear that he had seen something about the future…

“When we asked him: ‘What did you see, Despota?’ he answered us with difficultly because he had a problem with his voice: ‘When the evil starts from Syria, start praying!’ And he repeated it, ‘There, when it starts from Syria…’ signifying that afterward the storm will hit us… We asked him again: ‘What else  did you see, Despota?’ and he told us: ‘I will tell you later…’ but afterward he fell asleep [in the Lord]…”

This was obviously the will of God.

Source (Greek)

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There is much talk of war and famine these days, many warnings are being passed around that the prophecies about the last, great war are about to be fulfilled. These prophecies (such as ones by St. Cosmas the Aitolos – you have to scroll down the page to see his prophecies, Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain, and Elder Joseph of Vatopedi) may or may not be on the brink of becoming reality. In any case, I think that if we haven’t started already, we need to start praying for God’s mercy – no matter what awaits us.