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BEIRUT, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Al-Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria have killed an Italian Jesuit priest who disappeared in the east of the country late last month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Paolo Dall'Oglio, a vocal supporter of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and some Islamist rebel groups, disappeared in the rebel-held city of Raqqa on July 29.
He had served for three decades at the Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian, or Deir Mar Musa, before being expelled from the country in 2012. Since then he had returned to Syria at least twice.
The British-based monitoring group cited local activists in the city of Raqqa with close links to Dall'Oglio as saying he was killed while being held by fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
It was not immediately possible to confirm the report.
The Observatory urged all Syrian opposition forces to pressure the ISIL fighters to reveal exactly what happened to Dall'Oglio "so his killers can be held to account, and to hand over his body for burial".
Activists initially said he was kidnapped by the ISIL fighters, although some later said he had been meeting the al Qaeda-linked fighters to agree a truce with Kurdish brigades.
He was instrumental in restoring Deir Mar Musa, whose cathedral houses an exquisite 11th century fresco of the Last Judgment. (Editing by John Stonestreet and Raissa Kasolowsky)
I reading about the escalating violence against Christians in particular in nearby Egypt. It appears even churches are being intentionally set on fire and destroyed.
Although I am not a Christian myself, I find the current events in the Arab Middle East alarming and distressing.
Where is the North American Christian community? Why aren't they doing something about this?
I reading about the escalating violence against Christians in particular in nearby Egypt. It appears even churches are being intentionally set on fire and destroyed.
Although I am not a Christian myself, I find the current events in the Arab Middle East alarming and distressing.
Where is the North American Christian community? Why aren't they doing something about this?
Well, what exactly do you expect the 'North American Christian community' to do?
I wish I had an easy answer. Flex some political muscle? Make an effort to save some lives? Raise funds to support those communities?
Do you think anything can be done to support those persecuted people?
The Middle Eastern and North African Christians are the most persecuted in the world, probably the nearest thing to what the Christians endured in the early church days. I support certain groups such as FMSC and Doctors Without Borders, who just got chased out of Somalia, but other than supporting charitable goups, what else can you do?
Who are the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights?? Quite frankly I don't believe much of anything that is being reported from Syria. You got the rebels saying Assad is doing this and that, Assad saying the rebels doing this and that, the AQ affiliated rebels who are now fighting with the "real" rebels. Nobody knows what the hell is going on there other than it's not good.
I doubt if any presidential candidate outside of Gravel, Kucinich or Paul would have made much of a positive difference, and the Bush-Cheney regime made the worst decisions. The Christians in the Middle East are suffering much like the early Christians did under the Romans. Ironically, the earliest Gentile Christian converts were Middle Eastern, centered in the Syrian Antioch church. Somehow the religion invented by Muhummed has become the defacto nationalistic religion of the Arabs (descendants of Ishmael and Esau), who were excluded from the promises made to the Jews (descendants of Jacob). The final Jewish priest/prophet/Messiah, Jesus Christ, came for Jew and non-Jew alike, and I just wish the Middle East would embrace their Christian roots.
I reading about the escalating violence against Christians in particular in nearby Egypt. It appears even churches are being intentionally set on fire and destroyed.
Although I am not a Christian myself, I find the current events in the Arab Middle East alarming and distressing.
Where is the North American Christian community? Why aren't they doing something about this?
I think we can clearly see the beginnings of ISIS in the form of our 'aid' to the anti-Assad rebels. Republicans don't have much forward or hindsight vision, as witness their pathetic attempts to re-justify Bush's ill-fated incursion into Iraq, and no Marco Rubio, the world is not 'a better place without Saddam Hussein' - and please spare us more reading from the moldy Bush/Cheney playbook.
'The simple truth is Saddam Hussein in 2003 was not a threat to anyone. His military had been decimated in the Gulf War and half of his country was operating under a no-fly zone. In addition, he was suffering from severe sanctions which effectively prevented him from ever becoming a serious military power again. Moreover, he had lost two wars and at that point was merely trying to stay in power. The entire question about weapons of mass destruction was always nonsense'.
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