Syrian Priest Martyred **graphic**

[Chestertonian]

Syrian Catholic priest Francois Murad killed last weekend by jihadi fighters was beheaded, according to a report by Catholic Online which is linking to video purportedly showing the brutal murder.

As TheBlaze reported last week, Murad, 49, was setting up a monastery in Gassanieh, northern Syria. Last Sunday, on the Christian leader’s Sabbath, extremist militants trying to topple President Bashar Assad breached the monastery and grabbed Murad.

While earlier reports suggested Murad may have been shot to death, Catholic Online reported Saturday: “The Vatican is confirming the death by beheading of Franciscan Father, Francois Murad, who was martyred by Syrian jihadists on June 23.

 

This is an excerpt from the article, which can be found in its entirety here: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/30/catholic-priest-beheaded-in-syria-by-al-qaeda-linked-rebels-as-men-and-children-take-pictures-and-cheer/

 

 

[Annie12]

:cry: This is tragic. At least he went to heaven.

[Chestertonian]

:cry: This is tragic. At least he went to heaven.

 

*props*

[God the Father]

Muslims just do the darndest things

[Laudate_Dominum]

"A Catholic priest has been shot and killed in northern Syria, The Telegraph has found, contradicting claims that he is the victim in a widely-circulated beheading video.

The footage, said to show Father Francois Murad, 49, as the victim in a brutal summary execution by foreign jihadists is likely to be an older video that bares no relation to the death of the Catholic priest."

 

"Yasser, a Syrian activist who has been researching the killings in the video said that the incident took place “months” before the priest’s death."

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2013/07/report-fr-murad-shot-not-beheaded/

[Apotheoun]

Whoever was beheaded in the video clearly suffered greatly. Christians are beheaded frequently in Islamic countries for refusing to convert to Islam. I pray that God bring an end to the persecution going on in that part of the world.

[Apotheoun]

Catholic Leaders Decry U.S. Arms to Syrian Rebels

Christians, Minorities Caught in Crossfire

 

BY PETER JESSERER SMITH

National Catholic Register 

Posted 7/1/13

 

 

WASHINGTON — Church leaders warned that more blood, martyrs and the end of the Church in Syria is the price Syria will pay if the U.S. decides to go ahead with plans to arm the rebel forces.

 

Syria’s two-year civil war between forces allied with ruling President Bashar al-Assad and the rebel opposition has devolved into a sectarian Shia-Sunni conflict with Christians and other minorities caught in the crossfire.

 

“We’re seeing what looks likes an extermination of Christianity,” Bishop Nicholas Samra, head of the Melkite Catholic Church in the United States, told the Register. “It’s not a healthy situation to help either side militarily at this point.”

 

Bishop Samra said that Syria’s five Melkite bishops delivered a “bleak report” about the Church in Syria to him and other Melkite bishops gathered at their June annual meeting with Patriarch Gregory III Laham in Lebanon. He said Christians have lost an enormous amount of lives, and many are victims of kidnapping, mainly due to Islamist rebels.

“Our patriarch and all of our bishops are just calling for an end to all of the fighting and to create peace there,” Bishop Samra said. “We want to see what can be done by working relationships and by sitting down and talking, rather than shooting.”

 

After 27 months of bloodshed, the United Nations estimates that more than 90,000 perished in the bloody conflict as of April 2013, at a rate of 5,000 killings per month. CNN reports that U.N. sources say more than 30% of the country’s 22 million people have fled their homes: More than 1.5 million refugees have fled the country, while more than 4 million people are displaced in Syria itself.

 

Melkite Father Elias Rafaj, serving in the Houston area, told the Register that the Syrian priests and friends he has been in contact with tell him that the rebel forces are dominated by Sunni Islamists who have targeted other Muslim minorities, but particularly Christians.

 

“The audacity of rebels is that they are no longer fearing repercussions from the West,” Father Rafaj said.

 

The atrocities in the war took on a new face with the death of Franciscan Father François Murad on June 23 by Sunni rebels associated with the al Qaeda-supported al-Nusra Front. The Vatican’s Fides News Agency reported receiving confirmation from the office of the Custos of the Holy Land.

“The rebel forces have become pretty much lawless, driven by fundamentalism,” Father Rafaj said. “They look at Christians as being kuffar, the infidel that must be killed or eradicated.”

 

He said two bishops, one Syrian Orthodox and the other Greek Orthodox, were kidnapped by rebel forces while on a mission to negotiate the ransom of kidnapped victims, and they are now feared dead.

 

Multiple news reports have indicated that Christians have taken security into their own hands in various areas. Syriac Christians and Kurds have established security perimeters to keep out fighters and the pursuing Syrian Army from their areas, while Christians in Aleppo and Damascus have also taken up arms to defend their own neighborhoods.

 

Christian Leaders Urge Neutrality

 

Father Rafaj said that Christians have been heeding the call of Patriarch Gregory and their bishops to remain neutral in the conflict. He said that, while the conflict began as a struggle for more democratic rights, the rebel fighters for the most part have become “lawless, driven by fundamentalism.” He said this has forced Christians in the cities to take up arms to protect their own neighborhoods, instead of relying solely upon government troops to protect them.

 

“There have been a number of massacres of Christians and Alawites in small unprotected villages,” Father Rafaj explained. “As rebels came through, they turned villages into a bloodbath to demonstrate their authority.”

 

 

Click here to read the rest of the article

[KnightofChrist]

Whoever was beheaded in the video clearly suffered greatly. Christians are beheaded frequently in Islamic countries for refusing to convert to Islam. I pray that God bring an end to the persecution going on in that part of the world.

And I'm still reading conflicting reports about how he was martyred. I'm not sure it matters how as much as it matters that he was and why. Edited July 2, 2013 by KnightofChrist

[Laudate_Dominum]

Yeah, I've read conflicting stuff too and it's making me pist. I just want to know what's really happening. Who were the two dudes in the beheading video, who were those nutjobs that hacked their heads off with a kitchen knife, and what was that all about? I'm guessing it had something to do with Islam since people were hooting Allahu Akbar! throughout.

[Era Might]

Yeah, I've read conflicting stuff too and it's making me pist. I just want to know what's really happening. Who were the two dudes in the beheading video, who were those nutjobs that hacked their heads off with a kitchen knife, and what was that all about? I'm guessing it had something to do with Islam since people were hooting Allahu Akbar! throughout.

 

I'm curious why it makes you pist? Do you mean the beheading makes you pist or the lack of precise reporting?

Edited July 3, 2013 by Era Might

[Laudate_Dominum]

I'm curious why it makes you pist? Do you mean the beheading makes you pist or the lack of precise reporting?

 

It's just a figure of speech. I was referring to the conflicting reports. Why is this at all interesting?

[TheLordsSouljah]

Wow, I think that is the first martyrdom that I have seen that is not a Hollywood production - other than the footage of Fr Pro's shooting... speechless... horrible and yet so inspiring! God have mercy on their persecutors.

[Era Might]

It's just a figure of speech. I was referring to the conflicting reports. Why is this at all interesting?

 

Why is the story interesting or you being pist? Just because I'm interested in how people conceive martyrdom. I read a book a while back that looked at the early Christians from an historical perspective and how they perceived, communicated, mythologized martyrdom. Martyrs are always a creation of the community that tells their story. When you said you were pist I thought you were referring to the martyrdom, so I was just curious about how the story strikes you to elicit that emotion. But it's interesting nonetheless that you're pist about the reporting, considering secular news as the "storytellers" that we depend on for modern martyrdoms. I don't know if hagiography exists anymore as it once did...or does it? hmmmmmmmm

[Laudate_Dominum]

Again, it's a figure of speech and I'm not literally pissed off. And your attempted criticism is misplaced as the alleged martyrdom aspect has nothing to do with my interest in this. I watched a video in which two men were beheaded and I'd just like to know what that was all about. I thought it was tacky that catholic.org (secular news?) failed to even mention the second victim, at least in the article that I read. (EDIT: The catholic.org article linked by theblaze does briefly mention of the second victim, but I have no reason to think that any details in that article are true.)
If I had watched a video in which two lapsed Hindu circus performers were beheaded for their craft I would have more or less the same feelings as I have about this right now. I can't be enthusiastic about a martyrdom narrative when I'm hardly clear on the basics of what happened or the credibility of any of the reports. You underestimate my cynicism and incredulity.

Edited July 4, 2013 by Laudate_Dominum

[Apotheoun]

What is often forgotten is that an act of martyrdom is also an act of murder. Christians are killed every day in the Muslim world simply because they are Christians. It is sad that people in the United States often seem indifferent to this situation, because we are witnessing a genocide against Christians in the Middle East and it saddens me that the vast majority of people in the West are not upset about it.

Edited July 4, 2013 by Apotheoun