This above-embedded video is extremely unsettling and should not be watched by the young. I'll probably come to regret including it in this blog. (In the past, I've regretted the inclusion of other violent imagery.)
One of the victims is a Catholic priest named Francois Murad, who was beheaded by anti-Assad forces in Syria on June 23. I do not yet know who the second victim is.
According to local sources, the monastery where Fr. Murad was staying was attacked by militants linked to the jihadi group Jabhat al-Nusra.Unfortunately, many of those commenting on this video see the matter purely in terms of anti-Islamic prejudice. (You can just imagine what Pam Geller is doing with this video.) These dolts do not understand -- and apparently never will understand -- that al-Nusra has had the full support of the Obama administration and of Israel. I've written about this situation in previous posts: Here, here and here.
Father François, 49, had taken the first steps in the religious life with the Franciscan Friars of the Custody of the Holy Land, and with them he continued to share close bonds of spiritual friendship. After being ordained a priest he had started the construction of a coenobitic monastery dedicated to St. Simon Stylites in the village of Gassanieh.After the start of the Civil War, the monastery of St. Simon had been bombed and Fr. Murad had moved to the convent of the Custody for safety reasons and to give support to the remaining few, along with another religious and nuns of the Rosary.
Keep that fact in mind as you watch al-Nusra in action in the video above. The United States is trying very hard to maintain the fiction that they are really giving support only to non-Nusra "moderates," but those moderates are a fig leaf. The al-Nusra Front is the only group with the necessary muscle and fervor.
I'm sure that many of my readers will applaud the video above, and may even masturbate while watching it, since Murad belonged to The One Religion That Everyone Everywhere Must Hate Hate Hate.
7 comments:
Stylites were a weird bunch. Why sit on a pole? Too good for ground level, are you? Like shitting on the heads of passers-by? Want pilgrims to come and feed you through a crane arrangment? Stuck-up. If you'll pardon the pun.
Always found this interesting, a place to go if you ever want to go globe-trotting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Cities
The religion everyone must hate(hatehate) is Papistry, yes? Hate seems a bit much. Although I was thinking of writing a book, provisionally entitled "St Dunstan: Serial Killer".
Stephen, that shit was exactly the shit that I expected.
Joseph, I applaud your posting! You are right in every way.
Thank you for being the voice of reason and sanity. Calling out those who are evil (I know that's a religious term!) and speaking so strongly against violence and those who cooperate in its use.
As Malcolm Shabazz once said, "I am for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice no matter who is for or against".
I use to really like Morgan's comments on your site but this one and the one from yesterday clearly show he's lost his mind. But, as Thomas Szasz would say, there's nothing illegal about that, even if we don't like what he's saying.
Kitty
I'm not sure why I might have lost my mind, but I shall outline why "Saint" Dunstan is such an interesting parapolitical figure.
He came from a rich and powerful family, of which he was the heir and from which he inherited great wealth. He originally came to prominence under King Aethelstan as an ecclesiastical advisor, before being driven from the court due to accusations of witchcraft. The orthodox view is that this was because he was upsetting the status quo with his advocacy of monastic reform. HE was beaten up and thrown in a cess pit as he headed out.
But he was back under the next King, Edmund I. Who also sent Dunstan away. Dunstan agreed to go home with some East Anglians, East Anglia being run at the time by his noble ally, Aethelstan Half-King. But when the East Anglians went, Dunstan decided to stay, almost like he thought something might change to keep him at court. Then an outlaw turned up at a royal feast and murdered the King, only to be immediately murdered himself. As Edmund's sons were too young to take the throne, this brought his brother Eadred to the throne. He was an ally of Dunstan, supposedly after his horse had nearly taken him over a cliff and only stopped when he had repented of his rejection of Dunstan. So Dunstan got his way, and Eadred ran a campaign of terror against the North to bring it into line, under Eadred died in a wholly unsuspicious manner. Without issue, so that brought Eadmund's sons to power.
The first of Edmund's sons to take over was Eadwig. On the day of his coronation Dunstan dragged him off a woman he was having sex with and forced the new King to public denounce her. Eadwig was none too pleased, and got together some soldiers and chased Dunstan out of the country. Eadwig married the woman he's been sexing it up with on his coronation day, only to have Dunstan's ally Archbishop Oda annull the marriage on the grounds of consanguinity, although they were less closely related than our current Queen and Consort. An outrageous politically motivated act. Then Dunstan came back to the country, teamed up with Eadwig's brother Edgar "the Peaceable" and Aethelstan Half-King and took over most of the country, leaving Eadwig only the part south of the Thames. The part, incidentally, where his wife's family had their power-base. Eadwig died soon after. His last action had been to appoint a new Archibishop of Canterbury. Two, in fact. The first had died in the Alps going to Rome for his pallium. Which wouldn't be the only time Alpine hijinks intervened in Anglo-Saxon politics, see Beorn Godwinsson, or the actions of Cospatrick to save Tostig Godwinsson (who was then exiled). The second was immediately, probably illegally, dismissed when Edgar the Peaceable took power. Edgar the Peaceable had overthrown his brother, and also murdered a man to take his woman, but his reign did see a drop in Dunstan-related murders (Edmund), death threats (Eadred) and coups (Eadwig), as Edgar was a compliant puppet.
The next king was Edward the Martyr, who was underage and thus unable to hold the country together. The nobles managed to appoint a regent from the anti-Dunstan party, Aelfhere, and there was very nearly a civil war between him and the son of Aethelstan Half-King and the easterners. Then, just before he came of age Edward was murdered. No-one knows who was behind it. Could have been Aelfhere's lot, alarmed that he might disapprove of their actions in his name. Could have been his step-mother, who wanted (and got) her son on the throne. But you have to ask who benefits: who gained power and influence. It was Dunstan, obviously. Aelfhere's puppet was dead, Dunstan's lot declared Edward a martyr for their cause and they now had a younger child on the throne that they could manipulate.
That child was Aethelred the Unready. Supposedly Dunstan now retired, going out with a speech at the coronation about how the violent method of Aethelred's accession would be avenaged by God unleashing awfulness upon the nation. But he didn't retire as most people do, he still makes the odd appearance. He and Aethelstan Half-King had always hated the "Danish religion", and wanted it wiped out. Perhaps his finerprints can be seen on the St Brice's Day massacre, which may have killed a sister of the King of Denmark and brought his vengeance onto England, fulfilling Dunstan's coronation prophecy. He last appears holding a council. Holding a council in a building. Where the floor collapsed, killing several people and injuring many others. And when the dust cleared, one man could be seen dangling from the rafters, as if he'd known the floor was going to collapse in advance: the sainted Dunstan.
So more of a serial assassin than a serial killer. Murdering kings, performing witchcraft (allegedly), staging coups against Kings and Archbishops, orchestrating controlled demolitions, plotting the genocide of the Danes in England, supporting the slaughter of Northerners... he was mischievious.
Or, Edgar the Peaceable supports fanatic who...
Didn't have tinfoil hats back then.
Jesus! Does any of that crap have anything to do with anything? Look at the context! You really HAVE lost your reason...!
I wonder if what happened to James Gandolfini in its own way was just as heinous. He was basically fed to death by a restaurant.
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