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Melkite Patriarch: stop arming Islamist Syrian rebels

November 25, 2013

The head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See, has told the Fides news agency that “foreign forces must stop supporting and arming” Islamist Syrian rebels.

The comments by Patriarch Grégoire III (Loutfi) Laham follow the formation of an alliance of six Islamist rebel groups. The new Islamic Front called for the creation of a “just Islamic state” in Syria, Agence France-Presse reported.

“These groups, even when they divide and fight with one another, they respond to the same logic: logics that have nothing to do with democracy and freedom,” the Patriarch commented.

 


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  • Posted by: jacquebquique5708 - Nov. 25, 2013 2:49 PM ET USA

    You have to start asking "why" forcesin the West are supporting radical Islam. The first answer that comes to mind is the destruction of Christianity. The stated purpose is to bring Islam into the democratic world. Events in Egypt show the falsity of the logic when, even according to John Kerry, the Muslim Brotherhood took advantage of a legitimate movement to overthrow a dictator. Islam, as alluded to by Patriarch Gregoire, is just not conducive to democracy and sees it as "a means to an end".

  • Posted by: jg23753479 - Nov. 25, 2013 6:45 AM ET USA

    Need we be reminded that it is the American CIA that is shepherding weapons to the Islamists? This country never seems to learn. Once it armed Afghan fighters against the Russians and helped create a much bigger problem around the globe. Before that it overthrew Mossadegh in Iran, thus eventually ushering in the regime in power there now. The catastrophes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Libya are its doing. Enough. What did Einstein say was the definition of insanity?