Showing posts with label Civil War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Civil War. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

A Program for Civil War

[Junge Freiheit] One and a half years after the escalation of the refugee crisis, more and more books appear, illuminating the background and consequences of the events. Robin Alexander just landed with his book "Die Getriebenen" the political bestseller of the year. In this book, he succeeds in chronically reevaluating the dramatic sequence of the opening of the border in September 2015, thereby laying bear the motives and failures of political leaders.
Now another book catches attention: "Inside Islam". Here the ARD journalist Constantin Schreiber went to the Friday prayer in 13 mosques to find out what is actually preached to Muslims in Arabic or Turkish. Schreiber summed up anxiously, the Imams preached against the integration efforts of the German state. At the same time, to be Muslim and Democrat were to be completely ruled out. And it was partly "harshly agitating against the Yezidis, the Armenians and the Jews," writes Schreiber.
"School without racism" bully Jewish students
A recent incident at a community school in Berlin confirms the massive problem of anti-Semitism rampant among Arab and Turkish youths. A Jewish family, after repeated verbal and physical attacks on her 14-year-old son, saw no choice but to take her child from school. Three quarters of the pupils at this institution, which is engaged in the project of a "School without racism", have a migration background.
The fact that anti-Semitism is nowadays no longer "from the midst of German society" but from Muslim immigration, is a dilemma for leftist politicians and journalists. Some media, such as Spiegel Online, conceal the ethno-religious backgrounds of the perpetrators in their reports about crimes.
The call to hatred of unbelievers is dangerous
But we do not get any further. The facts must be on the table. Some of what Constantin Schreiber excavates in "Inside Islam" sounds alarming. That Christians have forgotten to see themselves committed as believers to a mission is a problem of Christians, not the Muslims. The fact that sermons  invoking fervor of the faith, is sorely lacking among pastors. What is dangerous is the call to hatred for the other believers and the state.
Here in Germany, half a millennium ago, in the Thirty Years' War, we had to learn secularization through bloody religious conflicts, constitutions, and the rule of law. It has taken centuries to live with confessional opposition among Christians. Uncontrolled immigration of Muslims makes integration into a task that is no longer manageable in a quantitatively simple manner and is thus a program for civil war. Finally, politics should take heed.
JF 15/17
https://jungefreiheit.de/debatte/streiflicht/2017/ein-programm-zum-buergerkrieg/
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Friday, November 14, 2014

Is the Bundeswehr Preparing for a Civil War? -- Schönborn: "Concerned" About Arming Against Their Own People

(Berlin) Is the Bundeswehr preparing for the suppression of uprisings in the interior? One is amazed and rubs his eyes. Where is the threat? Who is the enemy? Politics and the media draw a very different picture. And yet, from the 20-22nd October the second International Urban Operations Conference (IUOC) was held in Berlin with more than 400 representatives from 40 countries participating. For three days   the crackdown on civil wars and rebellions in urban areas was discussed. And the media do not report it?
The conference was organized by the German Association for Defence Technology (DWT). The meeting was directed by Major General Erhard Drews, commander of the Office of the Army Development begun in 2013 chaired by the Bundeswehr. The DWT was founded on the initiative of the Federal Ministry of Defence in 1957 and serves the defense industry lobbyist to government and parliament. Accordingly, the meeting was financed by defense contractors. The sponsors are described on the Conference website. At the meeting, new weapons and other products were introduced.

"From a demonstrations of power to street fights" in urban areas

The conference program states: "In today's world, urban areas are key areas". It follows: "The maintenance and the production of stability and security in urban areas is one of the challenging tasks of today's security forces. [...] The scenarios can quickly and suddenly change. From routine help or a show of force to full blown street fight " And further: "The risk of riots, terrorism and guerrilla wars can only be countered with the best intelligence technology, the best education and best monitoring systems. "
The International Urban Operations Conference defined their goal as follows: "Presentation of solutions for the above challenges. It provides a platform for the exchange of experiences from current operations and will provide an overview of the new military concept of the Bundeswehr for urban operations." And also: "Representatives of the industry have  the chance to present their ideas, visions and solutions to senior representatives of NATO and introduce other military officials."

The Picture Signed by politicians and the media does not match conference theme

Even if one takes into account that the meeting was primarily lobbying the German armaments industry on the foreign market, or, the  Bundeswehr preparing for more and more combat missions anywhere in the world, it is amazing that the  focus is yet on an internal threat. It is diametrically opposed to the drawn between politics and media image. For a long time there has been no lack of critical voices that warn of the danger of civil war like conditions in the interior, as occured in the French banlieues  or Swedish cities. In both cases, the authors of the violence came from  the predominantly Muslim immigrant districts. Still, politicians don't   want to hear the policy about that.  At the same time, however, an  International Urban Operations Conference is held for a second time, and to the exclusion of the public This raises questions. Not that the organizers have kept the matter secret.  Not at all. However, if all major media are silent about it, this can hardly be assumed to be random.
But where does the danger really come from within? Is there  preparation against a possible Salfist uprising? Or even equipping the state against its own citizens? The Office of Conference Chairman Major General Drews was entitled "Perspectives of the German Army in Urban Operations". The Israeli Reserve General, Rami Ben Efraim, spoke about the defense contractors "Rafael and the urban challenge", the British Brigadier General Bob Bruce on 'land forces in an urban environment ", the British Colonel Mark Kenyon on "Urban combat - Report of a Battalion Commander" and, truly amazing, a Member of Parliament and Chairman of the German Association Reservists Roderich Kiesewetter on "Political and strategic challenges of urban operations". As far as the first  presentations go.

In Accordance to Announce the End of Military Restraint against Outside and Inside?

A total of 60 papers were presented. Speakers were military officials, scientists, arms lobbyists and politicians. A representative of the company Securiton about talking about "Mobile monitoring - urban reconnaissance and control."
Last spring, the German federal government announced an end to the military restraint. At the same time established a Bundeswehr reform, which is focused on operations against external enemies. The Bundeswehr "only" prepares for combat operations anywhere in the world  and  fighting there in urban, densely populated areas? Or they also equiped against internal enemies? And if so, which ones? Combat operations in urban areas can affect Afghanistan or the Middle East. You might as well mean German cities, in view of the events in France, Sweden and most recently in Greece, and related  social tensions. The causes can be varied from  migration to national bankruptcy.
Present at the Berlin conference are commanders with combat experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel / Palestine, who provide examples for the Bundeswehr to base its preparation.
In the conference report in 2012 it stated: "Today's crisis operations are increasingly characterized by inserts and fighting in densely populated areas and partially also in cities. This is difficult and for many NATO countries, the new approach of the classic battle fields towards crisis operations in urban areas is off base in a fundamental restructuring of their own armed forces. The Bundeswehr follows with its realignment exactly these changing conditions."

Cardinal Schönborn's "concern" about upgrading the States against its own citizens

In the Rheinische Post from last August 12th, Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn of Vienna made ​​a surprising statement. In the midst of an interview, which mainly revolved around Pop;e Francis, the Cardinal suddenly spoke of his "concern" for an arming  of governments against their own citizens. In his own words, the Archbishop complained that "too little" talk about that will be  "directed inward, with more and more with a view to possible uprisings in their own countries' military and defense strategies. This development was "appalling" and the drama illustrative of the present situation, because - as the Cardinal - will expected "with a growing discontent among the population" ". The Church had allegedly "to remember in this situation because there is still time to repent." The surprising statements were made ​​by the Cardinal were not elaborated.  What does the cardinal  know that the public?
Text: Andreas Becker
image: IUOC (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Syria: Islamic Rebels Plant Bomb in Church

Rampaging and plundering of the main church of the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ayn

Damaskus (kath.net/KAP)  The Syrian-Orthodox Archbishop Matta Roham has complained again of the dramatic situation in the Hassake-Djazira region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Bishop has reported to the relief organization CSI-Österreich that there are almost no Christians living any longer in the midst of the border city of Ras al-Ayn. Islamic rebels have wanted to drive them off, along with their priests. The last eye witnesses report a plundered and desolate church.

Is was there that a 75 year old Christian found a hidden bomb in the main church, which was later disarmed by Christian-friendly Kurds. Archbishop Matta Roham: "The rebels wanted to blow the church in the air along with the rectory as well as the Christian school." Since then the rebels have desolated the city and posted death threats on the street walls against Christians everywhere. The messages are clear. "These Islamic groups want to drive Christians from Ras forever," says the Archbishop.

A ray of light is, says Matta Roham, the Kurds, who want to live in peace with native Christians and are themselves in solidarity: "The Church is holy. Rebels get out" is an written in the inner walls of the damaged churches in their language, reported the Archbishop.

Ras al-Ayn located in northeastern Syria on the Turkish border. It has around 24,000 inhabitants, the off - composed Syriacs (Syrians and Assyrians), Arabs, Kurds, Armenians, Turks and Chechens - now sold.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Trappist Nuns In Syria Do Not Fear Fate of Trappists in Algeria

(Damascus)  They came to the near East in 2005 with the intention to live out the Christianization of the first centuries after Christ.   Their history is comparable to the Trappist monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, who in 1996 were murdered by a moderate Islamic group.  Xavier Beauvaus created a memorial for them and their martyrdom by the film "Of Men and Gods".

The comparison is more pressing when one things of the five Trappists, who left their peaceful and isolated Cloister in Valserena in Tuscany, Italy, in order to go to Syria.  A land whose internal situation had been already tense and in the midst of a civil war with thousands of deaths and flooded with hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Why have they decided to found a new Cloister in an unstable country like Syria?  "Because Christianity had developed here and spread from here to Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, Armenia, India and China", say the sisters.  "in the first centuries the mission was led by a living Monastic movement, which existed alone and independently of one another here and in Egypt."  The sisters recall St. Ephraem the Syrian, Saint Simeon the Stylite, St. John Chrysostom or St. John of Damascus, whose traces they follow.  "Going out from our Latin and Benedictine Tradition we want to follow the stream, because we are convinced of the rich fruits, which will come about in an exchange between the West and Eastern heritage of Christendom."


So the Cloister of Azeir exists amidst the civil war afflicted cities of Homs and Tartous in Central Asia. The sisters feel a mission in that, which resembles that of the monks of Tibhirine:  to help Christians and Muslims without respect to religion, to be a lighthouse of peace and harmony in the civil war,  which they did not foresee when the five Trappists set foot for the first time on Syrian soil. "Now we belong to these people.  The fate of the Syrians is our fate,"  says Abbess Monica to AsiaNews.

The nuns reported on their internet site established and independent of all propaganda of one of the other sides of the civil war and the fate of Syria's Christians.   Some of the letters of the last months could have been called out.  They described for everyone the suffering of the civilian population.  For them the Cloister is clearly a sign of hope, because it is "a place, where God is really present through the Eucharist and through the Church, through the prayer and the brotherly community.  It is a blessing for all."

"Why should we go away?" was the astonished response of the sisters.  "The people here ring our door.  They seek help, diverse help.   They ask for food, they seek consolation, young men have started to come to us, because they are seeking someone to help them to understand things, to reflect, to grow innerly."  The Cloister offers already numerous people sanctuary and accommodation, people, who are have been made refugees by government troops or the rebels, people who are pursued by one side or the other.  Even as a place for secret business, the Cloister is on hand.

"We are called to give a witness of our Christian hohpe, which is stronger than all worry.  Why should we go away from a place, where the people so desperately need this hope",  said the Abbess to Asia News.

Text: Religion en libertad/Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Valserena