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Thursday, May 26, 2016

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX HOLY WAR AGAINST TERRORISM




Russian Orthodox Patriarch declares worldwide ‘holy war’ on terrorism
Published time: 6 May, 2016 15:06

  

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, foreground, addresses the 2nd Moscow Cadet Parade dedicated to the 71st anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War and the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow. © Iliya Pitalev / Sputnik
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has called the fight against terrorism a “holy war” and urged international unity and an abandoning of double standards to defeat this global evil.

Today, when our warriors take part in combat operations in the Middle East, we know that this is not an aggression, occupation or an attempt to impose some ideology on other people, this has nothing to do with supporting certain governments,” Patriarch Kirill said as he held the Friday mass at the major Moscow memorial to those who fought in World War II. This is the fight against the fearsome foe that is currently not only spreading evil through the Middle East but also threatening the whole of mankind.”

He added: “Today, we call this evil terrorism.”


The Patriarch also said that terrorists were targeting innocent civilians to intimidate their opponents and to crush any resistance to their doctrines, causing a great number of casualties and human suffering.

This is why the war on terrorism today is the holy war today. I pray to God that people all over the world understand this and stop dividing terrorists into good and bad ones as well as connecting the war on terror with their own goals, that are often non-declared yet strongly present on the political agenda,” the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church said.

He also told Orthodox believers to pray for the Russian military to remain faithful to the spiritual course that only allows the use of armed forces against evil, for justice and to save human lives.

In February this year, the chief foreign spokesman of the Russian Orthodox Church said in a press interview that global leaders should overcome political dissent and unite in fighting international terrorism as the challenge to mankind at large.


We expect the message of peace to be heard. That instead of creating various anti-terrorist coalitions, alienated with deep-rooted contradictions and fraught with unpredictable consequences, there would be only one such alliance,” Metropolitan Hilarion said as he commented on the meeting between the Russian Orthodox Patriarch and Pope Francis in Havana, Cuba.




Vsevolod Chaplin: ‘After terrorist attacks in Europe they will have to slaughter some sacred cows’
09:00, 04.04.2016
About counterterrorism and sacred cows of Europe

 

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin
Brussels attacks make Europe reconsider the policy of multiculturalism and tolerance. As the columnist of Realnoe Vremya Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin notes, the secret services of the EU countries are not able to fully identify the radical elements among the migrants. In his column, the Orthodox cleric predicts Europe's new order different from the existing one.

'Accustomed' to attacks

The discussions about the causes and consequences of the recent Brussels attacks are gradually subsiding. Most people probably have decided: they can move on and live peacefully. It has been more than once for the last time – for example, after the terrorist attacks in 2005 in London and recently in Paris.

The first reaction was a shock, the second one — is sorrow and prayer. Then there was the search for the culprits among local politicians, and later there was the reluctance to change anything – they thought 'maybe it will pass by me'. This is actually one of the peculiarities of a human being: they are reluctant to remember bad things, and especially to give up an established lifestyle. However, to 'get used' to the terrorist attacks, continuing to live as before, it is not just narrow-visioned but dangerous.

Hundreds of thousands of radicals

During the search of culprits, they talked a lot about that the Turkish government in 2015 detained on the Syrian border one of the recent Brussels terrorists – a Belgian citizen Ibrahim al-Basrawi – he was deported in Europe, where an obvious extremist was released. The Belgian Embassy was informed about the detention of al-Basrawi by Turkish note, however, nothing is known about the further actions of Western diplomats.

It may seem, an egregious case – they overlooked an absolute danger… However, the trouble is that there are thousands of such cases today. According to some data, thousands of reports of suspicious citizens of Belgium and France were provided by the Turkish side to the embassies of these countries. Belgium, if to believe the media, 'put' 450 fighters in prohibited in many countries Daesh [ISIS, the organization prohibited in Russia – editor's note]. And where 500 fighters – there are a couple thousand people at least who are aware of their activities (primarily, immediate relatives), and, perhaps, tens of thousands of sympathizers (especially on the Internet).

Let's do the math 'from the other end'. In Belgium, there are about one million Muslims, in France – about four million. Given the attitude of the migrant youth, the number of supporters of Daesh in these two countries can be a few hundred thousand.

'Single-piece' work of secret services

And then we have to make a very disappointing conclusion: there is no secret service or police that could handle with that amount of dangerous elements. Maybe, there is enough equipment – but not enough human resources.

The police are honed to expose and catch criminals – that is, one of several thousand people. Sometimes – to stop the riots, which are usually easily localized, and occur infrequently. But police can't control 24 hours a day every square kilometer of extensive problem areas. And an example of its helplessness – some neighborhoods and suburbs of Brussels.

For example, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, where the Paris terrorist Abdeslam brothers used to live. It takes 10 minutes by foot from the Place de la Bourse, where there are rallies in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack, to this district. This Place is one of central. But very close, in Molenbeek, the police until recently almost did not appear – except maybe when it passed every few hours at a high speed, so that the car or the motorcycle was not taken away. Now, of course, Molenbeek is being scoured. As well as Schaerbeek, where recently Salah Abdeslam was arrested and from where it takes twenty minutes to the 'European quarter' at a leisurely pace. Several thousand security forces were sent to strengthen in Brussels – I think, one for a dozen of dangerous inhabitants of Molenbeek or Schaerbeek. At the same time, the rest of the country was exposed.

Secret services, in general, are accustomed to act 'by a single-piece' – by a group of three of five to develop one dangerous person. Well, two or three at the same time. Or one small group. Now they have to face a massive threat.

Sacred cow of tolerance

It means that Western European countries will either have to put up with the terror and the gradual seizure of power by alien radicals, either to go to mass internment or mass deportation of dangerous groups. It is clear that in the current political culture it is impossible: no politician will stand the comparison with the Nazis, accused of the creation of concentration camps, media and cultural elite outcries that a person cannot be judged by ethnicity or religion.

It is true, it is not a matter of ethnos — indigenous Wallons or Flemings join the ranks of nearly Islamic radicals in greater amounts. But this environment is easily identifiable on ideological grounds – and, hence, we can think of the path of massive resistance to it.

In order to do this, however, will have to slaught some sacred cows: the 'axioms' of tolerance towards any manifestation of cultures and individuals, 'the openness of society', the religious neutrality of the state.

It is not a coincidence that Fyodor Lukyanov, having referred to the words of Fran̤ois Hollande 'We are at the state of war' writes: 'The real war involves the concretization of values, binding them to the cultural-historical ground, the clear task. And, of course, a clear designation of the enemy. Is Europe, united in the European Union, ready for this? Apparently, no. The typical reaction at mass terrorist attacks of any state of West Europe Рstatements that criminals will fail to force the free world to abandon its lifestyle and liberal values. The main concern is to sow discord within their own societies, to overdo it with the restrictive measures.'

Nevertheless, I still hope for the sanity of Europeans. But the choice before them is simple: either the destruction of unsteady idols of postwar political culture or the burnt-offering on their altar, and then a new post-war culture, far from European.

Protoiereus Vsevolod Chaplin
Reference
Vsevolod Anatolyevich Chaplin – the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, protoiereus; rector of St. Nicholas on the Three Hills Church, Moscow. Candidate of Theology.
  • He was born in 1968 in Moscow to the family of a professor Anatoly Chaplin.
  • After he finished secondary education in 1985, he joined the staff of the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate. He entered the Moscow Theological Seminary, graduating in 1990.
  • From October 1990 to March 2009, he was in the Department for External Church Relations (DECR) of the Moscow Patriarchate.
  • He was elevated to archpriest in 1999.
  • From 2009 to 2015 – chairman of synodal department for the Cooperation of Church and Society of the Moscow Patriarchate.
  • A presenter of the programme Vremya Doveriya on Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda. Constantly published in the newspaper Rus Derzhavnaya.
  • The author of several fictions under the pseudonym Aaron Chamier.

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