Nun on Irish visit accused of peddling 'regime lies' about crisis in Syria
Mary Fitzgerald
AN ITALIAN Jesuit expelled from Syria in June due to his outspoken criticism of government violence has accused a controversial nun who visited Ireland last week of peddling “regime lies” about the crisis there.
Fr Paolo Dall’Oglio, who lived in Syria for 30 years and has been heavily involved in interfaith work in the country, described Mother Agnes Mariam as “an instrument” of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. “She has been consistent in assuming and spreading the lies of the regime, and promoting it through the power of her religious persona,” he told The Irish Times yesterday. “She knows how to cover up the brutality of the regime.”
During her four-day visit to Ireland last week, Mother Agnes Mariam, who is superior at the Melkite Greek Catholic monastery in Syria, gave media interviews in which she claimed Christians in Syria were facing “extinction” and that rebels battling Assad were predominantly foreigners linked with al-Qaeda.
Fr Dall’Oglio, who has spent time with opposition activists in several restive parts of Syria, said these claims were “ridiculous” and constituted regime propaganda.
“I have been there, I know the people, including the youth, who are working for the revolution, and I know that what she is saying is insane. It corresponds with the regime version of the facts,” he said.
Mother Agnes Mariam, who visited Dublin and Belfast, had separate meetings with representatives of the Irish Bishops Conference justice and peace committee, Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe, Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, and an official from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
One of her interlocutors here was taken aback when the nun claimed during their meeting that the Houla massacre, in which more than 100 civilians, more than half of them children, were killed, was an elaborate hoax concocted by rebels. This week a UN commission of inquiry concluded that Syrian government forces and the pro-Assad militia known as shabiha were responsible for the massacre.
In March, Mother Agnes Mariam was accused of running a “misinformation campaign” by a US-based Syrian opposition group called Syrian Christians for Democracy.
It said she maintains “close ties” to the Assad family and alleged she had fed selected visiting journalists “distorted facts and fake testimonies for the sole purpose of tarnishing the opposition’s image”.
The group referred to the role of a number of Christians in the Syrian uprising.
“Mother Agnes and those helping her are harming the Syrian people by disseminating negative pro-Assad propaganda and tearing at Syria’s social and religious fabrics,” it said. “The Christians in Syria, as well as the rest of the population, are in need of undivided support, backing, and funding. They do not need divisive rumours and the propagation of inaccurate information.”
Mother Agnes Mariam’s trip to Ireland was organised by Alan Lonergan, who acts as churches liaison officer with Sadaka, an Irish pro-Palestinian advocacy group, though he arranged the visit in a personal capacity.
“The impression people have of what is happening in Syria is very black and white,” he said. “We need to examine more of the grey area.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/nun-...ng-regime-lies-about-crisis-in-syria-1.538877
Syrian Christians for Peace: ‘Mother’ Agnus is an Assad agent in the clothes of a nun
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More than two and a half years into the Syria Revolution, the Syrian Regime’s Mukhabarat ‘s never-ending charades and play-acts continue. They are staged over the dead bodies and torn limbs of the freedom-seeking people of Syria, who are seeking to topple a totalitarian dictatorship that has been terrorizing, robbing, and killing, with no mercy and no remorse for none and nothing.
One of the cornerstones of Assad’s two-and-a-half-year playacts is nun Fadia Lahham (aka Agnes), head of the convent of Saint Jacob the Dismembered in the town of Qara, Syria. She is a nun indeed, but instead of dedicating her life to prayers and worship, and helping people, especially in these tough times, she is instead using her (religious) position to help Assad, in an attempt to varnish his reputation with her friends in France, Lebanon, Israel, and other countries.
Agnes’ first media appearance was at the beginning of the Syrian Revolution. During a press conference in Beirut, she stated that there had been no peaceful demonstrations in Syria, despite having been seen (a mere few hours before) in one of those peaceful demonstrations in Qalamoon, rubbing shoulders with other Syrians as they marched. Syrians had long practiced peaceful revolution in the street before resorting to arms. Thus did she begin and continue to demonize a people’s revolution, a people, her people, who have been daily presenting hundreds, as offerings on the twin altars of freedom and dignity, long-missed in Syria.
Agnes, the so-called “nun”, has been working for Assad within and outside of Syria. She’s been a frequent traveler whose constant goal is to support Assad, demonize the revolution, and present false testimony. She has recently visited Israel and conducted interviews with Israeli media, in effect begging Israeli leaders to let Assad (and his blood-stained regime) be. She professed her love for Israel, at the behest of her masters, Assad and Hezbollah. We, Syrian Christians at Syrian Christians for Peace, furthermore have some documents that prove Agnes has been collecting donations for expatriate Syrian Christians and has not provided any of them with information on the uses the money is put to. Therefore, we demand that the Catholic Church stop Agnes from doing any further harm in the name of the Church.
We ask that she be excommunicated and prevented from speaking in the name of the Order of Carmelites.
The reason is that she has been capitalizing on her religious position, in the service of Assad instead of Christ. We assert that Agnes and those who have walked her path do not represent Eastern Christianity.
Syrian Christians recognize the truth, and the truth sets us free. We have been Syrians long before Assad and we will remain long after he is gone. Our country’s revolution is a revolution for dignity freedom and democracy. This is also our revolution, and we are an integral part of this country and its people.
Finally, we add that crimes and transgressions cannot be forgotten. This “nun” and other agents of the totalitarian blood-drenched Regime will have their deeds remembered. The Syrian people will look with a cold stare on all those who have helped in the bloodshed, and all those who have danced and made merry on their pains and the dismembered parts of their martyrs. May God grant mercy to all those who have been killed for seeking freedom. Long live Syria a free nation and a country for all its citizens.
Syrian Christians for Peace: ‘Mother’ Agnus is an Assad agent in the clothes of a nun
