While many were fixated on Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s recent letter to the American people, another letter from another Russian leader\u2014this one directly addressed to the U.S. president\u2014was missed.<\/p>\n On September 10, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill\u00a0issued a letter<\/a>\u00a0addressed to \u201cHis Excellency Mr. Barack Obama, President, United States.\u201d\u00a0 Whether one wishes to interpret this communique as a product of politics or sincerity, it accurately highlights the plight of Syria\u2019s Christians, especially in the broader context of a larger civilizational struggle.<\/p>\n I repost major portions of the letter below, interspersed with my observations for added context:<\/p>\n Your Excellency, Dear Mr. President,<\/p>\n The tragic events in Syria have raised anxiety and caused pain in the Russian Orthodox Church. We receive information about the situation there not from the news reports but from living evidence coming to us from religious figures, ordinary believers and our compatriots living in that country.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is an important point: the \u201cnews reports\u201d evaluated by the Russian church are from \u201cliving evidence coming to us from religious figures, ordinary believers and our compatriots living in that country.\u201d\u00a0 The fact is, outside of America\u2019s biased \u201cmainstream media,\u201d the evidence concerning what is going on in Syria\u2014namely, that Islamic militants are committing human rights atrocities, including possibly the chemical attacks in question\u2014is overwhelming.\u00a0 Countless eyewitness testimonies, videos, pictures\u2014all those things that rarely make it to the U.S. MSM\u2014make this abundantly clear.<\/p>\n Ask the average Syrian about the current turmoil engulfing their land\u2014and I have, as have numerous Russian Orthodox representatives in communion with Syria\u2019s ancient Christian community, as noted by Kirill\u2014and few have any illusions as to its nature: an authoritarian, but secular, Assad vs. radical Islamists and jihadis.<\/p>\n Naturally most Syrians choose Assad.<\/p>\n Only in America, and to a lesser extent Western Europe, is the myth of \u201cfreedom fighters\u201d trying to \u201cliberate\u201d Syria still being peddled.<\/p>\n Patriarch Kirill:<\/p>\n Syria today has become an arena of the armed conflict. Engaged in it are foreign mercenaries and militants linked with international terrorist centres. The war has become an everyday golgotha for millions of civilians.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n To be sure, one of the most obvious indicators that this is no \u201ccivil war\u201d in the name of \u201cliberty\u201d is the fact that the majority,\u00a0up to 95%<\/a>, of those fighting Assad are not even Syrian, but rather al-Qaeda linked jihadis\u2014from Chechnya to the Philippines\u2014trying to form an Islamic emirate in Syria as they did in the 1980s-90s in Afghanistan. Back then, foreign jihadis like Saudi Osama bin Laden and Egyptian Ayman Zawahiri\u2014again, also supported by the U.S.\u2014traveled to Afghanistan, \u201cliberated\u201d it from the U.S.S.R, and then\u00a0gave us 9\/11 in return a decade later<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here, for example,\u00a0is a video<\/a>\u00a0of foreign militants in a conquered Syrian town singing praises in honor of Osama bin Laden: \u201cThey called me a terrorist and I said \u2018that will be my honor,\u2019 this is a divine call \u2026. We defeated America \u2026 the Trade [Center] became a bunch of rubble \u2026 Greetings from the Taliban and its leader mullah Omar\u2026 Victory is ours, winning is ours, and Allah with all his strength is with us, the infidel masses have come together to defeat us but they will not defeat us.\u201d<\/p>\n Patriarch Kirill:<\/p>\n We were deeply alarmed to learn about the plans of the US army to strike the territory of Syria. Undoubtedly, it will bring ever greater sufferings to the Syrian people, first of all, to the civilian population. An external military intervention may result in the radical forces coming to power in Syria who will not be able and will not wish to ensure inter-confessional accord in the Syrian society.<\/p>\n U.S. military intervention would undoubtedly lead to even more human rights abuses, first and foremost at the hands of al-Qaeda jihadis\u2014who in fact are on record\u00a0vowing to slaughter Christians after the U.S. intervenes and overthrows Assad<\/a>; Obama justwaived a U.S. law prohibiting the banning of terrorist organizations<\/a>\u00a0simply to arm and ultimately help them realize their ambitions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n U.S. military intervention would undoubtedly lead to even more human rights abuses, first and foremost at the hands of al-Qaeda jihadis\u2014who in fact are on record\u00a0vowing to slaughter Christians after the U.S. intervenes and overthrows Assad<\/a>; Obama just\u00a0waived a U.S. law prohibiting the banning of terrorist organizations<\/a>\u00a0simply to arm and ultimately help them realize their ambitions.<\/p>\n Patriarch Kirill:<\/p>\n Our special concern is for the fate of the Christian population of Syria, which in that case will come under the threat of total extermination or banishment. It has already happened in the regions of the country seized by militants. An attempt made by the armed groups of the Syrian opposition to seize the town of Ma\u2018loula whose residents are predominantly Christians has become a new confirmation of our concerns. The militants keep shelling the town in which ancient Christian monasteries are located\u2014the sites of special veneration by the faithful all over the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n All absolutely true\u2014especially \u201cthe threat of total extermination or banishment,\u201d which has been the case wherever and whenever U.S.-backed Islamists come to power:<\/p>\n Patriarch Kirill:<\/p>\n The Christian hierarchs of Aleppo, Metropolitans Paul and John Ibrahim, have been held captive by militants since April 22. Nothing is known about their fate despite of the fact that a number of religious figures appealed to the leaders of their states to help to release them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Indeed, here is yet another example of the nature of the people the U.S. government is supporting.\u00a0 Paul and John Ibrahim were traveling in Syria doing \u201chumanitarian work<\/a>\u201d when their driver was killed and they were kidnapped.\u00a0 Maybe John McCain can phone\u00a0his al-Qaeda kidnapping allies<\/a>\u00a0and ask them to release them?\u00a0 At any rate, there is no end to the amount of Christians,\u00a0like Fr. Murad<\/a>, who have been kidnapped and\/or slaughtered by the jihadis in Syria.<\/p>\n Patriarch Kirill:<\/p>\n I am deeply convinced that the countries which belong to the Christian civilization bear a special responsibility for the fate of Christians in the Middle East.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Here the good patriarch speaks a language that may have once resonated with Americans and Europeans\u2014that is, the people from \u201cthe countries which belong to the Christian civilization\u201d\u2014but which is increasingly meaningless to those whose \u201chumanitarian concerns\u201d extend to anyone but those unfashionable Christians, and to some American Protestants who are unaware that Christians actually exist outside of the U.S.<\/p>\n![\"Russian](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/patriarch-kirill-gundyaev-e1300155027261-193x300.jpg?resize=193%2C300&ssl=1\" "\\"Raymondibrahim.com\\"")
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