Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) militants have destroyed a historic monastery seized in their latest advance across central Syria.
Photographs appeared online of fighters from Isil with bulldozers at the Mar Elian monastery in Al-Qaryatain, in Homs province.
The monitoring group Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said the Catholic monastery was then destroyed “on the pretext that it was used for worshipping others than God”.
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Isil took Al-Qaryatain and the monastery on August 5, kidnapping an estimated 230 people, including Christians. Some of the older captives have been released, but at least 100 people have been taken as hostages to the de facto Isil capital of Raqqa further to the north.
Everybody wants to complain about ISIS but nobody wants to do anything about them. I say let’s just quit running the stories until the world has the wherewithal to stop them.
David, I share the sentiment.
No, don’t quit running the stories. If even a few see them that’s an advance against the horror.
I’m puzzled by the description of this monastery as an ancient site, perhaps like St Catherine’s monastery in Sinai. Given its location, I would think that it has (sadly!) been destroyed and rebuilt many times in 15 centuries. When better times return, I hope the Christian churches throughout the world will help to rebuild it yet again. The plight of the Christian folk there, living stones of the church, is heart-rending.
Although I wish something would be done to end this demonic political movement, I don’t see the West as principally responsible to find that solution. We should generously assist the refugees. But the political will to solve the ISIS problem has to lie in the hearts and minds of Syria’s neighbors — Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia — who know this region and its ways far better than we.