Syria, the voice of the silent majority 'mussalaha' or reconciliation Daniel Maes (74), a Flemish Norbertine from Postel

and born in Arendonk, is responsible for a seminary in the sixth century monastery Mar Yakub in Qara, located 90 kilometers from the Syrian capital Damascus. In Syria, there are 2.4 million Christians at 24 million inhabitants. A distant dream of the Flemish Norbertine Maes is to transform the monastery Mar Yakub in a second Taiz, near the sources of Christianity in dialogue with Jews and Muslims. Oped by priest Daniel Maes, who lives and resides in Syria MEDIA WORKING GROUP SYRIA - August 27, 2012 Our media tell usually about a peaceful uprising of the Syrian population still is suppressed bloodier by the regime, about the international community that must put the regime more under pressure and help the opposition incisive for to stop the bloodshed, and about Russia and China that must come to insight to give up their support to this bloody regime. This general opinion, packed in half-truths and complete lies, not only brings them in danger, on the basis of what is really happening in Syria working for the preservation of this country, but in addition still kindles the bloodshed. Foreign interventions are not the solution but the cause of the violence. Leave Syria alone. The people want peace. Let it go the way of 'mussalaha' or reconciliation. A peaceful uprising? I have been able to observe the beginning of the uprising in our village of Qara, with its 25,000 Sunnis and nearly 500 Christians. We were regular guests at our colleague Abouna Georges, the Byzantine priest and were warmly welcomed by Christian families but equally warmly by Muslim families. We enjoyed the strong tradition of freedom, equality and peaceful coexistence from which the Syrian people was a model. Violence and steal were simply not, there were no poor and there was enough wealth for just about everyone. Every woman and every girl dressed like she wanted. Men and women from any ethnic or religious group could occupy all the posts. Also gave Syria to nearly two million refugees a welcoming home and an equality that they have received nowhere else in the Arab world. The refugees especially when we met in Damascus but also in Qara and in our monastery. And the life expectation of the Syrian population has increased from 56 (in 1970) to 72 years (in 2006). Who has an interest in the current disruption of the country?

Suddenly society changed radically. The Grand Inquisitor of the Muslim Brotherhood Muhammad Ryad Al-Shaqfa called from the United Arab Emirates and Yemen all Muslims (02/14/2011) to fight against Syria. He screamed for a military intervention from outside. From the parsonage Qara you could see a group of young people wildly shouting every Friday from April 2011 on near the mosque (a pagan temple, later the St. Nicholas Church) and manifest against the government and the president headed by strangers. Some made there small films of which they were paid thickly by Al Jazeera said the priest who knew them. And as troublemakers in our villages no one really wanted or supported, this group was not supported by anyone in the village. Nevertheless, this group of noise makers grew. It came to arson and armed violence. The priest was attacked, robbed and narrowly escape a strangulation by masked men with a strange accent. And for us it was no longer a pleasant visit to Qara. Friends told us that in other places it went in the same way. An organized "opposition" determined when had to be manifested when and when the shops had to be closed. In Homs and Quosseir were children of Christian families or moderate Muslims threatened and even killed because they refused to participate to an anti-government demonstration. If the population of Aleppo, said the local Archbishop Jean Bart, in August 2012 had not energetically resisted against these armed gangs and helped the army, the city was already taken after one day. All this has nothing to do with a "peaceful uprising". Who are "the opposition"? From the beginning there were many opposition groups and their leaders. The CNCCD (Comit National de Coordination pour le Changement Dmocratique) is the oldest and much divided. She wants the government out but no foreign intervention. The most moderate opposition group contains the Syrian National Party, the Kurdish initiative, the Syrian Communist Party and several others. They want a dialogue with the government and reject any foreign intervention radically. The third is the foreign opposition group of the CNS (Conseil National Syrien), dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood (from Washington, London, Brussels). These religious extremists reject dialogue and democratic reforms, and call for an armed jihad to bring back Syria to the strict Islamism. The CNS pretends for being the official representative of Syria but is in fact a disgrace to the population. She does enjoy the support of America, England, France, Turkey, Lebanese militias, Jordan and of course Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Inside and outside these groups

operate increasingly criminal gangs who abuse the growing insecurity to do a good stroke of business. NATO planes on 26/11/11 Abdelhakim Belhadj, the 'butcher' of Baghdad and Tripoli, along with a battalion of 700 Libyan (al-Qaeda) fighters moved to the northern border with Syria (in Eskandarun, Turkey) to add Damascus to his list. As a Christmas gift he received a mass of weapons, stolen from the depots of Gaddafi. Two days before Christmas, he already started an attack in Damascus: more than 50 dead and over 200 injured. Meanwhile, even our Belgian State worried because now it appears that Muslim fundamentalists from our country are fighting in Syria on the part of Al-Qaeda! In short, the peaceful cooing of doves in "opposition" is drowned out by the loud incalculable horrors of criminal gangs who sow terror everywhere. The young people are disillusioned because foreign powers dictate their agenda. The nationalists are deceived because armed groups with their requirement of a foreign military intervention roared them down. The moderate Muslims are deceived because Salafists and fundamentalists who want to establish a totalitarian dictatorship worse than the Syrian government ever was. And ordinary citizens are disappointed because they are victims of armed gangs everywhere, against which they are no longer protected. "The Syrian regime" has long fallen. On 26 February 2012, there was a referendum on a new constitution. The "opposition" with the support of the West has done everything to boycott the referendum and to discredit. In Yabroed were boxes with ballot papers destroyed. Yet there was still 57% of the population voted and 89, 4% accepted the new constitution. It was the monopoly of the Baath Party forever abolished in favor of a multi-party system. Meanwhile, there is also a new parliament in which thirty women sit. I live together with among others four Lebanese who have witnessed the Lebanese war. For them, the Syrian regime had long ago lost all credibility. Yet they are the first to warn that Syria must stand because the alternative is much worse for everyone. A Sunni friend who has long been loudly proclaiming that he personally wants behead Assad recently came to ask if we could deliver him a "novena". He knew that Christians had special prayers for special intentions. A novena, why? He wanted every day from now pray that Assad would stand, for the abominations he had experienced in his family from "the opposition" were far worse than the "Syrian regime".

A plea for the preservation of Syria and the current government does not imply endorsement of his mistakes, corruption, mistakes or crimes. It is the sober conclusion that there is no acceptable alternative that doesnt bring irrevocable abomination. We also need to recognize that the Syrian people themselves can and should go towards reform. This is the original meaning of "democracy": a people which itself seeks to ensure the equal treatment of all its citizens. "Russia acts out of self-interest" We usually have not much confidence in the Russian bear and the Chinese dragon, thunder sermons from the Persian Empire give us no peace. Yet from there appears now more support to defend the stability of Syria than the selfproclaimed "Friends of Syria". The West, America with its European and Arab allies sought from the beginning to ensure to get Syria with Libya in the Arab Spring Collection through a military intervention. Libya was fairly quickly "liberated", at least of its gold, its oil, its sovereignty and to start from 150,000 lives (how many of them may Belgium write on his record with his month-long bombing?) For Syria, this was until now prevented by the unity of the people and by repeated vetoes. Russia remains stubbornly defend the sovereignty of Syria, points to the imbalance of the resolutions, which are not referred to the criminal gangs in the country. And Russia remains to sue the schizophrenia in the Western media and politics. The countries that deliver most weapons and aid to rebel and criminal gangs shouting the loudest that the bloodshed must stop and that the army must stop! Russia says no foreign forces but the people themselves should decide on his own government. At the second veto of Russia Hillary Clinton called the attitude of Russia "horrible" because, she said, it only thinks about self-interest and are not, like she, concerned about the freedom of the Syrian people. Is not this a prize worth a Hypocrisy Without Borders? Yes, Russia has interests in Syria with its military base at Tartus. Doesnt have America in 130 countries (but not in Syria) a military base? America would have no interest in a very strategically important country like Syria with a wealth of gas and an access to the Mediterranean Sea? Hillary has not from the beginning loudly announced worldwide, its claim: "We need a new Middle East"? A destabilization in order to install new power relations? After military intervention proved to be impossible followed the murders, the devastation and fueling sectarian hatred. Does Saudi Arabia and Qatar want really help Syria in his growth toward

democracy or do they want to establish their dictatorial Islam in this most secular country in the Arab world? You can, of course, exemplary mention that in Saudi Arabia never has taken place electoral fraud, but you need to add that there are no elections even possible! Feels the West called even to support this abomination, after the destruction of the country to ride in the distribution of power in the "New Middle East"? Mussalaha or reconciliation In the large area of Qalamoun between Damascus and Homs (where we live) in late July 2012 mussalaha or reconciliation was accepted by all parties. "Opponents" laid down their arms and prisoners without blood on their hands were released. The kidnapped Salim, son of the secretary of the president and second strong man from Deir Atieh, was released. Everyone may freely manifest in a non-violent manner protest and promote reforms. Unfortunately, a few days later in Qara still a man killed on the black list of terrorists as pro-regime was noted. The dust must have just subsided to resume the path of reconciliation. Mussalaha is a third way which does not come from "the opposition" and not from "the regime" but really from the people. In crucial places like Homs have been hundreds of young people, rebels laid down their arms and opted for an internal dialogue. Kahlil Noe, the chairman of this board expresses the basic outlook of this movement by saying that Syria is a family, where there is no place for violence and racism, where the different peoples and groups live together in peace and tolerance. That is the desire of the silent majority of the Syrian people. The Christians do play a special role for several reasons. They are the native population, they have largely contributed to the "Arab Renaissance" and they now bear more than their share in the suffering. Finally their efforts in no way aimed at achieving some power in government. Thus the Christians are the most vulnerable but also the most peacemaking factor in Syria. On 27 July 2012 did the Greek-Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregorios III Laham a call for dialogue, peace and reconciliation or mussalaha. In the meantime, the major threat in Syria is the anarchy and the total lack of security in so many random attacks. There is actually no more war, there is rampant banditry. He rejects the accusation that the Christians would get certain privileges from the regime. Surely, Christianity is needed in the Arab world. "Islam needs Christianity

and the Moslems need Christians and we are with and for them like the last 1435 years of our common history." Furthermore, he points to the source of evil in the

Arab world, namely the division and in particular the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

"The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the foundation and the first cause of most of the evil, the crisis and the war in the Arab world.
That the foreign powers stop to strangle the Syrian people by sanctions. For months we have known outage again every four hours, even in winter. A large apricot grower Qousseir sent earlier excellent fruit in a container to the Gulf States who paid well. Now he cannot even pay the pickers because the domestic market collapsed. Virtually all commerce is idle (apart from the international arms trade that experiences golden age). And of course, the booming tourism industry immediately shut down. Is that freedom and democracy that the West wants to give us? Further that abroad withdraws his troops, weapons and support to the "opposition" in Syria. Then also will end the bloodshed. The Syrian population is mature enough to choose his necessary reforms in a tradition of tolerance, as they have proven for decades. Should U.S., NATO, Europe, Saudi Arabia and Qatar this country with its decades of relative stability, peace, prosperity and great forbearance will destabilize until it meets the "New Middle East" of Hillary? The silent majority of the Syrian people want peace, peace and reconciliation. All the rest is manipulation and falsehood. From this desire through everything to live in mutual tolerance with each other speaks the true greatness of the Syrian people. And herein we recognize as Christians ultimately the work of the Spirit of Jesus who says: "If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8, 36).

I'm not a self-proclaimed Middle East specialist but an ordinary priest Norbertine from the abbey in Postel. I dont want to rely on any journalistic, political or diplomatic expertise. Moreover, I am still alive but since 2010 in the 6th century nunnery of St. Jacob the Mutilated, (90 kilometers north of Damascus) where I am responsible for the Catholic seminary and for the male branch of the cloister (www.maryakub.org; see also Our information: www.voxclamantis.info). So I became a missionary over the date (but hopefully good long). We now live with 7 men in the primitive but cozy Roman tower (probably from the 1st century). We do 97 stairs to the roof, because the Romans forgot an elevator, also 97 steps back. The community of nuns has fifteen members. We represent together a dozen different countries. Furthermore, there are families and children captured, Sunni, Alawite and Christians (until today 's about 25). Our group accommodates people from almost all over Syria. What I write, I have experienced or learned from them. Before the crisis, there were many visitors from home and abroad, especially young people. For them, construction started on a large guest center,

whose activities are stationary and where now the extent possible refugees are received.
P. Daniel Maes o.praem. March Yakub, Qara, Syria.