Syrian Archbishop: Innocent people reap what Western powers have sown in Syria and Iraq
Innocent people caught up in the terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris are suffering the consequences of western policies in Syria and Iraq over the last few years - that is the view of Syrian Catholic Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo
According to Mgr Hindo, who heads the Syrian Catholic Archeparchy of Hassaké-Nisibis, the serious responsibility of European and Western leadership, has often been influenced by short-sighted selfish interests.
Mgr Hindo said: "Although several European leaders until recently had the fall of the government of Assad as the main geopolitical goal, they also aimed at accrediting the jihadist militia of al-Nusra Front as 'moderate Muslims' and attacked Russia for hitting strongholds of those militias, claiming that Russian initiatives were limited to only hitting the so-called Islamic State."
Moreover, according to Archbishop Hindo, many Western governments continue not to take into consideration the privileged relationships that they maintain with their own nations and groups of financial power from which flows of resources and ideologies that feed the network of terror come from: "European leaders, and the entire West", recalls Mgr Hindo "have maintained for decades the preferential axis with Saudi Arabia and the emirates of the Arabian Peninsula.
"In recent decades, they have ensured these countries the possibility of financing the whole of Europe, and also in Belgium, the birth of a network of mosques where Wahhabism was preached, the ideology that poisons Islam and serves as the ideological basis for all jihadist groups.
"And all this happened because economic logic and billion dollar contracts with oil bosses prevailed: flows of money and resources."
Even the European response before the emergence of refugees according to the Syrian Archbishop is a symptom of weakness and confusion faced by European leadership:
"On the issue of refugees, Europe chose to become hostage to Turkey. I understand the European difficulties, but I highlight that the IDPs welcomed in Europe in 2015 do not exceed 0.2 percent of the population, while in a small country like Lebanon their share now corresponds to half of the local population. I understand the tears of the European Commissioner for foreign policy. But I want to point out that for five years, thousands of Syrian Muslims and Christians, men women and children have been killed. And there are no tears for them."
Source: Fides