I originally read about this story on Gateway Pundit and The Blaze, but I have not seen it in the main stream media this morning. A Catholic priest at a monastery in northern Syria (Gassanieh) was beheaded by Syrian rebel fighters directly associated with the jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra. There is video and it has been posted online.
The jihadist group is an extremist Sunni group with roots going back to al Qaeda in Iraq and has been designated by the United States, Australia and the United Nations as a terrorist group. This group has moved in against the Assad regime in an effort to create an Islamic state under sharia law.
The Vatican confirmed François Murad was killed. The radical Muslims claim the priest was supporting the Assad government.
On Sunday, June 23 the Syrian priest François Murad was killed in Gassanieh, in northern Syria, in the convent of the Custody of the Holy Land where he had taken refuge. This is confirmed by a statement of the Custos of the Holy Land sent to Fides Agency. The circumstances of the death are not fully understood. According to local sources, the monastery where Fr. Murad was staying was attacked by militants linked to the jihadi group Jabhat al-Nusra.
Father François, 49, had taken the first steps in the religious life with the Franciscan Friars of the Custody of the Holy Land, and with them he continued to share close bonds of spiritual friendship. After being ordained a priest he had started the construction of a coenobitic monastery dedicated to St. Simon Stylites in the village of Gassanieh. After the start of the Civil War, the monastery of St. Simon had been bombed and Fr. Murad had moved to the convent of the Custody for safety reasons and to give support to the remaining few, along with another religious and nuns of the Rosary.
Catholic Online does have a link to the video posted of the beheading. Murad was not the only one beheaded at what only can be described as a terrible scene, with multiple men recording the beheadings on their phones as they yelled allahu akbar … god is great. Savages.
Exactly who is the United States going to provide support and weapons to again?
A quick review and search of the main stream media websites here in the US provide no results for Syria Murad, or François Murad.
