måndag, maj 24, 2010

Martyrerna från Atlas - i Cannes

Det är sällan denna blogg haft
anledning uppmärksamma film-
festivalen i Cannes.
I år fanns där dock en film värd att
se för alla som är intresserade av
islamism och terrorism: Filmen
Des Hommes et des Dieux (Of Gods
and Men) om livet i ett litet cistercienser-
kloster i Atlasbergen i Algeriet på 90-talet.
***
De nio munkarna lever ett stilla liv, i fred med Gud
och i fred med berberna i omgivningen.
Sedan startar islamistgruppen GIA (idag en del av
Al Qaeda-Maghreb) en kampanj för etnisk rensning
och rensning av allt o-islamskt i Algeriet....
Munkarna ställs inför valet: döden eller flykt från
landet.
Filmen skildrar deras tvekan, men slutligen också
beslutet att stanna och helt lägga sitt öde i Guds
händer.
***

****
Den 27 mars 1996 kidnappades sju av munkarna
av islamistiska terrorister. Efter två månaders
fångenskap halshöggs de. Deras huvuden begravdes
på klostrets kyrkogård i Tibhirine.
****



***
At about 1:15 AM on 27 March 1996, about twenty
armed men came to the monastery of Tibhirine
and kidnapped seven monks. Two others, in
separate rooms, escaped the kidnappers' notice.
After the kidnappers left, the remaining monks
attempted to contact the police, but found that
the phone lines had been cut.
Because of the curfew in force, they had to wait
until morning to drive to the police station in Medea.
On 18 April, the Armed Islamic Group's communique
no. 43 demanded the release of Abdelhak Layada as
the price of the monks' lives. On 30 April, a tape with
the voices of the kidnapped monks, recorded on 20
April, was delivered to the French Embassy.
On 23 May, the Armed Islamic Group's communique
no. 44 reported that the Armed Islamic Group had
killed the monks on 21 May.
The Algerian government announced that their heads
had been discovered on May 31; their bodies' where-
abouts are unknown.
Their funeral Mass was celebrated in the Catholic
Cathedral of Algiers on Sunday, June 2. They were
buried in the cemetery of their monastery at Tibhirine
on June 4, 1996.
The surviving monks of Tibhirine left Algeria, and
have set up a monastery near Midelt in Morocco
with help from other Trappist monks.