Mother Agnes-Mariam visits Hamilton to talk about Syria

 

Dec 2, 2013, The Spec

Mother Agnes-Mariam of the Cross has made Hamilton her first Canadian appearance as she tours Canada and the United States to share her views about the reality in Syria.

Agnes-Mariam, who is Mother Superior at the Monastery and Convent of St. James in Qara, Syria, is on a mission to spread her message about peace, love and reconciliation.

On Sunday, she spoke to a crowd of about 40 people at Centenary United Church on Main Street West.

She began by saying the tragedy in Syria is among the worst since the Second World War.

“Those who live in Syria and dwell among the devastated areas can feel, see and touch the distress that this war is spreading everywhere,” she said.

But all people in Syria are the same, she added. No matter their background, religion or political beliefs, everyone is part of mankind and there must be an end to the violence in order to move forward, she said.

“Today we are building those walls that people have torn down … we are building walls of shame. Justifying violence is something terrible,” said Agnes-Mariam.

She spoke of the terrible acts of violence that go back and forth between the people in Syria yet, in the end, nothing is resolved. It’s time for reconciliation, she said.

“The problem in the Syria crisis is that violence is being justified. It has been justified by the media, the opposition and the government and today Syria is destroyed.”

The audience listened carefully to the nun’s stories. But not everyone agrees with what she has to say. In fact, Agnes-Mariam is quite a controversial figure.

The peace activist has taken on the role of go-between and publicist, arranging ceasefires, organizing pro-government media trips and conducting speaking tours as perhaps the country’s most prominent critic of the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

Anti-government activists call her “Assad’s nun” for claiming a chemical attack that killed hundreds was exaggerated, and for saying rebels used kidnapped babies in massacres that were blamed on Syrian forces.

Asked about the chemical attacks when she was in Hamilton, Agnes-Mariam said she found weird things when she studied videos from the attacks and she wrote a 50-page study about it. She said the videos that were chosen by American intelligence authorities are fake.

“But I have never incriminated anybody and I have never taken any position saying that there is no chemical attack,” Agnes-Mariam said.

Windsor resident David Mann came down for the event, but says he’s not a fan of her ideas.

“What Agnes wants is for us to do nothing or just send medical supplies possibly to the Syrian government. That’s not going to free the people of Syria or the Middle East who are fighting for democracy and women’s rights,” Mann said.

He says the only way to defeat these people is with force.

“To just stand back and do nothing is just not the answer.”