Tweet
The Associated Press
November 2, 2013 Saturday 02:14 PM GMT
In midst of Syrian war, giant Jesus statue arises
By DIAA HADID, Associated Press
BEIRUT
In the midst of a conflict rife with sectarianism, a giant bronze
statue of Jesus has gone up on a Syrian mountain, apparently under
cover of a truce among three factions in the country's civil war.
Jesus stands, arms outstretched, on the Cherubim mountain, overlooking
a route pilgrims took from Constantinople to Jerusalem in ancient
times. The statue is 12.3 meters (40 feet) tall and stands on a base
that brings its height to 32 meters (105 feet), organizers of the
project estimate.
That the statue made it to Syria and went up without incident on Oct.
14 is remarkable. The project took eight years and was set back by the
civil war that followed the March 2011 uprising against President
Bashar Assad.
Christians and other minorities are all targets in the conflict, and
the statue's safety is by no means guaranteed. It stands among
villages where some fighters, linked to al-Qaida, have little sympathy
for Christians.
So why put up a giant statue of Christ in the midst of such setbacks
and so much danger?
Because "Jesus would have done it," organizer Samir al-Ghadban quoted
a Christian church leader as telling him.
The backers' success in overcoming the obstacles shows the complexity
of civil war, where sometimes despite the atrocities the warring
parties can reach short-term truces.
Al-Ghadban said that the main armed groups in the area Syrian
government forces, rebels and the local militias of Sednaya, the
Christian town near the statue site halted fire while organizers set
up the statue, without providing further details.
Rebels and government forces occasionally agree to cease-fires to
allow the movement of goods. They typically do not admit to having
truces because that would tacitly acknowledge their enemies.
It took three days to raise the statue. Photos provided by organizers
show it being hauled in two pieces by farm tractors, then lifted into
place by a crane. Smaller statues of Adam and Eve stand nearby.
The project, called "I Have Come to Save the World," is run by the
London-based St. Paul and St. George Foundation, which Al-Ghadban
directs. It was previously named the Gavrilov Foundation, after a
Russian businessman, Yuri Gavrilov.
Documents filed with Britain's Charity Commission describe it as
supporting "deserving projects in the field of science and animal
welfare" in England and Russia, but the commission's accounts show it
spent less than 250 pounds ($400) in the last four years.
Al-Ghadban said most of the financing came from private donors, but
did not supply further details.
Russians have been a driving force behind the project not surprising
given that the Kremlin is embattled Assad's chief ally, and the
Orthodox churches in Russia and Syria have close ties. Al-Ghadban, who
spoke to The Associated Press from Moscow, is Syrian-Russian and lives
in both countries.
Al-Ghadban said he began the project in 2005, hoping the statue would
be an inspiration for Syria's Christians. He said he was inspired by
Rio de Janeiro's towering Christ the Redeemer statue.
He commissioned an Armenian sculptor, but progress was slow. A series
of his backers died, including Valentin Varennikov, a general who
participated in the 1991 coup attempt against then President Mikhail
Gorbachev. He later sought President Vladimir Putin's backing for the
statue project.
Varennikov died in 2009.
Another backer, Patriarch Ignatius IV, the Lebanon-based head of the
Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East, died in 2012. He
had donated the land for the statue, according to church official
Bishop Ghattas Hazim.
By 2012, the statue was ready, but Syria was aflame, causing the
project's biggest delay, al-Ghadban said.
Majority Sunni Muslims dominate the revolt, and jihadists make up some
of the strongest fighting groups. Other Muslim groups along with the
10-percent Christian minority have stood largely with Assad's
government, or remained neutral, sometimes arming themselves to keep
hard-line rebels out of their communities.
Churches have been vandalized, priests abducted. Last month the
extremists overran Maaloula, a Christian-majority town so old that
some of its people still speak a language from Jesus' time.
On Tuesday a militant Muslim cleric, Sheik Omar al-Gharba, posted a
YouTube video of himself smashing a blue-and-white statue of the
Virgin Mary.
Al-Ghadban and the project's most important backer, Gavrilov, weighed
canceling it.
They consulted Syria's Greek Orthodox Patriarch John Yaziji. It was he
who told them "Jesus would have done it."
They began shipping the statue from Armenia to Lebanon. In August,
while it was en route, Gavrilov, 49, suffered a fatal heart attack,
al-Ghadban said.
Eventually the statue reached Syria.
"It was a miracle," al-Ghadban said. "Nobody who participated in this
expected this to succeed."
Associated Press writers Raphael Satter in London and Albert Aji in
Damascus contributed to this report.
November 2, 2013 Saturday 02:14 PM GMT
In midst of Syrian war, giant Jesus statue arises
By DIAA HADID, Associated Press
BEIRUT
In the midst of a conflict rife with sectarianism, a giant bronze
statue of Jesus has gone up on a Syrian mountain, apparently under
cover of a truce among three factions in the country's civil war.
Jesus stands, arms outstretched, on the Cherubim mountain, overlooking
a route pilgrims took from Constantinople to Jerusalem in ancient
times. The statue is 12.3 meters (40 feet) tall and stands on a base
that brings its height to 32 meters (105 feet), organizers of the
project estimate.
That the statue made it to Syria and went up without incident on Oct.
14 is remarkable. The project took eight years and was set back by the
civil war that followed the March 2011 uprising against President
Bashar Assad.
Christians and other minorities are all targets in the conflict, and
the statue's safety is by no means guaranteed. It stands among
villages where some fighters, linked to al-Qaida, have little sympathy
for Christians.
So why put up a giant statue of Christ in the midst of such setbacks
and so much danger?
Because "Jesus would have done it," organizer Samir al-Ghadban quoted
a Christian church leader as telling him.
The backers' success in overcoming the obstacles shows the complexity
of civil war, where sometimes despite the atrocities the warring
parties can reach short-term truces.
Al-Ghadban said that the main armed groups in the area Syrian
government forces, rebels and the local militias of Sednaya, the
Christian town near the statue site halted fire while organizers set
up the statue, without providing further details.
Rebels and government forces occasionally agree to cease-fires to
allow the movement of goods. They typically do not admit to having
truces because that would tacitly acknowledge their enemies.
It took three days to raise the statue. Photos provided by organizers
show it being hauled in two pieces by farm tractors, then lifted into
place by a crane. Smaller statues of Adam and Eve stand nearby.
The project, called "I Have Come to Save the World," is run by the
London-based St. Paul and St. George Foundation, which Al-Ghadban
directs. It was previously named the Gavrilov Foundation, after a
Russian businessman, Yuri Gavrilov.
Documents filed with Britain's Charity Commission describe it as
supporting "deserving projects in the field of science and animal
welfare" in England and Russia, but the commission's accounts show it
spent less than 250 pounds ($400) in the last four years.
Al-Ghadban said most of the financing came from private donors, but
did not supply further details.
Russians have been a driving force behind the project not surprising
given that the Kremlin is embattled Assad's chief ally, and the
Orthodox churches in Russia and Syria have close ties. Al-Ghadban, who
spoke to The Associated Press from Moscow, is Syrian-Russian and lives
in both countries.
Al-Ghadban said he began the project in 2005, hoping the statue would
be an inspiration for Syria's Christians. He said he was inspired by
Rio de Janeiro's towering Christ the Redeemer statue.
He commissioned an Armenian sculptor, but progress was slow. A series
of his backers died, including Valentin Varennikov, a general who
participated in the 1991 coup attempt against then President Mikhail
Gorbachev. He later sought President Vladimir Putin's backing for the
statue project.
Varennikov died in 2009.
Another backer, Patriarch Ignatius IV, the Lebanon-based head of the
Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East, died in 2012. He
had donated the land for the statue, according to church official
Bishop Ghattas Hazim.
By 2012, the statue was ready, but Syria was aflame, causing the
project's biggest delay, al-Ghadban said.
Majority Sunni Muslims dominate the revolt, and jihadists make up some
of the strongest fighting groups. Other Muslim groups along with the
10-percent Christian minority have stood largely with Assad's
government, or remained neutral, sometimes arming themselves to keep
hard-line rebels out of their communities.
Churches have been vandalized, priests abducted. Last month the
extremists overran Maaloula, a Christian-majority town so old that
some of its people still speak a language from Jesus' time.
On Tuesday a militant Muslim cleric, Sheik Omar al-Gharba, posted a
YouTube video of himself smashing a blue-and-white statue of the
Virgin Mary.
Al-Ghadban and the project's most important backer, Gavrilov, weighed
canceling it.
They consulted Syria's Greek Orthodox Patriarch John Yaziji. It was he
who told them "Jesus would have done it."
They began shipping the statue from Armenia to Lebanon. In August,
while it was en route, Gavrilov, 49, suffered a fatal heart attack,
al-Ghadban said.
Eventually the statue reached Syria.
"It was a miracle," al-Ghadban said. "Nobody who participated in this
expected this to succeed."
Associated Press writers Raphael Satter in London and Albert Aji in
Damascus contributed to this report.