A 40-year-old Christian commune faces an uncertain future

Fiona Murphy
December 2, 2024

HARDWICK, Mass. (RNS) — As fall shifts into winter in Hardwick, Massachusetts, temperatures are unseasonably high for November, and a 34-acre community built by a homesteading couple nearly four decades ago stands remarkably quiet.

“I’m finding it’s okay for me to say, well maybe this will not thrive,” Suzanne Shanley, co-founder of the Catholic residential Agape community, said. “It’s really left in the hands of God eventually, whatever that might mean.”

Lifelong teachers and peace activists, Catholics Suzanne and Brayton Shanley, age 79 and 77, have been on this land in central Massachusetts since 1987, when they cleared dense, rural New England forest to construct the buildings that would house an intentional lay community, anchored in the principles of nonviolence and sustainability. They named it Agape, inspired by the Greek word for selfless, unconditional love.

“I was a child of God, all for Jesus through Gandhi with a smile,” Brayton said. “That is how it started out.”

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In the commune’s heyday, hundreds of volunteers and community members attended its annual events and work days, which entailed planting crops, chopping wood and helping prepare the land for the coming season. Centered on two sustainable houses, one large garden and a small hermitage, it has functioned as a combination lay monastery, retreat center and commune. Most of the food served at Agape, exclusively vegan, is grown on the land.

Suzanne and Brayton Shanley at their homestead, Agape, in Hardwick, Mass., Aug. 20, 2024. (Photo by Fiona Murphy)

The largest community house, Francis House, has six bedrooms, a chapel, a kitchen, an office and a wood-burning fireplace. The other house, Brigid House, is insulated with straw bales and serves as the Shanleys’ residence.

“This is our small contribution to things like climate change, we hope. A little oasis here in the woods of Hardwick,” Suzanne said.

But since 2020, participation has dropped dramatically, leaving the elderly couple to manage the land on their own, and the Shanleys have begun to worry about Agape’s future. “We’re limping,” Brayton said. “We lost three colleges who don’t have a program with us anymore. Volunteering is down overall.”

Stonehill College and the College of the Holy Cross, Catholic colleges a short drive away, used to send student volunteers to Agape through their campus ministry programs but no longer do so.

Volunteer retreats to the commune have typically involved up to 20 participants, including campus ministries, WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) volunteers who work on organic farms in exchange for food and lodging, or rural immersion groups that stay for days or weeks at a time.

Suzanne Shanley participates in Agape’s annual Francis Day event in Hardwick, Mass., Oct. 6, 2024. (Photo by Fiona Murphy)

Many longtime visitors still attend its annual interfaith Francis Day celebration. In the past, the event has attracted prominent speakers such as peace activist Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and Victor Lewis, a speech writer for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Their homestead relies on a combination of donations and revenue from retreat programs. Volunteers help with essential tasks to keep the commune running, such as planting and harvesting food, preserving produce and chopping firewood for heat through the winter.

In past summers, up to six volunteers have resided at Agape to perform this labor. This year, only one volunteer stayed to help.

In the 1960s and 1970s, thousands of intentional communities cropped up across the U.S. embracing sustainability, collective living and personal transformation. In most cases, participation was free or in exchange for work, reflecting the communities’ ideals of rebellion against materialism.

Timothy Miller, a scholar of religious studies at the University of Kansas, said while these communities flourished in the mid-20th century, urban and rural, many have seen significant membership declines. “Communes have to attract new members to stay alive, and it’s pretty clear that most communally minded young adults prefer to start new communities rather than join established ones,” he said. “Agape’s not alone in seeing changes.”

Light shines through the window of a guest room in Francis House at the Agape community in Hardwick, Mass, Aug. 20, 2024. (Photo by Fiona Murphy)

Suzanne said that she had hoped that by this stage in her life, Agape would be populated with other homesteaders and peace-minded individuals.

“It wasn’t a stated goal, but we were always saying to people, come and join,” Suzanne said. “A real lingering question in my mind is, will this kind of community be relevant to the younger generation?”

The Shanleys are looking at members of the community for guidance. Jim Robinson, 34, a lecturer at Iona University who writes about the intersection of theology and ecology, said he felt an immediate calling to Agape when he first met Brayton and Suzanne at an academic conference at Harvard Divinity School in 2016.

“I was struck by a sense that they were authentically living what I was thinking about,” Robinson said. “They were living a form of Catholicism that is oriented toward care for creation and radical resistance to systems of violence.”

For eight years, Robinson has remained a consistent visitor, often volunteering on the community’s mission council, which helps guide Agape’s operations.

Jim Robinson tends the Agape garden in Hardwick, Mass., Aug. 20, 2024. (Photo by Fiona Murphy)

Robinson does not, however, feel called to stay at the commune long term. “I like being involved in multiple communities,” Robinson said. “I think there will be a lot of people who have a stance similar to mine.”

Some long-time visitors to Agape say the challenge lies in stepping into the considerable legacy of Brayton and Suzanne.

“One of the dangers of strong leadership is replacement,” Skip Schiel, an activist and photographer who helped Brayton survey the land for Agape nearly 50 years ago, said. “Brayton and Suzanne are unique people.”

Before retreating to the quiet woods of rural Massachusetts, the Shanleys lived in a once-condemned two-bedroom house they bought in working-class Brockton, Massachusetts, not far from Agape. They took in vulnerable people while working as part-time lecturers of peace and nonviolence at Catholic high schools around the state

Over the years, they have gone head-to-head with the IRS, refusing to pay taxes to protest war. (The Shanleys purposely live below the federal taxable income threshold of $20,000 per year, as a commitment to resisting the use of tax dollars for military funding.) Through a connection with Mother Teresa, they helped move a man off death row.

The chapel in Francis House has large windows that look out to the forest surrounding the Agape community in Hardwick, Mass, Aug. 20, 2024. (Photo by Fiona Murphy)

At Agape, they have sheltered victims of war and the criminal justice system, held retreats for Muslim communities after 9/11, built a vegetable oil-powered vehicle and constructed composting toilets. In 2016, they traveled to Standing Rock, South Dakota, to join the protest against the proposed oil pipeline there. They continue to host vigils in a town near Agape for the people who have died in Palestine since Oct. 7, 2023.

Agape has maintained relationships with nearby intentional communities for many years, such as the Sirius Community, an eco-village and retreat center in Shutesbury, and Noonday Farm, a Catholic Worker-affiliated organic farm in Winchendon. At Sirius, founded in 1978, members can rent homes or stay in the main house for internship programs or as full-time residents.

“I think I grew into understanding the importance of being a peacemaker, and Suzanne and Brayton have been important mentors for me,” Jeanelle Wheeler, a 28-year-old educator and lifelong Agape member, said

Wheeler, who said she has been visiting Agape since she was a baby, serves on the group’s mission council. She doesn’t plan to move to Agape because she teaches at Montclair State University, a four-hour drive away in New Jersey, but she has hope for the community, suspecting Agape and spaces like it will become vital as young people face a world marked by climate change, war and social instability.

“There’s a yearning for spaces like Agape that I feel from my friends, and I think there’s a spiritual yearning among them, too,” Wheeler said.

Brayton Shanley prepares to cut down a dead tree on the Agape property in Hardwick, Mass., on Aug. 20, 2024. (Photo by Fiona Murphy)

For Brayton and Suzanne, the search continues for volunteers and what they refer to as “transition people”—individuals who can step in and enable the couple to take on a less hands-on role.

“I feel that I’ve been true to a vision that really captivated me and still does,” Suzanne said. “I just hope for enough physical strength and endurance to live to see something new emerge.”

This article was produced as part of the RNS/Interfaith America Religion Journalism Fellowship.

Bolsonaro's indictment in Brazil stirs conservative Christian supporters' outrage

SÃO PAULO (RNS) — After police indicted 37 individuals, including a Catholic priest, evangelical Christian supporters of the right-wing former president called the investigation an effort by the current president to persecute Brazil's conservatives.

Former President Jair Bolsonaro arrives to speak with the press after being formally charged by the federal police with attempted coup, at the airport in Brasilia, Brazil, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Eduardo Campos Lima
December 3, 2024
RNS


SÃO PAULO (RNS) — A report released Nov. 26 by Brazil’s federal police details a conspiracy allegedly involving former President Jair Bolsonaro and 36 others to stage a coup to prevent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking office in 2023.

The list of 37 indicted individuals, which includes a Roman Catholic priest, was received with outrage by evangelical Christian supporters of the right-wing former president, who have called the police investigation an effort by Lula and members of Brazil’s Supreme Court to persecute conservatives in South America’s most populous nation.

According to the report, after Lula won the presidential election in October 2022, Bolsonaro and close members of his entourage, most of them high-ranking military officers, launched a secret operation with the goal of keeping him as president indefinitely.


Their smartphone messages, disclosed in the 884-page police report, suggest the plan was supported by broad segments of the armed forces, including generals and colonels who were allegedly waiting for Bolsonaro’s green light to take control of the government.

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A parallel inquiry, which resulted in the detention of five people the previous week, asserted that the conspirators planned to kill Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes using explosives or poison. De Moraes headed the investigation into the attempted coup.

The report said the conspirators divided into groups, each assigned different tasks. One group was in charge of spreading fake news about the electoral system, a campaign Bolsonaro had been carrying out since the previous year, claiming that voting machines had allowed Lula to skew the presidential vote.

Supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro kneel to pray as they storm the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Jan. 8, 2023. Planalto is the official workplace of the president of Brazil. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

The Rev. José Eduardo de Oliveira e Silva, a Catholic priest who is a spiritual adviser to the Brazilian Union of Catholic Jurists, was allegedly assigned to the so-called judicial group, which police say was asked to establish a legal basis for the military intervention, mostly making use of Article 142 of the Brazilian Constitution. The article gives the armed forces responsibility for guaranteeing law and order, often interpreted by the far right as a permission to intervene in a constitutional crisis. In April, the country’s high court ruled that the military’s duties did not include staging a coup.

A vicar in the city of Osasco, outside São Paulo, Silva has connections to the Opus Dei and earned a Ph.D. in moral theology at the organization’s University of the Holy Cross in Rome. He was a close friend of Olavo de Carvalho, an ideologue of Brazil’s far right until his death in 2022.

The report documented several trips Silva took to Brasilia in November and December 2022, where he had contact with some of the alleged conspirators, including Filipe Martins, special adviser to Bolsonaro and a friend of Olavo de Carvalho.

The Rev. José Eduardo de Oliveira e Silva in an Instagram post. (Video screen grab)

Miguel Vidigal, Silva’s attorney and the president of the Catholic jurist group, said in a statement that Silva visited Brasilia and talked to the others named in the indictments as part of his work as a priest, which has included campaigns against abortion.

Vidigal accused the federal police of a fishing expedition and accused the police of violating the confidentiality afforded priests and those he counsels.

With more than 430,000 followers on Instagram, Silva is known for his public opposition to gender theory and abortion. In the run-up to the 2022 election, he hung a Brazilian flag from his pulpit. His social media posts show that he’s close to influential members of the Bolsonarist faction.

In a message to a fellow priest included in the report, Silva said Catholics and evangelicals should pray to give the defense minister and 16 other generals “courage to save Brazil.”

Silva had already surrendered his cellphone to the authorities earlier this year in connection with an earlier investigation and was barred from leaving the country.

It’s not clear yet if Bolsonaro, Silva and the other indicted conspirators will be detained. Since the report was released, evangelical Christian leaders allied with the former president have expressed anger and pledged to take to streets if he’s arrested.

“We will react if they maliciously imprison him. There will be a national reaction,” evangelical leader and Congressman Sóstenes Cavalcante told RNS, adding that in Brazil “there’s no legal safety anymore, all that is left is Alexandre de Moraes persecuting conservatives and right-wingers.”

Pastor Aloizio Penido, a prominent Baptist, told RNS that the left “wants to prevent Bolsonaro from getting back to presidency, the same way they did with [U.S. President Donald] Trump.”

“But in the U.S. they failed, because people still breathe the air of democracy there,” he said.

Penido also thinks that it’s only a matter of political persecution of conservatives. “A convicted criminal was ‘de-convicted’ and is now in the presidency,” he said, referring to Lula. “With Bolsonaro they want to do the opposite; they want to condemn an innocent.”

After serving as president from 2003 to 2011, Lula was convicted for bribery crimes in 2017 and imprisoned for 580 days. Sergio Moro, the judge who oversaw his case, later became Bolsonaro’s Justice minister. After suspicions of political intrigue were raised, Lula’s sentences were vacated in 2021, allowing him to run for president in 2022.

Conservative Catholics have registered criticisms of the current investigation on social media, especially lay members of the Charismatic Catholic Renewal and members of ultratraditionalist groups.

A man passes a street vendor’s towels for sale featuring Brazilian presidential candidates Jair Bolsonaro, center, and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

According to Vinicius Borges Gomes, a communications professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais who has studied the Catholic right wing in Brazil, the alleged involvement of a clergyman in the conspiracy is surprising. “The participation of clerics in the diffusion of radical rhetoric has always been evident, but it was not clear yet if priests were actually involved in plans for a coup,” he said.

RELATED: Presidential standoff becomes a holy war in Brazil

But Borges Gomes said the relationship between priests and far-right politicians is in line with a growing closeness between the new right and Catholic leaders around the world. “Many Catholic leaders talk about a ‘spiritual war’ and tell their followers to combat those who they don’t agree with.”

Others said there may be limits to how far Bolsonaro’s evangelical bloc in Congress is willing to go. An aide to the bloc who asked to remain anonymous told RNS, “Many members have a pragmatic relationship with the Lula administration and seek to take advantage of it.”

How Elon Musk became ‘prophet-in-chief’ of tech's Trump-leaning conservatism

(RNS) — Since becoming a Trump supporter, the tech billionaire has arrived at a new stage in his evolution from insisting science and religion cannot coexist.

FILE - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, left, and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump attend a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show on Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Jack Jenkins
December 3, 2024

(RNS) — In the waning days of October, several hundred people gathered at the Life Center, a megachurch in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for a town hall organized by the Trump campaign. Attendees chatted excitedly as they filed into the church’s cavernous sanctuary.

But when the event began, the speaker who strutted onstage wasn’t former President Donald Trump, or one of his evangelical Christian promoters. Instead, it was Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of SpaceX rocket company, Tesla electric cars and the social media platform once known as Twitter.

Musk, the richest man in the world, has long approached religion with suspicion, and some in the audience were skeptical: One asked what was “keeping” him from believing in God.

“I believe in the teachings of Christ,” replied Musk, whose jacket was adorned with a NASA logo and a mission patch of one of his rocket projects. “I believe in the Christian principles: Love thy neighbor, turn the other cheek — which is very important to have forgiveness. Because if you don’t have forgiveness, then you have an endless cycle of retribution.”
RELATED: How Silicon Valley’s ‘Techtopia’ turned work into religion

Musk then expounded, giving an unusual take on “turn the other cheek,” arguing that Christ’s edict should only apply if you are already “strong” and not if you are weak. “If you’re facing a sort of a predatory threat, and that threat is stronger than you and that threat doesn’t believe in Christian values, then you will just get, you know, executed,” he said, adding he does not believe the idea is prevalent “in the Middle East.”

The exchange signaled a new stage in Musk’s shift from insisting science and religion cannot coexist to describing himself as a “cultural Christian.” Strange as the metamorphosis may seem, scholars and experts on the nonreligious say it is part of a broader trend among secular thought leaders and Big Tech entrepreneurs. Once seen as a bastion of liberalism, Silicon Valley leaders have increasingly echoed ideas from conservative Christianity on topics from family size to transgender rights. At times, their ideas have seemed to overtake traditional faith as a guiding force for conservatives.

Elon Musk speaks as part of a campaign town hall in support of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in Folsom, Pa., Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. 

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Since the election, Musk, who once criticized Trump’s character, has become a regular at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort and will co-lead a nongovernmental advisory group tasked with cutting government spending. Some critics argue his relationship with Trump is one of convenience, given that Musk’s businesses stand to benefit from a sympathetic administration.

But scholars on the nonreligious argue that his rapprochement with Christianity goes deeper. Greg Epstein, a humanist chaplain at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sees Musk’s pivot as “the least surprising thing ever.”

“He’s the prophet-in-chief of this new wave of highly religious technology that is a dominant force in the current Republican coalition,” Epstein said. “I would say that traditional Christian preachers are still a pillar, of course, of (Trump’s) administration and what it stands for, but they’ve at least been joined, if not superseded, by a different style of preacher.”

Epstein argues in a new book, “Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation,” that “the tech itself has become the object of worship” in Silicon Valley, particularly artificial intelligence, venerated in some minds for its potential to either destroy the human race or rid it of all its ills.

Musk has come to be a “kind of papal figure” among tech moguls, Epstein said. Though he has readily invested in AI, Musk has voiced concerns about its potentially cataclysmic dangers. Musk is also given to apocalyptic visions of ferrying humans to Mars, avoiding our “extinction” by being “bi-planetary.”

Apocalypse is also a prevailing concept in Christianity, and increasingly, our secular politics, according to Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. In her new book, “The Shadow Gospel: How Anti-liberal Demonology Possessed U.S. Religion, Media, and Politics,” Phillips and co-author Mark Brockway describe evangelicals’ depictions of a cosmic battle between good and evil, the latter personified by “the liberal devil.”

Today’s politics, Phillips said, furnish “an apocalypse that you can take a bite out of now, because the liberal devil is already here.”

In Musk’s version, said Phillips, evil is “wokeness” or the “woke mind virus,” which the billionaire associates with liberal identity politics he insists is forwarded by The New York Times, National Public Radio, higher education, art and video games and X competitor Bluesky, among other targets. Wokeness, according to Musk, is “absolutely the religion that occupies the space previously held by Christianity.”

Musk’s political “end times” vision was hard to imagine back in 2013, when he climbed into a 1970s-era Volkswagen van to record a podcast with actor Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute in “The Office.” Wilson, a Baha’i, asked a series of religion-related questions, pressing the tycoon on whether he had a “spiritual life.”

“I’m less convinced that there’s, say, some superconsciousness watching over our every movement and kind of evaluating it against some criteria, and deciding whether we’re going to go to one place or another when we die,” Musk said. “I think that’s unlikely.”

Can science and religion coexist?, Wilson asked. “Probably not,” Musk said. Do you pray? “I don’t. I didn’t even pray when I almost died of malaria.”

Elon Musk joins Rainn Wilson on a podcast in 2013. 

(Video screen grab)

Eventually, Musk explained that he draws his philosophy from Douglas Adams’ comedic science fiction novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” in which the meaning of life comes not from discerning answers, Musk said, but from finding the “right question.”

Eight years later he sat for another podcast interview, this time with The Babylon Bee, a satirical conservative Christian website. Asked what book he would add to the Bible, Musk named Adams’ novel, but noted he was raised Anglican and attended Hebrew day school as a child. Things took an evangelical turn near the end of the interview, when the co-hosts asked Musk to accept Jesus.

As soft piano music played in the background, Musk expressed respect for Jesus’ teachings and referred to Einstein, saying, “I believe in the God of Spinoza, but hey, if Jesus is saving people, I won’t stand in his way.”

“I think he just said yes,” a co-host replied. Another joked, “We got him.”

His connection to the Bee proved pivotal. In 2022, the website’s Twitter account was suspended after its publication of a story widely condemned as anti-trans. According to documents filed in a resulting lawsuit, Musk, who has referred to his transgender daughter as having been “killed by the woke mind virus,” exchanged outraged texts with his ex-wife Talulah Jane Riley after news of the Twitter suspension broke. Musk wrote, “Maybe buy it and change it to properly support free speech.”

By October, he owned the platform. Three weeks after he took over, the Bee’s account was reinstated.

Jordan Peterson, left, interviews Elon Musk. (Video screen grab)

Then, in a July interview with Jordan Peterson, a Canadian psychologist with a large male following, Peterson, wearing a blazer covered in Christian iconography, asked Musk, “In what sense, then, are you not religious?”

“I would say that I’m probably a cultural Christian,” replied Musk. He also later agreed with Peterson, who has both identified as a Christian and called God “the ultimate fictional character,” that he preferred societies premised on “Christian axiomatic assumptions.”

Musk, Epstein said, may feel out of sync with his onetime nonreligious community, which has not taken the same rightward turn as he has. Epstein pointed to exit polls indicating that religiously unaffiliated voters were one of the only major groups that trended more liberal rather than more conservative in the November election.

“For Elon Musk or somebody like him, cultural and secularized Christianities can be a source of social power or social affirmation of his goodness and greatness, when other, more traditionally secular humanist atheist communities and groups might reject his claim or desire to be seen as a kind of messianic figure,” he said.

Epstein said Musk likely finds common cause for his views on transgender rights in corners of Christianity that he otherwise may not agree with theologically. Conservative Christians may also support Musk’s embrace of “pronatalism” — his belief that people should have more children in order to stave off population collapse. (“I’m super pro-baby,” Musk, who has fathered of 12 children, told the crowd in Harrisburg.)

RELATED: Silicon Valley bishop, two Catholic AI experts weigh in on AI evangelization

Conservative Christians, in turn, having increasingly embraced Musk as a fellow political believer if not a professed follower of Jesus. The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, has repeatedly praised Musk on X, and the pastor at Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship in Tennessee, where Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, attends, said Musk’s removal of “censorships” on X is a “huge blessing.”

At the Trump event at Harrisburg, one audience member asked Musk whether he believed Jesus Christ was “a real person who was crucified and died, and is risen, and God is Jesus.” Musk asked the questioner what he meant by “real person,” and eventually acknowledged he believed Jesus “is real,” but quickly moved on without addressing the man’s theological points.

But Musk’s answer seemed to be enough for the audience, and when it later cheered him after he called liberals “enemies of democracy,” Musk appeared to be more comfortable conflating his form of cultural Christianity, however defined, with culture war.

Nigerian missionary school's alumni force an investigation into past abuse

(RNS) — Alumni of Hillcrest School, a boarding school run by missionaries, have been pushing for an independent investigation since 2021, when a former principal admitted to molesting students during his time there.

People walk on the campus of Hillcrest School in Jos, Nigeria. (Video screen grab)

Bob Smietana
December 4, 2024

(RNS) — Three years ago, James McDowell, a former principal at the Hillcrest School in Jos, Nigeria, used a post in a Facebook group for the school’s alumni to confess to molesting two students. That led to more allegations of abuse and calls from former students at Hillcrest for an independent investigation.

On Sunday (Dec. 1), an alumni group representing survivors announced that eight Christian organizations have agreed to help fund an investigation into the allegations. Founded in 1942 by Church of the Brethren missionaries, Hillcrest educated both the children of missionaries, Nigerian students, and international students with the help of other denominations.

The Hillcrest alumni group has identified about 50 cases of alleged sexual abuse at the school.

The former students negotiated with 15 different faith groups that sent missionaries and students to Hillcrest over the years, coming to agreement with funders from the North American Baptist Conference; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Pioneers UK; the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church; SIM Nigeria; and the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada, as well as Resonate Global Mission, a Christian Reform Church missions group, and the Church of the Brethren.

Hillcrest leaders have also agreed to cooperate with and help fund the investigation.

Nigeria, red, located in West Africa. (Image courtesy Wikimedia/Creative Commons)

“It’s been a very long, tough road but now, we have real hope that the horrors so many of us endured will be brought to the surface,” said Letta Cartlidge, president of the Hillcrest Survivors Steering Committee, in a statement announcing the investigation.

Zero Abuse Project, a St. Paul, Minnesota, nonprofit that seeks to prevent child abuse, will conduct the investigation and promised to consider allegations dating back to the school’s founding. The Zero Abuse Project declined to say how much funding has been committed for the investigation, pointing instead to more information on the group’s website.

“The investigation will include whether Hillcrest School or others in authority (including the mission agencies cooperating or not cooperating with the investigation) had knowledge of abuse and, if so, how it/they responded to allegations of abuse,” according to the Zero Abuse Project website.

Kevin DeRaaff, director of Resonate Global Mission, told RNS in an email, “We are grateful to work with Hillcrest and our fellow mission agencies in supporting this independent investigation and trust that this process will surface the historical truth of what was experienced by students at Hillcrest and serve as a conduit of God’s healing and restoration for those who continue to live with pain and trauma.”

Graeme Simpson, deputy director of Pioneers UK, which had staff and students at Hillcrest, said in an email that his organization supports the investigation so that “the truth will be heard.”

“The investigation will be independent, and we will await its findings before being able to remark further,” he said.

Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, a spokesperson for the Church of the Brethren and an alum of Hillcrest School, said the denomination remains involved with the school and took part in the discussion over how an investigation could move forward.

“We feel a moral and ethical imperative to see that a good investigation is carried out,” said Brumbaugh-Cayford.

RELATED: Africa’s Anglican prelates say Archbishop Welby’s resignation is warning on abuse

Bishop John Schol, interim lead bishop of the United Methodist Church in Nigeria, said the church, which has supported and helped oversee Hillcrest, has been aware of the abuse allegations and supports the investigation. “The safety of our members, communities and visitors is of paramount concern to us and we remain vigilant in our efforts to ensure local churches and ministries are safe places for all,” Schol said in an email.

A spokesperson for the UMC’s General Board of Global Ministries said the UMC sent missionaries and missionary children to Hillcrest until 2000. The UMC is not aware of any allegations involving UMC missionaries., said Susan Clark, chief communications 0fficer

“Global Ministries is in full support of this investigation and is sharing the cost of the investigation along with other mission agencies and Hillcrest. We pray that its conclusion will bring healing to all those affected,” Clark said in an emailed statement.

Cartlidge said that as many as 6,000 students may have attended the school during its history, of which only about a third of the students were from missionary families. Others were international students or from Nigeria. She worries the focus on missionary children who studied at Hillcrest has overshadowed the bigger picture.

“It’s a story about the children of Hillcrest, not the missionary kids of Hillcrest,” she told RNS.

According to the Zero Abuse Project website, the mission groups and Hillcrest have agreed to help investigators find any document that might assist with the investigation. The school and mission groups also agreed to help Zero Abuse survey students who attended Hillcrest. Zero Abuse will publish a final report of its findings and will have total control of its content.

Hillcrest and the missions groups have also hired Accord, a conflict resolution firm based in West Virginia, to provide services to survivors of abuse during the investigation.

Cartlidge credited the Hillcrest alumni group with pushing through until it secured the investigation and said there has been a tangible sense of relief among alumni now that an investigation is underway. They are also taking comfort that neither Hillcrest nor the missions groups will be able to stop Zero Abuse Project’s findings from becoming public.

“The big thing is that they cannot cut and paste it,” she said. “They have to publish it in full.”

On Bodhi Day, Buddhists commemorate Siddhartha Gautama’s enlightenment by lighting lamps to combat darkness

 Bodhi Day falls around the winter solstice, the darkest part of the year.

(The Conversation) — For Buddhists, Bodhi Day represents hope and the potential to overcome suffering.

Megan Bryson
November 27, 2024

(The Conversation) — Dec. 8 marks the celebration of Bodhi Day in Japanese Buddhism. Bodhi means enlightenment or awakening in Sanskrit. It commemorates the enlightenment of Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha.

Buddhists throughout the world celebrate Bodhi Day, but they do not all celebrate Siddhartha’s enlightenment on Dec. 8. In China, South Korea and Vietnam, his enlightenment is observed on the eighth day of the 12th lunar month. In 2025, this falls on Jan. 7.

In the Theravada form of Buddhism followed in Southeast Asia, Gautama’s enlightenment is commemorated along with his birth and death during the Vesak festival celebrated in April or May. This is similar to Tibetan Buddhism, which also combines the observation of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death in the springtime Saka Dawa festival.

As a scholar of Buddhism in East Asia, I study how people adapt Buddhism to their own cultural contexts. Bodhi Day is a good example of how Buddhists in different parts of Asia developed their own versions of important Buddhist holidays.
The story of Bodhi Day

No matter when Buddhists celebrate the Buddha’s enlightenment, the story behind the holiday is consistent. Biographies of the Buddha describe how young Prince Siddhartha became disillusioned with the fleeting luxuries of palace life.

He eventually left home to find a cure for the inevitable suffering caused by old age, sickness and death. Siddhartha sought guidance from various religious masters, including one who taught his students to practice extreme self-denial, such as eating only a spoonful of gruel per day.

Following this method, Siddhartha wasted away until he was just skin and bones, but he got no closer to resolving the problem of suffering. It was at just this time that a young woman named Sujata came by with milk porridge, which she offered to the skeletal Siddhartha.

This meal gave Siddhartha the energy he needed to resolve the problem of suffering once and for all. He realized that no external teacher could give him the answers he sought, and he would have to solve this problem on his own.

Siddhartha decided to meditate under a pipal tree, also known as a sacred fig tree, until he reached enlightenment. Over the next seven days he meditated, deepening his insights into the true nature of existence. On the seventh day, Siddhartha attained complete awakening to become a buddha. Buddhas are people who reach full enlightenment on their own, like Siddhartha, without direct guidance from a teacher.

Monks and nuns in Japanese and Korean Zen Buddhism follow this model by meditating intensively for the seven days leading up to Bodhi Day.

As a buddha, Siddhartha began sharing his insights with other spiritual seekers, attracting a group of followers who were the first Buddhists. Buddhist monks and merchants spread the religion to the north, east and south, and by the fourth century C.E. it was well established in China.

The Laba Festival and congee

Children eat rice porridge at a temple during the Laba Festival on Jan. 13, 2019, in Nanjing, China.
Visual China Group via Getty Images

China already had its own religious and philosophical systems, along with its own calendar of holidays, when Buddhism came onto the scene. Buddhists in China adapted their religion to Chinese language and culture, including some existing holidays.

The 12th and final month of the Chinese lunar calendar was already a time for making sacrifices for ancestors in advance of the new year. In fact, the 12th month is called La, which originally referred to the cured meat that people offered to their ancestors at this time of year. “Ba” means the number eight, so Laba translates to “the eighth day of the La month” or “eighth day of the 12th month.”

Buddhism entered China in the first century C.E. By the third century, Chinese Buddhists identified the eighth day of the 12th month as the date of the Buddha’s enlightenment. Celebrating the Buddha’s enlightenment – or Bodhi Day – at the same time as the Laba Festival required adaptation.

The Laba Festival involved meat offerings and hunting, both of which violate Buddhist rules against killing animals. Over time, a compromise emerged, and rice porridge, or congee, became this holiday’s signature food for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. Rice has been used in Chinese religious offerings since at least the eighth century B.C.E., and rice congee also recalls the offering of milk porridge that helped Siddhartha on his journey to Buddhahood.
Light in the darkness

Another aspect of the Laba Festival, or Bodhi Day, is that it falls around the winter solstice, the darkest part of the year.

Like other holidays at this time of year, Bodhi Day involves lighting lamps to combat the darkness. For East Asian Buddhists, these lamps symbolize the Buddha’s enlightenment, which lights the path for others to follow.

Bodhi Day is celebrated in Japan and throughout the Japanese diaspora on Dec. 8 because Japan switched from the lunar to solar calendar in 1873. Buddhists in other East Asian countries, such as China, Vietnam and South Korea, will observe Bodhi Day on Jan. 7, 2025.

East Asian Buddhists will celebrate the holiday in different ways – some by lighting lamps, some by eating congee, some others by meditating for a full week straight. But for all Buddhists, Bodhi Day represents hope and the potential to overcome suffering.

(Megan Bryson, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Tennessee. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service)

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse | Project Gutenberg

Besê Hozat: Policies targeting the municipalities in Kurdistan are genocidal policies



ANF
BEHDINAN
Thursday, 5 December 2024, 07:50

In the third part of this interview with Medya Haber TV, Besê Hozat, Co-President of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council, spoke about the policy of trustees implemented by the Turkish government as well as the crisis of the Turkish government.

The first part of this interview can be read here and the second here.

While the Turkish state is still talking about solutions, its real target is liquidation, and within this framework, they seized the municipalities of the DEM Party and CHP. As far as it is understood from the statements of the government spokespersons, these occupations will continue. How is this rapprochement to be understood? And how do you assess the reaction of the people against these occupations?

The agenda in Turkey must be understood and grasped well. In October 2014, there was a decision taken by the genocidal Turkish state at the meeting of the National Security Council; they decided on the so-called ‘çöktürme’ plan, the ‘Precipitation Plan.’ The Precipitation Plan was an update of the so-called ‘Eastern Reform Plan.’ It was to continue the policies of total genocide in a much deeper and more comprehensive manner and to wage a total war. This was the aim. This plan was put into action on April 5, 2015, after the talks with Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] were broken off by the Turkish state and the annihilation attacks against the guerrillas began. A total genocidal offensive was developed against the people on a physically, culturally, ecologically, and economically level. Of course, these attacks were not limited to northern Kurdistan. A fundamental pillar of this was Rojava. The attacks on Rojava continued uninterruptedly. Here, the annexation and occupation attacks in northern Kurdistan came into effect in the following years. These total genocidal attacks continued with all their intensity. They were aimed at the destruction and liquidation of the PKK and were also aimed at bringing the genocidal policies to a conclusion. They did not get any result from this. The movement developed a very strong resistance. The guerrillas resisted and did not lose any positions. It put up a tremendous resistance against all kinds of attacks. Of course, there were martyrdoms and heavy losses, but the guerrilla resistance continued sacrificially. The movement maintained its strength and survived. They developed comprehensive attacks against the people, but they could not break the will of the people. The people resisted, and this resistance continues very strongly until today. They attacked democratic politics, put tens of thousands of people in their prisons through their political genocidal operations, and tortured them. Sick prisoners were murdered. But still, they did not get any result from this either. The people resisted and continue their resistance. They conducted genocidal attacks on Rojava, occupying and annexing some places, but the people resisted. A great resistance was developed alongside the strategy of revolutionary people’s war. They carried out torture, isolation, genocidal policies, and attacks on Rêber Apo and tried to break his will. Terrible pressure and violence; special warfare was carried out in Imrali. Imrali always was the center of their genocidal policies. But there they could not get any result either. Rêber Apo put forward a very strong resistance attitude and developed it. In fact, the whole resistance developed according to this attitude. They could not get results from their attacks. In the current evening, the Third World War has created new situations in the region. Balances are changing, maps are changing, borders are changing… New situations are emerging. The region is being redesigned on the basis of Israel’s security. Turkey is experiencing a very serious crisis in its domestic and foreign politics. Its politics has collapsed, its economy has collapsed, social decay is at its peak, and the state has collapsed with all its institutions. Developments outside the country are also putting a serious strain on Turkey, and it is gradually becoming a center of the war. And within this Third World War and within all these developments, our movement is struggling and resisting, and our people are standing up everywhere. The guerrilla is in resistance, fighting sacrificially.

All these developments have led the Turkish state, the current AKP-MHP fascist government, to a serious panic and anxiety. They fear for their power. How long can it prevail? The economy has collapsed, society has decayed, there is a terrible disintegration, there is polarization, and violence has become the daily reality of society. From outside, there is a serious blockage in politics. They can no longer carry out that balance policy as they want. Its geopolitical position is weakening. So all this has led this government into a great fear and panic. Now, in these conditions, in this conjuncture, they have developed a counter plan in order to prevent the PKK, the Kurdish people, and generally the peoples from benefiting. The government wants to continue its Kurdish genocidal policies with a new game in order to survive and sustain itself. There is no renunciation of the Kurdish genocidal policies. There is no such thing as a peace or solution process. Neither is there such a situation of peace, nor do they have such an intention, mentality, and policy. They lack the necessary democratic understanding to bring up a solution. All they are trying to do is come up with a new game in this difficult period in order to bring their genocidal policies to a conclusion without interrupting them and by eliminating the obstacles that stand in their way. This is the summary of all that is happening. It is necessary to see it like this and understand it.

Ömer Öcalan’s meeting with Rêber Apo was a result of this. It is a game they have set up. They needed something to serve this game, to make the Kurds and society believe, to create expectations. Now they have put the meeting of the DEM Party co-chairs or a delegation from the DEM Party on the agenda. In other words, they are trying to create more expectations and hope in the Kurdish people, to neutralize their resistance through such discussions of solution and peace, to reduce their power of struggle and resistance, to keep them in a waiting position, to keep them in a position of ineffectiveness, without struggle, and with this, to bring their newly designed genocidal policies to a conclusion.

Would a state, a government with the true intention of creating a solution, with the true intention of creating honorable peace, develop such policies of occupation of municipalities? Would it usurp municipalities? They started in Merdin (tr. Mardin), Elih, Xelfeti (tr. Halfeti), Dersim (tr. Tunceli), Pulur (tr. Ovacik), and most recently they usurped the municipality of Miks (tr. Bahcesaray). They will develop it even further. Maybe they will leave a few municipalities to create the perception and image that Turkey is a state of law, but they will appoint trustees to most of the other municipalities; they will occupy and usurp them. This trustee policy is part of the genocidal policies. They have already done it in the past, and now it is their third term. What they did before was also part of the genocidal policies, a continuation, and what they are doing now is also a part and a continuation of it. A municipality is the house of the people. But in Turkey the municipality does not have much authority, since the authorities are centralized in Ankara. The Turkish state is the most centralized, fascist, and genocidal state in the region and the world. It has centralized all powers in Ankara and concentrated them in one hand. Despite this, they do not accept that the municipalities remain in Kurdish hands. Now, how will a state that doesn’t accept that Kurds are running municipalities solve the Kurdish question? How will it ensure an honorable peace? How will it make peace with the Kurds? Is this possible? It detains, arrests, expels, occupies, and seizes the co-mayors who have won the municipalities with high and clear votes for three terms. It ignores the will of the people. In Kurdistan, it has basically undermined the right to vote and the right to be voted for and made it worthless. And now these policies have spread across Turkey. So they will develop it in Shevshek (tr. Esenyurt) and in other municipalities until Istanbul, step by step. After intimidating the Kurds, after crushing democratic politics, after rendering it ineffective, they will target the last remains of the opposition.

These policies targeting the municipalities in Kurdistan should be seen as genocidal policies. A colonialist, genocidal law is at work. There are discussions about a solution and peace, but if a solution should seriously be discussed, then a democratic, pluralist, and libertarian constitution must be made in Turkey. The existence and identity of Kurds must be recognized in the constitution. Kurds should receive education in their mother tongue. Kurds should be able to receive education in their mother tongue, develop and live their culture freely, they should be given political rights, they should be able to govern themselves, they should have self-governance, and the existence and identity of Kurds should be recognized. If there are discussions on a solution and peace, these need to be clear from the very beginning. The current discussion on peace and solutions is solely an agenda created as part of their special war. A genocidal war is raging; genocidal attacks, usurpation, occupation, torture, and violence take place. This whole agenda that is currently being developed in northern Kurdistan and Turkey should definitely be evaluated as a special war game that is being constructed in order to bring the genocidal policies to a conclusion. All of Devlet Bahceli’s and Erdogan’s rhetoric must be considered as part of this special war game, as part of the genocidal policies. Their main and only goal and intention is this: to leave the Kurds without struggle, to render their resistance ineffective, to create false expectations in the Kurds.

This is what they aim for. The resistance, social and political struggle, must continue very strongly everywhere. When the trustees were appointed, the reaction was good at the beginning. Indeed, our people showed a strong reaction. But this reaction is not very sustained. One of the main reasons is the effect of these special war policies and games. So this affects it to a certain point. Some people are still discussing that the state is meeting with Ocalan, that they are going to bring the DEM Party into talks, that there are talks in Imrali, that there are negotiations and bargains, and so on and so on. They say that the state is implementing the trustee policy to strengthen its hand and elaborate that therefore, it is better not to show too much of a reaction against it. Such a special war is being waged, and some individuals are serving it. This is dangerous.

Once again, there is no change in the genocidal mentality, denial, extermination mentality, and policies of the Turkish state over the last one hundred years. On the contrary, in the current political conjuncture, under the circumstances of the Third World War, there is an effort to bring these policies to a conclusion with a new game, a special warfare. All these changes in discourse should be considered as part of a special war game. Therefore, there must be no relaxation in the resistance, and there must be no wrong expectation; it is necessary to strengthen the struggle. In other words, the way to a solution and the way to an honorable peace is through resistance, through struggle, through increasing and strengthening the struggle. In order to be able to strengthen the position of Rêber Apo, the way to do this is through struggle and resistance.

Protest at Kobanê border: The Kurds will resist wherever they are

HDK Co-Spokesperson Meral Danış Beştaş and DEM Party Co-Chairperson Tülay Hatimoğulları condemned the invasion attacks and vowed that the resistance will continue.


ANF
URFA
Wednesday, 4 December 2024,


The Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and Free Women's Movement (TJA) organised a demonstration at the border of the Suruç district of Urfa, bordering the northern Syrian city of Kobanê, to protest the latest wave of attacks by the Turkish state and allied jihadist gangs against North and East Syria.

Speaking at the protest action, Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları said: “Our struggle will continue until an order is established in the region where peace, tranquility and brotherhood of peoples are established. We have watched this film before. After the Syrian war started in 2011, ISIS and its derivative organisations, which were almost manufactured by foreign powers, were unleashed into Syria. Organisations derived from ISIS have now changed their name and become HTS or the Syrian National Army. All of them are fed from the same source, by the same power.”

Hatimoğulları pointed out that: “As we said before, what Turkey needs to do is the politics of peace, diplomacy and dialogue. We said that the security of our 911-kilometre-long border with Syria can be maintained through peace. We said that if you trust these gangs, who turn the values of Islam into tools for their political ambitions, they will hit you. The massacres perpetrated by ISIS in Turkey, in European countries and America are obvious. We have not forgotten the Suruç Massacre, we have not forgotten the Ankara Train Station Massacre, we have not forgotten the wedding massacre in Antep, we have not forgotten the massacres carried out by ISIS in Istanbul, and in the heart of Ankara. Those they trained and equipped turned back and hit Turkey. This was done knowingly and willingly by this government, which also turned a blind eye to the 10 October Train Station Massacre in order to prolong its life.”

Tülay Hatimoğulları emphasised the need for peace in Syria and said that paramilitary groups are poisoning the peace environment. She continued: “Every game you play in Syria hits back the people of Turkey. Every negative step you take in Syria hits us. Since you refrain from resolving the Kurdish issue through peaceful and democratic methods, you no longer have a say in the region. Even your call for peace does not receive any response in the region. The Kurdish question must be resolved through peaceful and democratic methods. A Turkey that has solved the Kurdish question will feel more secure. A Turkey that has solved the Kurdish question should also work for the status for the Kurdish people in Syria and Rojava, which they have achieved through their practice and struggle, to be officialised. It should work for the writing of a democratic constitution in Syria. The first step to be taken is the realisation of some of the decisions of the Astana talks. The most important agreement at the Astana talks was the disarmament of the gangs in Idlib who used religious sentiments for their political and evil ambitions. But they did the opposite, they armed them more in Idlib and now they have caused a brand-new war and conflict to break out. This process will not benefit the peoples of Turkey and the region. The most important thing that should happen in a place in such chaos is the realisation of Turkish-Kurdish-Arab peace. Turkey should work for this. But they are doing the opposite. These borders separated by a ruler cannot be a boundary between peoples. This is a region united by the feelings, thoughts and cultural values of the peoples. For this reason, we say hereby once again that we will definitely wage our struggle for an honourable peace. The peoples of the Middle East are brothers and sisters, and no one should try to put a wedge between them.”

HDK Co-spokesperson Meral Danış Beştaş referred to the previous attacks on North-East Syria and said, “Kurdish people and their friends stopped the ISIS attacks in the past. We will also stop attacks today as well. We will stand with one heart against the gangs and enemies of humanity there. We are confident in our strength in this regard.”

Stating that the Middle East has turned into a fireball and the peoples are facing the threat of massacre, Meral Danış Beştaş said, “They designate an entire people as terrorists. Millions of people there have established an equal and fair administration. Rojava has resisted for its own land and future. But the Turkish administration is conducting a politics that treats it as an enemy and confronts it. The ruling bloc did not withdraw its weapons from the Kurdish people 10 years ago and does not stop threatening the Kurdish people today.”



PJAK calls on peoples to rise up in the spirit of the Kobanê resistance

In a statement regarding the attacks of the occupying Turkish state and gangs, PJAK warned of a dangerous plan and called for peoples to rise up in the spirit of Kobanê resistance.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Wednesday, 4 December 2024,


The Kurdistan Free Life Party (Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê-PJAK) made a written statement regarding the attacks of the invading Turkish state and affiliated gangs on North-East Syria.

Condemning the attacks, PJAK pointed out that the aim of the invaders is to change the demographic structure of Rojava and to eliminate the Autonomous Administration and called on the peoples of Rojava and Syria to stand up.

The PJAK statement emphasised that the Turkish state and affiliated gangs want to massacre the peoples of the region and underlined that a comprehensive and dangerous plan is being made. “Erdoğan is trying to defeat the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria by bringing together gang groups from different countries because he knows that it will lead to the freedom of the local people.”

PJAK also condemned the silence of the international powers and emphasised that this silence enables the continuation and deepening of the war. Recalling the resistance in Kobanê, PJAK called on the international community to support the struggle of the people of Syria and Rojava. PJAK also drew attention to the fact that groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Syria are getting stronger with the support of Turkey and that this poses a great threat to the Kurds as well as to the Arab, Chaldean and other peoples in Syria.

The statement continued: “The escalation of the fires of the Third World War in Syria is due to the development of al-Qaeda and ISIS groups supported by Turkey. Undoubtedly, this situation will pose a danger for the entire Middle East and therefore an international position is needed.

Turkey's war in Syria, where it is trying to turn Aleppo, like Raqqa, into a place where the Tahrir al-Sham government and other sects live, is not only against the Kurds in Rojava, but also against all parts of Kurdistan and all humanity. The main aim of this plan is to change the demography and destroy the Rojava Autonomous Administration. International powers and states are once again trying to victimise Kurds while designing the Middle East. If our people are vigilant and support the Freedom Movement, this scenario could once again come to naught. If they trust their people and their will, they will win and finalise the struggle.

If our people are united as at the time of the Kobanê resistance, our people will win another victory like Kobanê against the gangs of the Turkish state. We call on all our people and friends in Kurdistan and Europe to support the people of Rojava. The preservation of Rojava's status is of great importance for humanity. The destruction plan of the fascist Turkish state must once again be frustrated.”

Human chain and protest march at Kobanê border against occupation

People marched to the border of Kobanê against the invasion attacks against North and East Syria, formed a human chain and vowed resistance.


ANF
URFA
Wednesday, 4 December 2024

Masses gathered at the border of the Suruç district of Urfa, bordering the northern Syrian city of Kobanê, to protest the increasingly ongoing attacks of the Turkish state and gangs against North and East Syria.

The protest organised by Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and Free Women's Movement (TJA) was attended by many people including Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK) Co-Spokesperson Meral Danış Beştaş, DBP Co-Chairs Çiğdem Kılıçgün Uçar and Keskin Bayındır and DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları.

After making a statement near the border on the Suruç-Kobanê road, the demonstrators formed a human chain and staged a march, chanting Bijî berxwedana Rojava’ (Long Live the Rojava Resistance).



While the police made repeated attempts to prevent the protest, women reacted against the police by saying ‘Barricade the gangs, not us’. During the march under the police blockade, the slogan ‘Everywhere Rojava, everywhere resistance’ was chanted.

Speaking after the march, DEM Party MP Ali Bozan said, “As long as the attacks continue, this march will continue. We will continue to stand by the people of Rojava.”

TURKIYE'S WAR ON SYRIAN KURDISTAN

The fall of Aleppo disrupted the balance

The fall of Aleppo was unexpected. In particular, the withdrawal of the Syrian army and Russian troops without a fight plunged the region into a dangerous imbalance and cleared the way for Turkey.


ZEKI BEDRAN
NEWS DESK
Thursday, 5 December 2024,

In Syria, there have been unexpected, very rapid developments in recent days. In Idlib, HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) and the other forces had prepared themselves. There was a phase when the government in Damascus had concentrated many troops in the areas and there were repeated mutual battles. Tall Rifat and Shehba were protected to prevent Aleppo from being in danger. Areas such as Manbij were also considered in connection with Aleppo. The Turkish state has made many deals with Moscow and Damascus and people have thought about how to get the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) out of Manbij. But since that would put Aleppo in danger, it remained a theoretical consideration. Now what should not have happened has happened: Aleppo has fallen. Aleppo fell without any fight or resistance. This triggered a domino effect.

This gave HTS the momentum and morale to advance further. The jihadists took the city and raised the Turkish flag over the fortress of Aleppo. The road to Damascus was blocked and another advance began. The Syrian regime could have established a front in front of Aleppo. It had enough ammunition, firepower and air support. If the army had not left the positions, HTS would not have been able to advance. So the question arises why Russia and Syria gave up this strategic area without a fight. By giving up Aleppo, Damascus has put its very existence in danger. Now the regime says it is gathering its forces and will then go on the attack. This means nothing less than giving HTS and the other forces time to prepare to hold these areas. If the army prepares a counterattack and carries it out as announced, the destruction and loss of life will increase many times over.

The attacks on Shehba never stopped

Many of the Kurds displaced after Turkey occupied Afrin had settled in areas such as Tall Rifaat and Shehba. There were intensive preparations to protect the region from possible attacks. In any case, the attacks by the Turkish state and its mercenary troops had not stopped for a moment since 2018. All this time, the Autonomous Administration forces effectively defended the area and controlled the region. However, these areas were not fully under the protection of the Autonomous administration forces. Forces of the regime in Damascus, Russia and other allies were also present. They were firmly stationed and coordinated.

The regime wanted to seize control of Kurdish neighborhoods of Aleppo

The Kurdish neighborhoods of Aleppo were under the protection of the self-defense forces. This worried the regime and repeatedly caused tensions. The Assad regime aimed to bring Aleppo as a whole under its control. It repeatedly imposed strict embargoes on these districts and the Shehba region. However, dialogue always managed to avert a military escalation. The Kurdish population in these districts of Aleppo has maintained its own self-government and self-defense since 2012, and the population did not leave the districts even under the heaviest attacks by Islamists with poison gas and other weapons. Instead, these districts always remained islands of resistance. Here, the people were best prepared for the current attack and the defense measures were very good.

Retreat or war?

However, all defense measures were undermined by one factor. Aleppo fell to the jihadists against all calculations. In this way, areas such as Tall Rifaat and Shehba became open to attacks by Turkey. Even though HTS initially declared that it would not take any action against the Kurdish districts in Aleppo and had no intention of fighting the Kurds, the jihadists put a lot of effort into gaining control of the city as a whole. The people in the self-governing districts had no other option than to fight. The question arose whether to continue fighting against a superior force that was encircling them step by step or to retreat.

SNA is the Turkish state

Tall Rifaat and Shehba were directly attacked by the Turkish state. The so-called "Syrian National Army" (SNA) is a structure created and completely controlled by the Turkish state. The SNA is taking action against the population. Where Kurds live, a democratic autonomous administration has been established and the other peoples also live there in equality, self-government and peace. No one is discriminated against because of their culture or religion. It is the most progressive region in the entire Middle East. The Turkish state carried out ethnic cleansing in the regions it occupied. Kurds were expelled. This criminal policy was implemented primarily by the SNA.

So-called "opposition" is a puppet of Turkey

The so-called opposition under the control of Turkey has no political identity of its own. The current attacks, including the attack on Aleppo, are supported and orchestrated by Turkey. The Astana process has absolutely nothing to do with the peoples of Syria. It is a game between states that leads to an intensification of the occupation of Syrian territory.

Pathological Kurdish hatred

The Turkish state and its media never refer to HTS or al-Nusra as "terrorists". Meanwhile, the organization is on the terror lists of the United Nations, the US and the EU. The Turkish state calls it the "Syrian opposition" and tries to give legitimacy to the jihadist group. Turkish president Erdoğan would not mind if all of Syria came under the control of HTS or ISIS. He never said that terror corridors will not be allowed on the border. But when it comes to Kurds, the word Kurds is not even used, instead they talk about "Terroristan" or a "terror corridor". In the past, border areas of Syria were under the control of ISIS. Erdoğan never said that this posed a danger. He doesn't say that today either, because in the minds of the AKP-MHP regime there is an almost pathological hatred of Kurds. In addition, Erdoğan's thinking is no different from that of ISIS, al-Nusra or other jihadist gangs. How else could he have nurtured and cared for al-Nusra, or the new name HTS, in Idlib for years?

SDF reports large-scale kidnapping campaign by Turkish-backed mercenaries in Shehba

Turkish-backed mercenaries detained over fifteen thousand civilians and abducted a large number of them in Shehba region, SDF reported.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Thursday, 5 December 20243

The Press Office of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reported that Turkish-backed mercenaries have launched a large-scale kidnapping and enslavement campaign against civilians besieged in the Shehba region, north of Aleppo.

According to the SDF statement on Thursday, over 120 vehicles carrying hundreds of civilians, who were attempting to evacuate the areas in north and eastern Syria, were abducted and taken to an unknown destination near the Sheikh Najjar area. This action comes two days after these groups obstructed a previously agreed-upon civilian evacuation.

“Furthermore, with the aim of enslavement, these groups have detained over fifteen thousand civilians and abducted a large number of them. The besieged civilians are enduring harsh conditions, facing starvation and water shortages,” SDF stated.

More than a hundred thousand people migrated to Autonomous Administration regions in two days

The head of the Immigration Department, Şêxmûs Ehmed, said that more than a hundred thousand people have migrated to the Autonomous Administration regions in the last two days.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Thursday, 5 December 2024

The head of the Immigration Department of the Autonomous Administration, Şêxmûs Ehmed, told ANHA that they have hosted many families who were forced to migrate from Aleppo and the Afrin-Shehba canton in the last two days.

Ehmed said that the number of displaced families in the application centers in Raqqa and Tabqa has exceeded 20 thousand, and added that the situation of the refugees is tragic.

Ehmed said: "Initially, we hosted the refugees in the cities of Raqqa and Tabqa, and temporarily placed them in schools in the city and the countryside. Due to the large number, we sent some of them to the Euphrates and Cizre cantons. The Crisis Desk allocated 235 centers, mostly schools, to migrants in Tabqa. In Raqqa, 60 centers were allocated to migrants. Each center hosts 40 families."

Ehmed added: "There needs to be coordination with the United Nations to establish special camps." Ehmed thanked the people of Northern and Eastern Syria for hosting the refugees and providing them with support.

Ehmed called on international organizations, the United Nations and the Security Council to open the Til Koçer border gate and called for a serious stance against the attacks of the occupying Turkish state.

Autonomous Administration warns of possible attack on Manbij

The representation of the Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria in Berlin warned of an impending attack on Manbij.


ANF
BERLIN
Wednesday, 4 December 2024,

The German representation of the Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria (AANES) warned in a statement of an impending offensive on Manbij. The statement said: "After Islamist militias conquered the city of Aleppo and other areas in northern Syria in recent days, troop movements by the pro-Turkish SNA indicate a possible attack on the city of Manbij."

Khaled Davrisch, representative of AANES in Germany said: "If Turkey attacks Manbij with its Islamist mercenaries, there is a risk of a massacre and the displacement of tens of thousands of people. The armed forces of the Autonomous Administration will exercise our right to self-defense and protect the civilian population. A relapse of Syria into the bloodiest days of the civil war must be prevented."

Manbij, a pluri-ethnic region

Manbij was liberated from the rule of the Islamic State in 2016. Shortly after the liberation, thousands of people returned to their homes. The inhabitants of the self-governing canton are predominantly Arab and Kurdish. Circassians, Turkmen, Armenians and Chechens also live there.

Ongoing occupation attacks in North-East Syria claim the life of a woman

The occupying Turkish state’s genocidal campaign against North and East Syria continue, claiming more lives every day.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Thursday, 5 December 2024

The occupying Turkish state and affiliated gangs bombarded the villages of Um Jalûd, al-Sayada and al-Dendaniye in Manbij with mortars.

While the occupiers also bombed the villages of al-Jarad and Um Jalud in Manbij, 7 mortars landed on al-Jarad village and 17 mortars on Um Jalud village.

Til Torin village of Manbij was also shelled with howitzers.

The villages of Til Tûrîn and Farat west of Manbij was targeted by mortar attacks.

A woman named Nedîma El Hisên El Hemûd (45) living in Farat village was martyred, and a woman named Seîda El Ferec (45) was seriously injured during the attacks. The wounded woman was taken under treatment in a hospital in Manbij.

Civilians living in the Afrin and Shehba regions were forced to leave their lands due to the attacks of the invading Turkish state and allied gangs who started to loot and set fire to the houses of the displaced civilians.

On the other hand, occupation forces shelled the vicinity of the Qereqozaq Bridge in the south of Kobanê with howitzers. Qereqozaq Bridge, which connects the two sides of the Euphrates River, provides transportation between the Euphrates Canton and Manbij.

Despite attacks and threats of occupation, life goes on in Manbij

Turkish media are spreading rumours across all channels that the northern Syrian region of Manbij has been abandoned and that the military council has withdrawn. Turkey appears to be preparing a psychological attack through these false reports.


ANF
MANBIJ
Thursday, 5 December 2024, 


A new page in the history of the war in Syria was turned with the capture of Aleppo by the HTS, the successor to Al-Nusra, in an invasion orchestrated by Turkey. The HTS is now marching on Hama and Homs. Nevertheless, there are only occasional clashes between the jihadists and the Syrian army at the moment. Syria has once again become the scene of international struggles for distribution. The Turkish state is particularly targeting the city of Manbij. Manbij is considered an important centre near the Turkish border and on the Euphrates.

The multi-ethnic city was a strategic centre for ISIS. Manbij was used to smuggle jihadists, weapons and logistics into the country, while ISIS supplied Turkey with oil in return. After the liberation by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in 2016 in a large-scale offensive, the regional centre of ISIS’ reign of terror was transformed into a city characterised by democratic and multicultural coexistence. Step by step, the paradigm of women's liberation was also implemented in Manbij. The AKP/MHP regime in Ankara saw the defeat of ISIS in Manbij as its own defeat. While Ankara did nothing against ISIS in Manbij and even supported it with all its might, there has not been a moment in the eight years since the liberation when there were no attacks or threats from the Turkish state and its mercenaries. It is therefore only logical that the Turkish state is using the current situation to occupy Manbij as well, to destroy the autonomous administration and to expel the Kurdish population. Since the Aleppo invasion on 27 November, attacks on Manbij have intensified and expanded.

The Turkish state seems to want to repeat the invasion of Aleppo, during which the city was handed over to the jihadists without a fight, in Manbij. This attack is being prepared by intensive psychological warfare. The message is being spread that the city has been abandoned and that the military council of Manbij has retreated. However, the opposite is the case. The rumours are aimed at frightening people and causing them to flee the canton.

In particular, the Turkish state media spread such rumours with the help of their ‘correspondents’ stationed in occupied Jarablus. ANF has made recordings in Manbij that show the real situation in the city. The images clearly show that, contrary to the disinformation and threats of attack, life goes on. The streets and neighbourhoods are lively and the self-government and internal security forces are active, while the military council is taking over the external defence of the canton.

The military council of Manbij repeatedly responds directly to attempts by mercenaries loyal to Turkey to enter villages in the western part of the canton. In the last few days, more than ten attackers have been killed in skirmishes of this kind. Just yesterday, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reported that an attack on Manbij near Dêr Hafirê was repelled. Several jihadists were also killed or injured in the process. The SDF stated that the military councils of Manbij and Tabqa are on standby to defend the region against all attacks. Residents of Manbij told ANF that such attacks have been going on for eight years and that they have nevertheless built and organised their lives in the canton.

Nevertheless, the special war propaganda shows that Manbij is in the sights of the Turkish-jihadist invasion and that a possible major attack is imminent. Therefore, international solidarity with Manbij is especially important. Because moral and practical support is an important way to break through the psychological warfare and strengthen the resistance.

Displaced women of Shehba: We will continue to resist!

Internally displaced people from Shehba said that some of them have been forced to leave for the third time since the beginning of the Syrian war. Nevertheless, the women interviewed are determined to resist.


NÛJIYAN ADAR-OMER HORO
RAQQA
Thursday, 5 December 2024, 10:34


Internally displaced people from Shehba said that some of them have been forced to leave for the third time since the beginning of the Syrian war. Nevertheless, the women interviewed are determined to resist.

On 27 November, Aleppo was handed over to the jihadist HTS mercenaries almost without a fight. Resistance continues in the self-governing Kurdish districts. The Turkish-jihadist invasion subsequently spread to Tel Rifat (Tall Refaat) and Shehba. Countless people who had already had to flee the Turkish invasion of Afrin in 2018 have now been forced to flee again since 2 December. Thousands are arriving in the self-governing regions around Tabqa and Raqqa. They spoke to ANF about what they were going through.

Three times displaced

Fatma Naso has been displaced for the third time. She comes from Aleppo and fled to Afrin at the beginning of the Syrian crisis to escape the increasing attacks by HTS's predecessor organization, Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Qaeda Syria). In 2018, she was forced to flee from Afrin to Shehba to escape the invasion of the Turkish army and jihadist mercenaries.


On 2 December, she had to flee again. She said: "We have been fleeing since the beginning of the Syrian crisis. From Aleppo to Afrin, from Afrin to Shehba, we had to leave the country where we were born and grew up. Just when I thought we could finally breathe again, I now feel like I'm back at the beginning. It's easy to say the word escape, but only we know the pain we have suffered. Only we know what pain we had to endure on these journeys."

They wanted to commit a massacre in Shehba


Fadile Reşo comes from Mahmudiye in Afrin. After the invasion in 2018, she had to flee to Shehba. Now she is on the run for the second time. She said: "We had a stable situation in Afrin. We had a house, a piece of land and shops. Our situation was also very good. We had achieved all of this through our work, our effort and our sweat. But the people of Afrin, whether women, children or the elderly, were slaughtered by fighter planes. Our electricity and water were cut off, and we were left to starve. Then we were driven out to Shehba. With great effort, we turned Shehba into a paradise. We created something from nothing. Six years is not a short time. During this time we had painful and beautiful days. But just like in Afrin, people in Shehba could not bear the fact that we were leading a good life. There were fierce attacks, and civilians in particular were the target. The mercenaries wanted to commit a massacre. Now we are fleeing again. We are currently in Raqqa. Our family is scattered. Some are in Tabqa, some in Raqqa and some are still on the way. I have no news about some of them. What kind of cruelty is this? We are experiencing this injustice and this torture just because we are Kurds. Do Kurds have no right to live on their land? Will the Kurdish people be subjected to massacres and persecution again and again? There are children and the elderly here who are in danger of freezing to death because of the cold."

How long will the suffering continue?

Muh Derwîş is from Tall Refaat. She said: "The attacks by the invading troops did not stop. They attacked us wherever we were. They had come to massacre our people. From Shehba to Raqqa, there were mercenaries everywhere. They tried to scare us. We had to endure great suffering until we reached Raqqa. We didn't know what to do.

We could imagine what awaited us. It was not the first time we have been forced to leave, but we are also human. How much longer are we supposed to suffer? We experienced moments of fear and terror among the mercenaries until we finally reached safe areas. There were ill people and children among us. Maybe we could have protected ourselves, but we were worried about our ill people and children."

Gangs affiliated with Turkey block buses sent to take refugees in Afrin-Shehba Canton

Gangs affiliated with the Turkish state blocked buses sent to take the refugees who remained in the Afrin-Shehba Canton.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Thursday, 5 December 2024

After the attacks carried out by the Turkish state and its gangs on Tall Rifaat and Shehba, the Afrin-Shehba People's Assembly decided to move the people to safe areas in order to prevent massacres. Following this decision, the Assembly began moving the people to the Autonomous Administration regions as of 2 December. So far, tens of thousands of refugees have moved to Tabqa and Raqqa. However, tens of thousands more are waiting in Shehba.

The Afrin-Shehba People's Assembly sent 50 buses to the Afrin-Shehba Canton on Wednesday to take more people to the Autonomous Administration regions. However, the jihadist groups linked to the Turkish state did not allow the buses to pass. As a result, the buses had to return to the Autonomous Administration regions.

In addition, the Barzani Institution and the jihadist groups are trying to take the people who remained in Shehba to other occupied regions. Sources reported that they presented themselves as people who were sent to get them from the Jazira region. The gangs go to the people in buses and try to take them to occupied Afrin while claiming that they will take them to safe places.