“Of Gods and Men” – New Movie Tells Story of Christian Persecution in Algeria

Fr. Steve Leake sent news of a powerful story of Christian persecution in Algeria. The movie “Of Gods and Men” will debut in theaters on February 25th.

The Monks of Tibhirine is the true story of Christians willing to die serving a Muslim flock during the political nightmare that unfolds in Algeria during the 1990s. The decapitation of seven French Trappists kidnapped from their monastery in the village of Tibhirine provides the thread for this real life drama of sacrificial love-of Christians who put their lives at risk for their Muslim friends, and Muslims who risk death for Christians.

“Of Gods and Men”
Director: Xavier Beauvois
Cast: Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale, Olivier Rabourdin, Philippe Laudenbach, Jacques Herlin
In theaters: February 25th, 2011

From the video: Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay… come what may. This film is loosely based on the life of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 until their kidnapping in 1996.

#1 January 27, 2011 at 8:24 pm
NickDeringer commented:

The MSM will trash this movie. They must stamp out unpleasant facts.
#2 January 27, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Fionnagh commented:

Since I live in the Seattle area, chances are this movie will not be shown here, so I’ll have to wait for the DVD.
#3 January 27, 2011 at 8:40 pm
bg commented:

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Is It Right to Fight?

[One other point, if everyone was a pacifist except the evil and lawbreakers
of the world, then the world would be run by evil dictators or our society
would be anarchy.

Pacifism in its fullest sense is untenable in the sinful world in which we live.]

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#5 January 27, 2011 at 9:04 pm
LimoLibsStink commented:

0bama:

I have personally been to Pakistan and prayed with my butt in the air. This movie can’t be true.

My limousine is guzzling gas and I have an important meeting with George Soros and Barney Frank. Good day.
#6 January 27, 2011 at 9:19 pm
bg commented:

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btw, that’s nothing compared to the persecution of Christians going
on in ME & African countries as i type, not to mention slavery..

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#7 January 28, 2011 at 1:09 am
Lisa G in NZ commented:

#6, BG… but but but I though only old white guys who hated the Africans sold to the colonists were the only only only evil slave owners ever…?!?!

after all, blacks are awaiting all their reparations… so slavery doesn’t occur elsewhere, right?

/sarc off
#8 January 28, 2011 at 7:41 am
wtd commented:

If the msm doesn’t trash this film it will be because the message of pacifism makes it so much easier to eliminate obstacles . Gandhi would approve. . .

Mahatma Gandhi the Father of India. In 1940 Gandhi advised the British to act thus towards Hitler:

“You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions…. If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them.”

To the Jews just emerging from the concentration camps in 1946 Gandhi said: “The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.”
#9 January 28, 2011 at 9:08 am
bg commented:

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Lisa G in NZ #7

heh, guess what, they *lied, they’re lying, and they’ll lie..

[SLAVERY TODAY

Almost 200 years after the British outlawed the slave trade in 1807, slave raids and the sale of slaves in Muslim markets continues in countries like Sudan. The slave trade remained legal in Saudi Arabia until 1962, when under international pressure it was finally abolished. However, there are persistent, credible reports, that slavery persists in Saudi Arabia, and even that slaves from Sudan are ending up in Saudi Arabia.

Recently, a former slave from the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, Mende Nazer, had her autobiography: "Slave: My True Story" published. Mende was captured in 1992, she was first a slave to a rich Arab family in Khartoum, and then in 2002 to a Sudanese diplomat in London, from whom she escaped and sought political asylum.]

[*scroll up/down for more]

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#10 January 28, 2011 at 9:09 am
bg commented:

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re: #9 (just a sample:)

horrific flashbacks:

ISLAM & MUSLIM SLAVE TRADE

Born to Bondage

horrific flashforward:

My Slave, My Infidel

Born Slave

Modern Day Slaves – Niger

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#11 January 28, 2011 at 9:18 am
bg commented:

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re: #9 & #10

POOR GOVERNANCE

(scroll up/down, more @ link)

Runaway Slave

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#12 January 28, 2011 at 9:51 am
bg commented:

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History Of Religion

Imperial History Of The Middle East

Truth About Islamic Crusades

[Historical facts say that Islam has been imperialistic—and would still like to be, if only for religious reasons. Many Muslim clerics, scholars, and activists, for example, would like to impose Islamic law around the world. Historical facts say that Islam, including Muhammad, launched their own Crusades against Christianity long before the European Crusades.

Today, Muslim polemicists and missionaries, who believe that Islam is the best religion in the world, claim that the West has stolen Islamic lands and that the West (alone) is imperialistic.One hardline Muslim emailer to me said about the developed West and the undeveloped Islamic countries: 'You stole our lands' and then he held his finger on the exclamation key to produce a long string of them.

Thus imperialism, a word that has reached metaphysical levels and that is supposed to stop all debates and answer all questions, explains why Islamic countries have not kept up with the West. The emailer did not look inwardly, as if his own culture and religion may play a role. Instead, it is always the West's fault.]

Truth About Christian Crusades

[But it was not. When we think about the Middle Ages, it is easy to view Europe in light of what it became rather than what it was. The colossus of the medieval world was Islam, not Christendom. The Crusades are interesting largely because they were an attempt to counter that trend. But in five centuries of crusading, it was only the First Crusade that significantly rolled back the military progress of Islam. It was downhill from there.]

Islamic Crusades vs. Christian Crusades

[In Ridley Scott’s monumental movie, "The Kingdom of Heaven" (May 2005),
which is another way of saying Jerusalem according to the end of the film,
the European Crusaders and the Muslim Crusaders fight over the city, with
the Muslims coming out victorious.

The unexpected consequence or effect of the film, for me at least, is that I
came away from the film with a deeper conviction that neither the Muslims
nor the Christians should have fought over Jerusalem. The city historically
and originally belonged to the Jews; they owned it a thousand years before
Christ came and 1600 before Muhammad came. And when they were exiled,
many came back, as soon as it was feasible; the love for this city runs
deeply in them. So it belongs to them today. It is simply a myth to assume
that Muslims or Christians won Jerusalem by some kind of divine right or by
an unchallenged assumption that says, "of course they own the region."]

so true..

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#13 January 28, 2011 at 12:52 pm
archer52 commented:

Sorry, I feel being a martyr is being a fool. If you can defend yourself and your friends against evil it is an obligation to God that you do so. Sacrifice is one thing, suicide to prove a point is another. Do you think their being murdered made an impact on the ones who did it?

No. Some humans are so far gone the only thing that will cure them is an injection of a .308 lead pill into the cranium at high speed. Anything less is a waste of your time and gives them more opportunity to kill and maim other innocents.

Live by the sword, die by the sword wasn’t meant just for our side, but as a warning to others who would attempt to destroy us.