User:CltFn/Brigitte Gabriel

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Brigitte Gabriel

Brigitte Gabriel is a Christian Lebanese American journalist, author and Human Rights activist. She is the founder of the American Congress For Truth, a conservative Christian think tank dedicated to educating the public about Radical Islam.

1 Early life in Lebanon
2 Career
3 Bibliography
4 Quotes
5 Articles and speeches
- 5.1 Interviews & TV Appearances
6 External references
- 6.1 Video

[edit] Early life in Lebanon

Brigitte Gabriel was born in 1965 in Lebanon to a Maronite Christian family during a period of calm and prosperity for her country. She described her country 30 years ago:

Lebanon was the only majority Christian country in the Middle East. Lebanon was the most Westernized modern country in the Middle East.When we got our independence from France in the early 40s the majority of the population were Christian , the muslims were the minority, we prospered, we built the country , we are the descendants of the phoenicians , we were good in commerce and in a very short period of time lebanon became Paris of the Middle East.[1]

Events took a turn for the worse in 1970, during the time known as Black September when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians poured into Lebanon from Jordan, fleeing King Hussein who was pushing the PLO and Palestinians out of Jordan using heavy military force in pitched battles in response to the violence the Palestinians were committing in Jordan:

We always had our problem controlled with the Muslims until the influx of the Palestinians out of Jordan when King Hussein kicked them out of Jordan in black September. And actually King Hussein killed more Palestinians on black September than the state of Israel has killed in whole of its existence. Lebanon, not surprisingly being a country based on Judeo Christian values , with open borders and multi-cultural attitude took the Palestinians in , we were the only country in the middle east that took the Palestinians in, for the third wave of refugees in 1970. Once they came in they put their heads together with the radical islamists in our country and declared holy war on the Christians.[2]

Lebanon , being a Judeo-Christian country based on open borders and multi-culturalism allowed the Palestinians in. This had disastrous consequences for the Lebanese Christian community as once the Muslims reached large numbers, they organized themselves and declared a holy war of extermination on the Christians.

We had open borders ,we were a very multi-cultural society, we allowed people to come into our country freely and study in our country , they usually graduated and stayed there because our country offered them the best economic prospective for a job in the ME even though we did not have the oil. That was Lebanon. The situation began to change gradually, as the Muslims started growing and becoming more than 50% of society . We the Christians do not multiply as much while the Muslims, not many, but most of them, a lot of them are allowed to marry up to 4 wives at a time. This is how they multiply , we started shrinking, they started growing.[3]

At that time Yassar Arafat was trying to set up a military base in Lebanon from which to attack Israel, something he tried but failed to do in Jordan.

By 1974 the Muslims and the Palestinians were setting up road blocks throughout southern Lebanon. They would check the identify cards of travelers, which in Lebanon list the religion of its owner. When they saw Christians, they would take them out of the car and shoot them in cold blood, a practice that was became known in Lebanon as Identity killing. Surrounded by sectarian violence, the Christians ceased to travel fearing for their lives, became de facto prisoners in their homes and towns.

The reason why we stopped traveling is because the Muslims and the Palestinians would set up check points, and would stop cars driving and they would look at the people's ids and in Lebanon as in throughout the middle East, our religion is identified on our ID. You are either a Christian a Muslim or a Jew, so that when the Palestinians and the Muslims would stop a car and see that this family is a Christian family they would get them out of the car and shoot them in cold blood. It was called identiy killing at the time. We stopped travelling , that is why we became prisoners.[4]

By 1975 the Lebanese Civil War was in full force and the Arab Muslims formed an army called the Arabic Lebanese army and started taking over the military bases and destroying the Christian Lebanese infrastructure and attacking the secular Lebanese government institutions.

When Gabriel was 10 years old, the Muslims launched an assault on a Lebanese military base near Brigitte’s house. They bombed her home, collapsing it on her and burying her in the rubble. Brigitte was severely injured and spend 2 1/2 months in the hospital recovering. She asked her father "why are the Muslims doing this?", her father replied "because we are Christians". She thus learned at 10 years old that the Muslims wanted her dead for no other reason than having been born in the Christian faith.

Brigitte and her parents were forced to live in a 8x10 bomb shelter underground for 7 years with no electricity, no water and little food. To get water she had crawl underground under the sound of sniper bullets to a spring in a ditch. Before they left they said prayers, because did not know if we could back alive. She recalls having to eat grass stalk. They had no heat, and would freeze, in the mountains.

Surrounded by sectarian violence Gabrielle's family survived the best they could. Refugees from Christian towns that had been overrun by Islamic militias would describe atrocities that they had witnessed. Brigitte recounts of barbaric acts of the Islamists against Christian families:

They massacred many Christians , they would walk into a bomb shelter, meaning the islamists and the Palestinians. they would find a family hiding in a bomb shelter, they would find a father and mother with a little baby. They would take the baby , tie one leg of the baby to the mother and another leg to the father and pull the parents apart splitting the child in half. They would walk into our churches , urinate and defecate on the alter using the bibles as toilet papers. The last lady that worked for me was completely mentally disturbed , I hired her so I can take care of her and her family, they tied her to a chair, they tied her 16 year old son on her lap, held a knife to her hand and made her behead him before they raped her 2 daughters in front of her.[5]

Between 1976 and 1978, Israelis starting coming in to bring food and help the Christians to fight back against the Muslims. Brigitte remarks that while the Christians were well educated, it did not do any good to have all the degrees in the world when you face an enemy who believes that beheading you is an order from Allah.

Finally in 1978 ,when she was 13 a man warned Brigitte’s family that Islamic militias were coming and the Christians would be killed and to hope for a merciful killing. Gabrielle says on that day she dressed in burial clothes in preparation.

Brigitte’s life was saved that night by the Israelis who moved into Lebanon in Operation Litani and who occupied Lebanon through 1982. This had the result of saving many Christian families from the Islamic militias. She credits that event with saving her life. Later , her mother became ill and was taken to an Israeli hospital where Brigitte noted the humanity of the Israelis. She realized that the Israelis weren't the barbarians, contrary to how the media had portrayed them to be. She decided then to migrate to Israel. [6]

[edit] Career

Brigitte Gabriel was a news anchor for "World News," an evening news program that was broadcast weeknights throughout Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Cyprus and Lebanon. She is a former production coordinator for ARD (German Television) in South Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, and a former satellite video distribution coordinator for METV/WTN Worldwide Television News studios in London.

She immigrated to the United States in 1985 where she founded an entertainment company she became a American citizen.

Gabriel founded the ACT, "American Congress For Truth," in late 2001. She has appeared on news and information TV shows, talk radio and made numerous public speaking engagements. She speaks four languages: Arabic, French, English and Hebrew.

She is featured in the documentary Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West.

She was interviewed on CNN where she denounced Hezbollah and sided with Israel in the the war, thanking Israel for their efforts in her homecountry. [7] The day after the interview, she received a phone call notifying her that her Lebanese citizenship has been revoked. Shortly thereafter, it was quickly restored.

[edit] Bibliography

Because They Hate 2006 ISBN: 0312358377

[edit] Quotes

"The difference between the Arabic world and Israel is a difference in values and character. It's barbarism versus civilization. It's democracy versus dictatorship. It's goodness versus evil." -- Duke University Counter Terrorism Speak-Out, October 14, 2004

"As one who knows what's in the hearts and minds of Arabs, let me repeat what seems to be the hardest thing for world opinion to accept: The Arabs have no intention of having peace with the Jews period, exclamation point, end of discussion." -- Interview with FrontPage Magazine, August 11, 2005