The story of Ahmed the Greek

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  • Epirot
    Member
    • Mar 2010
    • 399

    The story of Ahmed the Greek

    While I was doing some research over some orthodox pages, I randomly found an interesting article. The article display the story of Ahmed, who was born in Afghanistan. He was involved in Taliban activities in his homeland. Our hero, Ahmed migrated on Athens and spoke Greek quite well. He wanted to convert himself on Christian and magically he found himself as being Greek

    Former Taliban from Afghanistan Baptized on Mount Athos
    AUGUST 18, 2013 BY FR. JOHN 7 COMMENTS



    former talibanAhmed was born and raised in a village in Afghanistan in the middle of war. His childhood memories are dust, poverty, and compulsory Islamic education in the sacred writings and war.
    “I do not remember anymore who fought whom, however there was constant warfare.”



    For years he worked for the Taliban doing various things. He was a fanatical Muslim who belonged to so-called radical Islam. At some point he could no longer bear this sort of life – misery, poverty, violence, pain, and death which he saw everywhere.
    At 23 he journeyed through the impassable mountains into Pakistan and then to Iran. His only “passport” was the common language of Farsi.
    He worked for two years there “without documents” and eventually arrived at the coast of Asia Minor in Turkey, which for him was the gate to the paradise of the West.
    One winter evening nine years ago, with an inflatable that children play with on the beaches, two oars and four to five bottles of water, he along with a friend jumped into the sea across from Lesvos, which seemed so close.



    In his own words:
    “The sea was pitch black, it was a moonless night in the winter and very windy. We did not know how to swim. The waves looked like mountains to us. Somewhere in the distance a red light was flashing. The boat was like a nutshell in the waves. I soon realized that the journey to paradise was neither near nor easy. After about ten hours we came to the steep coast with rocks. We were in despair because we did not know if we would be able to climb it, it was so sharp.
    Eventually we climbed and came to an unpaved road. Before long we came to an elderly woman in black with a head-covering – we thought she was a Muslim – and with a child. My friend spoke a little English, but she nothing. With hand signals she showed us the way to a paved road and gave us a few coins, which we knew was all she had, in order to take the bus into the city. We arrived at the port and took the first ferry to Piraeus. At the door they caught us.
    After three months in a small reception center for immigrants that had many people like us, they gave us a map and we drove to Athens. I learned Greek and worked various jobs until I found a regular job with a company that placed solar panels. They payed me well, they wrote me up with the Social Insurance Institute, and I did my papers to receive political asylum. I worked for the same company in Athens for six years.
    All these years after work I would go to the outside of the churches in the beginning – something was pulling me there – and afterwards I began to enter within. I would become calm. As my Greek was getting better, I wanted to know more about Christ. I found a New Testament, however it was in a language I did not understand [Koine Greek]. Eventually I found a blue one in the Greek I had learned. I began to read it. I decided that I wanted to become a Christian. I left Athens when the company closed and went to the provinces to find various rural jobs. Eventually I found a small basement apartment in the city nearby. It had a beach. I like the beaches very much in Greece. Shortly before Pascha in 2013, I decided to ask to become a Christian.”
    On Wednesday June 5th, in the evening, on Mid-Pentecost according to the Old Calendar, on the balcony of the Athonite Cell of Marouda over Karyes, looking towards the Skete of Saint Andrew and the endless blue Aegean, the same sea he crossed one night from the opposite direction, under a beautiful sky and brilliant sun, Ahmed became a Christian.
    In fact, this is the traditional way of becoming Greek. One who embraces Orthodoxy is automatically Greek since that identity is construed on religious basis. Regardless of your ethnic origin, you are entitled as the heir of ancient Hellenes at the very moment you sign the contract of a identity which is so easily negotiable. At this basis Greece laid its foundations (The Constitution of 1830s). According to that logic, Ahmed the taliban is considered Greek and in the same token as Herodotus did with Alexander I (thousands of years ago), some pseudo-historians will muster a good deal of evidences to back up the claim of some archaic Hellenism in Afghanistan even among Talibans.
    Last edited by Epirot; 10-01-2013, 05:40 PM.
    IF OUR CHRONICLES DO NOT LIE, WE CALL OURSELVES AS EPIROTES!
  • Solid
    Banned
    • Mar 2013
    • 35

    #2
    I think this is a beautiful story.

    Comment

    • Risto the Great
      Senior Member
      • Sep 2008
      • 15658

      #3
      The woman who gave them coins was lovely. Sure, he can be Greek. I hope ethnic Albanians can become Macedonians one day also.
      Risto the Great
      MACEDONIA:ANHEDONIA
      "Holding my breath for the revolution."

      Hey, I wrote a bestseller. Check it out: www.ren-shen.com

      Comment

      • George S.
        Senior Member
        • Aug 2009
        • 10116

        #4
        apart from the bearded ones he has got the greek features.
        "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
        GOTSE DELCEV

        Comment

        • Solid
          Banned
          • Mar 2013
          • 35

          #5
          "apart from the bearded ones he has got the greek features."

          Not really.

          Comment

          • Risto the Great
            Senior Member
            • Sep 2008
            • 15658

            #6
            I have a Greek living across the road from me who looks very similar to him.
            Risto the Great
            MACEDONIA:ANHEDONIA
            "Holding my breath for the revolution."

            Hey, I wrote a bestseller. Check it out: www.ren-shen.com

            Comment

            • TrueMacedonian
              Senior Member
              • Jan 2009
              • 3812

              #7
              Originally posted by Solid View Post
              "apart from the bearded ones he has got the greek features."

              Not really.
              I'm sure you have Ahmed's gyro features. When did your family bury their mother tongue for the romaic one?
              Slayer Of The Modern "greek" Myth!!!

              Comment

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