Fact Check

Christian Woman Murdered in Syria

A purported photograph of a Christian woman raped and murdered by Muslims in Syria is actually a special effects project.

Published Sept. 9, 2013

Claim:

Claim:   Photograph shows a Christian woman raped and murdered by Muslims in Syria.


FALSE

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, August 2013]

Her Crime WAS - She Was A Christian

SHE WAS ATTACKED - RAPED BY ABOUT 20 MUSLIMS AND AFTERWARDS MURDERED IN SYRIA.
WHAT WAS HER CRIME? "SHE WAS A CHRISTIAN"
MAY OUR DEAR LORD TAKE HER IN HIS ARMS...... AMEN!

Click to enlarge

Send this around all over this, OUR WORLD.
This is the real face of:
"SHARIA LAW".
Wake up World.
No Christmas,
but
Happy Ramadan.
(THEY DON'T WANT ANY RELIGION EXCEPT THEIR RELIGION "ISLAM" IN THE WORLD. ALL MUSLIMS ARE NOT THE TERRORISTS BUT THE TERRORISTS ARE ALL MUSLIMS. OUR COUNTRY SHOULD NOT ALLOW MUSLIMS ANY MORE. THEY WILL NEVER CHANGE THEIR BEHAVIOURS IN OUR SOCIETY. THEY WILL TAKE MORE ADVANTAGES AND MAKE MORE BELIEVERS FOR THEIR ISLAMIC SOCIETY.)

Origins:   One does not need to look far to find accounts of Christians being killed by Muslims (and others) in Syria, as that country's Christian population of approximately 2 million people find itself caught in the middle of a civil war between the forces of
President Bashar Assad, the Free Syrian Army's anti-Assad rebels, and al-Qaida-linked militant Islamic groups reportedly targeting Christians for "ethnic cleansing":

Distrustful of President Bashar Assad's regime, many of Syria's 2 million Christians also feel threatened by the increasing number of al Qaeda extremists boosting the ranks of rebel forces.

Before the two-year conflict — which the United Nations estimates has claimed more than 100,000 lives — Christians made up about 10 percent of Syria's population.

Many Christians feel that neither Assad nor the rebels represent their

interests and tens of thousands have now fled to neighboring Turkey and Lebanon.

George, a 51-year-old former car dealer who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals, said he originally supported Assad’s opponents, but that the Free Syrian Army (FSA) let him down once they took charge in Aleppo.

"When I saw Bashar’s forces killing, beating and torturing Syrian citizens I was standing with the FSA," he said. "But when I saw that a lot of the Free Syrian Army doing the same I changed my position again. The FSA killed a lot of Syrian soldiers and civilians inside their prisons without enough evidence."

George, who fled the country three months ago with his wife Helena and their children for the coastal city of Mersin in Turkey, added that he was concerned by the rise of Islamist extremist groups in his homeland.

"They do not only pose a threat to the regime," he said. "The also pose a threat to the FSA and all other minorities."

The photograph displayed above has been circulated on the Internet as evidence of brutal violence against Syrian Christians by Muslims, purporting to show a young woman who was "raped by about 20 Muslims" and then gruesomely bound and murdered (with a crucifix symbolically shoved down her throat), for no crime other than being a Christian.

However real depredations and violence against Christians by Muslim extremists in Syria may be, this image isn't evidence of those acts. The picture of the seemingly bloody and dead young woman is a staged one (the making of which involved no actual violence or injury) taken from a horror film, to which someone has added a fictitious backstory and an unrelated bit of Arabic text. The original is the work of Canadian special effects artist Remy Couture, who in 2012 was tried (and acquitted) of violating that country's obscenity laws:

During the trial, Couture argued his gory works, roughly 1,000 images and two short videos that appeared on his website, Inner Depravity, should be considered art. The material in question depicts gruesome murders, torture, sexual abuse, assaults and necrophilia — all with young female victims.

The website was part of a personal project by Couture designed to raise the bar of his make-up and special-effects work. Couture, who is self-taught, sought to bring a psychopathic killer character of his own making to life.

Couture described it as a sort of "fake diary of a serial killer," complete with his own universe inspired by horror movies and literature. But there was no victim in the case — all of the works were staged with willing actresses and a combination of fake blood, latex and silicone to create lifelike, horrific images.

Couture testified the reason behind the work was to highlight his skills and abilities as a master of special effects horror, and that the goal is to make his work look believable.

As noted in an online article, one of Couture's "Inner Depravity" short films included a sequence featuring a "woman bleeding after a crucifix was shoved down her throat":

The films, titled Inner Depravity I and II, feature Couture in the role of a serial killer who hacks off limbs and performs sex acts on his victims. Couture says the films are meant to depict the life of a serial killer, assisted by a 10-year-old boy, whose tendencies lead him to also have sex with his dead female victims. One sequence shows a woman bleeding after a crucifix was shoved down her throat. Another graphic scene shows a character carving out a victim's organs.

Indeed, shots matching the setting displayed in the image shown above can be viewed around the 1:26 mark of Couture's "Inner Depravity 1," demonstrating conclusively that the gory image originated with his film:

Last updated:   9 April 2015


Sources:

    Cheikhomar, Ammar.   "Caught in the Middle: Christians Suffer Amid Syria's Civil War."

    ABCNews.com.   11 August 2013.

    Mroue, Bassem.   "Iraqi al Qaeda and Syria Militants Announce Formal Merger."

    ABCNews.com.   9 April 2013.

    The Canadian Press.   "Quebec Special Effects Artist Acquitted in Morals Case."

    CBC News.   22 December 2012.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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