Abel Jarek Heads for the Hills, Seeks a 'Community of Believers' | EVE Online

Abel Jarek Heads for the Hills, Seeks a 'Community of Believers'

2009-03-27 - By Svarthol

Pator – Cleric Abel Jarek, the leader of the Salvation Crusade movement, announced his intention to found a permanent community in Matar’s remote Tronhadar valley region. To date, the "crusaders," as Jarek's followers are known, have limited their preaching to the numerous refugee camps located around the urban Eyniletti plains region, garnering modest numbers of new converts – approximately 100 at last count.

Speaking at the close of his daily sermon, Jarek emphasised the need for a "spiritual community of believers living off their own work and in their own homes." He revealed his intention of taking half of his followers, including all children and elderly, to the Tronhadar valley. There the community will establish new homes in "the unclaimed hills." The announcement has caused considerable comment among the Krusual Tribe, which maintains ancestral lands in the mountainous upper Tronhadar, including the stronghold from which many of its clans held out against Amarr troops during the period of Amarr occupation.

Recent sermons by Jarek have dwelled on the situation in the refugee camps. One controversial sermon – in which Jarek denounced the "great evil of keeping people in camps with little hope and only work for selfish ends" – caused a violent clash between Jarek's followers and the demonstrators who are now present at every public appearance of the preacher. Some protestors now claim that the constant pressure has driven Jarek to "flee into the hills of the lower Tronhadar."

For his part, Abel Jarek denies that he is fleeing anywhere and has pledged that the Salvation Crusade will continue sending 'missionaries' into the refugee camps even after the move into the new community.