The forgotten Orthodox Christians of Bosnia and Kosovo

Lee Jay Walker

The Modern Tokyo Times

I come from a member state of the European Union which is meant to uphold the rights of all religions, political ideologies, acknowledge national and cultural rights, and is meant to spread “European brotherhood.” However, it appears that this does not apply to the Orthodox Christians of Bosnia and Kosovo respectively because not only have they been abandoned but outside Islamic powers are stepping up their Islamization agenda in both Bosnia and Kosovo.

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In Kosovo the de-Christianization of the Orthodox Christian community continues and hundreds of Orthodox Christian churches have been destroyed but little was done to protect this community. It should be remembered that the Christian Serbs helped to preserve the shared European identity in history from the marauding Islamic Turks who enslaved countless numbers of Christians throughout the Balkans during the Ottoman Empire.

Yet in modern times it is clear that Iran, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and other non-European nations, are intent on creating an Islamized Balkans and this applies to Albania, Bosnia, the Sandzak in Serbia, northeastern Bulgaria and the Rhodope Mountains region, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Montenegro. At the same time increasing Islamic immigration in Greece is creating tensions and Turkey is intent on preserving its armed forces in northern Cyprus.

The above mentioned places may sometimes have a continuous border line or they may be divided by geography and thinking because you have many branches within Islam. However, for pan-Islamists in Bosnia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and a host of other nations, it is a dream and clearly the European Union alongside America supported the “green flag of Islam” during the collapse of Yugoslavia.

In my article called Islam in Bosnia is the new stepping stone I stated that Alija Izetbegovic stated that “… Muslim nations will never accept anything that is explicitly against Islam, because Islam here is not merely a faith and the law, Islam has become love and compassion. He who rises against Islam will reap nothing but hate and resistance. …”

Izetbegovic was a pan-Islamist and he allowed thousands of Islamic terrorists from all over the world to join his Islamic jihadist campaign by allowing them to slaughter innocent Orthodox Christians in Bosnia. At the same time he played the “Muslim victim card” in front of the Western media. However, Izetbegovic shared the same global jihadist ideals and pan-Islamic thought patterns because he stated “… In one of the thesis for an Islamic order today we have stated that it is a natural function of the Islamic order to gather all Muslims and Muslim communities throughout the world into one. Under present conditions, this desire means a struggle for creating a great Islamic federation from Morocco to Indonesia, from the tropical Africa to the Central Asia. …”

Vojin Joksimovich who is the author of “The Revenge of the Prophet” highlights the international nature of Islam in Bosnia because he states that “The jihadists, from their bases and support facilities in Iran, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere, did not come to Bosnia only to fight against the ‘Serbian aggressor,’ but for the first European religious state at large, for the establishment of the only faith among the European Muslims.” (Page 145)

This comment highlights the reality of Izetbegovic and the pan-Islamic card. Vojin Joksimovich continues by stating that the “Creation of Islamic states, so-called Jamahirya states, was the ultimate objective of all these movements. With the Koran in their hands the jihadists did not distinguish between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, only between believers and unbelievers.” (Page 145)

However, Islamic jihadists and pan-Islamists from Bosnia and other parts of the world had only a short period to enact their Islamic jihad via the sword and this applies to when war broke out in Bosnia and Kosovo respectively. Yet the military battlefield and “Muslim victim card” image would lay the foundation for future political and religious ambitions in the Balkans and of course Bosnia would be the stepping stone that would help the ambitions of people like Izetbegovic.

In an article written by Bojan Pancevski in The Sunday Times newspapers which is published in the United Kingdom he comments (Saudis fund Balkan Muslims spreading hate of the west – March 28, 2010) that “SAUDI ARABIA is pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into Islamist groups in the Balkans, some of which spread hatred of the West and recruit fighters for jihad in Afghanistan”.

The article continues by stating that “According to officials in Macedonia, Islamic fundamentalism threatens to destabilize the Balkans. Strict Wahhabi and Salafi factions funded by Saudi organisations are clashing with traditionally moderate local Muslim communities.”

Sources also reveal that “Classified documents seen by The Sunday Times reveal that Macedonian officials are also investigating a number of Islamic charities, some in Saudi Arabia, which are active throughout the Balkans and are suspected of spreading extremism and laundering money for terrorist organisations.”

The article also highlights the sinister reality of Saudi Arabia by stating that “Hundreds of millions have been poured into Macedonia alone in the past decade and most of it comes from Saudi Arabia,” said a government source. “The Saudis’ main export seems to be ideology, not oil.”

“The West has put considerable political and financial efforts into helping build democracy in Bosnia following its civil war in the 1990s. Saudi organizations have also asserted considerable influence, giving more than £450m to build more than 150 mosques and Islamic centres.”

Therefore, while Muslim nations and radical Islamic charities are spreading radical Islam in the Balkans you have the reality of Serbian Orthodox Christians in Kosovo being abandoned and clearly the Bosnian Serbian entity is not desired by America, the European Union or important Islamic nations.

In my article called Radical Islamic Charities and Jihad in the Balkans I highlight Vojin Joksimovich again because he states that“Bosnia established a successful model for embattled countries around the world: organizing, arming, and funding mujahideen units, skimming money from humanitarian charities, linking up with crime bosses including narco-terrorists, etc. Islamism both produces and profits from mayhem. Albeit to a much lesser magnitude, the Bosnian model was replicated later on in Kosovo, Southern Serbia and Macedonia. Al Qaeda and the Taliban found a route for the heroin trafficking from Afghanistan into Europe via the Balkans.” Page 150

I also commented in the same article that “….just like the rise of the Taliban and radical Islam in modern day southern Thailand and Pakistan, it is the role of the Islamic madrasas which must be eliminated and not merely contained. The role of Islamic charities must also be tackled because many are a gateway to spreading radical Islam and if this “gateway” is not stopped and challenged, then alongside religious Islamic educational institutions which are sponsored by Saudi nationals and others; then the spread of radical Islam will not be defeated.

It is clear that America and the European Union desires a unified Bosnia and Islamic elites within the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina are hoping that the Republic Srpska will be swallowed up.

Currently you have a Christian majority within all of Bosnia but the majority is slender and given the higher Muslim birthrate and the reality of what happened to the majority Christian population of Kosovo in history then the future looks bleak. In truth, if you look at history then it is nigh impossible to find a stable Muslim democratic nation where democracy flourished and where religious minorities also grew and had full equality within the legal system.

De-Christianization in Kosovo is a modern day reality when it applies to the Serbian Orthodox Christian community and this applies to the decreasing Serbian population, destruction of Christian churches, the eradication of Serbian architecture, and constant persecution and marginalization by the majority Muslim Albanian population.

The late Patriarch Pavle who sadly passed away in November, 2009, stated (http://kosovo.net) that “This humble publication is our cry and appeal to the Christian and civilized world. It is distressing to learn that in the year of the greatest Christian Jubilee, at the end of two millenniums of Christianity, Christian churches are still being destroyed, not in a war but in the time of peace guaranteed by the international community. We hope that these photos of the destroyed and desecrated Orthodox shrines will awaken the conscience of those who are able to stop the crimes and believe that they who already stood up against one evil will not remain just passive witnesses of another evil happening now in their presence.”

However, the same mass media which distorted the conflict is now the same mass media which is mainly silent about current events in Kosovo. Also, the Bosnian Serbian leadership in Republic Srpska is marginalized by the international community because Western nations prefer the Muslim elites in Sarajevo.

Maybe one day the Serbian Orthodox Christian community in Bosnia will face the same fate which befell their co-religionists in Kosovo. After all, Islamic nations and organizations are funding many Islamic institutions throughout the region and added to the higher Muslim birthrate and pro-American policies towards the Muslims of Bosnia and Kosovo then this could become a future reality.

What is clear is that time is not on the side of the Republic Srpska because either it will join with Serbia or become an independent state whereby Serbians will be guaranteed their freedom. Or it will be swallowed up by the American backed unitary Bosnian state under the Muslim elites of Bosnia and with the full backing of many Islamic nations.

If the latter happens and with the reality of the higher Muslim birthrate then in time the Serbian population will be further marginalized. Or at worse the Bosnian Serbs will face their “Kosovo Golgotha” and given the events of past history and the ongoing reality of de-Christianization of the Serbian Orthodox Christian community in Kosovo then this scenario is a clear possibility.

Lee Jay Walker

http://leejaywalker.wordpress.com

( This article is dedicated to Liz Milanovich who cares deeply about the plight of Christian Serbs in Kosovo and throughout the former Yugoslavia. Liz Milanovich helps me greatly by providing daily information.)