Military History | How To Make War | Wars Around the World Rules of Use How to Behave on an Internet Forum
Kosovo War Discussion Board
   Return to Topic Page
Subject: The UN shows its backbone - as usual - as Muslims run amok and burn churches down
swhitebull    3/19/2004 12:11:32 PM
From NationalReview, on the Muslim Kristelnacht: http://nationalreview.com/comment/krnjevicmiskovic200403190842.asp swhitebull
 
Quote    Reply

Show Only Poster Name and Title     Newest to Oldest
Big Bad Pariah    RE:The UN shows its backbone - as usual - as Muslims run amok and burn churches down   3/20/2004 2:57:27 AM
Muslim? This is a conflict along ethnic lines, not religious. Macedonia faced a similiar problem in 2001 when civil war broke out between ethnic Albanians and the Macedonian government.
 
Quote    Reply

swhitebull    BBP - seems you can't tell your religious players without a scorecard   3/20/2004 4:19:46 AM
...Muslim? This is a conflict along ethnic lines, not religious. Macedonia faced a similiar problem in 2001 when civil war broke out between ethnic Albanians and the Macedonian government... Don't you ever get tired of being proven WRONG by the posters on these boards - yetagain? You are as bad with your understanding of the complexity of the history and knowlege about the Balkans as you are on the Israeli economy - which I see you STILL havent responded to. Afraid to respond there to my post as well? You saw fit to accuse someone there of not knowing their economics, ya know. Yes, this is a conflict about ethnicity, but if you had read the article very carefully - which I doubt you did in your rush to point out "Where't the Muslim?" - you would ALSO have looked carefully at the names of the "ethnic Albanians" cited in the article. 90%+ of ethnic Albanians are MUSLIM - both from Albania proper, and from the lands around them to which they spread. It is as much a MUSLIM vs CHRISTIAN attack - which the author is too politically correct to overtly say - as it is along ethnic lines. However, I'm sure in your infinite wisdom you knew that already. Bottom line - ALBANIANS ARE MUSLIM. They were burning down CHURCHES, NOT synagogues or mosques. One of their goals is to destroy the RELIGIOUS heritage of the Serbians in the area - in which they are succeeding. http://www.sitesaver.org/preservation/kosovo.html http://www.kosovo.com/destruction.html swhitebull - know what you know, say what you know, but dont go talking about what you dont. The civil war in 2001 was just as much about religion as it was about ethnicity. I suggest you pick up a book such as Fine's Early and Later Medieval Balkan History if you really want to understand the origins of what this is all based upon. It's ALL about religion - except that it's not politically correct to say it - except by me - who calls them as I see them. Is there anything unclear about this?
 
Quote    Reply

swhitebull    RE:The UN shows its backbone - as usual - as Muslims run amok and burn churches down   3/20/2004 4:48:52 AM
From today's FYEO of StrategyPage. NOTE THE LAST PARAGRAPH: March 20, 2004: Beware the Ides of March in Kosovo– and a terrible spiral of violence that is a major setback for EU and NATO peacekeeping and nation building efforts in the Balkans. Here’s the big reason small incidents are escalating into a what is a major NATO crisis: Kosovar Serb anger at “low-level ethnic cleansing” by Albanian Kosovar gangsters has been rising for months. The other reason: Kosovar Albanians have fresh memories of mistreatment by the Serbs. Here’s the trail of events. On March 15 a gunman wounded an 18 year-old Kosovar Serb in a drive-by shooting outside the tow of Caglavica. On March 16, a contingent of Kosovar Serbs, angry at what they thought was slow police response, set up a road block outside Pristina. The Serbs asserted that the man who had wounded the Serb on March 16 was an Albanian. When UN police arrived at the roadblock, some Serbs started throwing stones. A UN cop was hurt in the incident. Kosovar Serbs then demanded better protection from the UN. The Kosovo government asked the public to remain calm and condemned the shooting. However, three Kosovar Albanian children were reported drowned on March 16 near the village of Cabra. A fourth boy said he was “pursued” by Kosovar Serbs. The three boys who drowned had tried to escape by crossing the Ibar River, which is swollen from spring floods. On March 17 a huge riot broke out in Mitrovica, site of a long string of “bridge confrontations.” Mitrovica is divided into Albanian and Serb sectors. Rioters from both sides met near the bridge. UN police also showed up. It was reported that a Serb fired an AK-47 and two Albanians responded with gunfire. When the shooting ended four people were dead. A subsequent report said that six people died after an “exchange of heavy gunfire” across the dividing line in Mitrovica. News of the Mitrovica riot spread throughout Kosovo and Serbia. What NATO sources now call “ethnic cleansing of Serbs” began against Kosovar Serb communities throughout the province. A total of 31 people died March 17-18 (no breakdown on ethnicity). NATO troops evacuated Serbs from several threatened neighborhoods. On March 18 KFOR ordered its troops to respond with “proportional force” when they encountered resistance. The UN Security Council condemned the Kosovo violence. The most articulate political statement was provided by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw (excerpt quoted by Radio Free Europe): "There are deep historic divisions, going back centuries, right across the Balkans, and many of these historic pressures are represented in the divided communities in Kosovo. Building nations is not an easy issue...what would have happened if we, in our backyard, had allowed that kind of ethnic cleansing, brutal genocidal slaughter to go on unchecked? There was in practice no alternative to us intervening in Kosovo. We were right to do it, and we're right to stay there.” On March 18 at least 17 Serbian Orthodox churches in Kosovo were set on fire. In the town of Lipjan, Kosovar Albanians threw grenades at Kosovar Serbs. After a firebomb was thrown at a church in neighboring Bosnia, the Bosnian government ordered extra security around religious buildings, in order to stave off the possible spread of trouble from Kosovo to Bosnia. Serb and Montenegrin officials claimed the spreading Kosovo violence was premeditated. One Serb official said the attacks were planned by Albanians to drive the Serbs out of Kosovo. Serbs in Serbia reportedly burned two mosques as a “reprisal” for the church burnings. One of the mosques attacked was a mosque in Belgrade dating from the 17th century. swhitebull - again, anything unclear about this?
 
Quote    Reply

Thomas2    RE:The UN shows its backbone - as usual - as Muslims run amok and burn churches down   3/20/2004 6:21:40 PM
Let me just say to the latest exchanges. The Danish parliament voted for a reinforcement of 96 troops to the Danish contingent of 350. Wednesday - they flew out Friday.
 
Quote    Reply

Big Bad Pariah    RE:The UN shows its backbone - as usual - as Muslims run amok and burn churches down   3/21/2004 8:34:59 AM
I am aware that the large majority of Albanians are muslim. Why do you feel the need to state the obvious? However, Albanians may consider themselves muslims but they aren't particulary religious considering religion was BANNED in Albania proper. Islam was also suppressed in the former Yugoslavia. As a result of this, most Albanians don't have a strong religious identity and are mainly secular. The title of your thread "as Muslims run amok and burn churches down" does not account for the crimes committed against Albanians by the Serbs. To label this as simply a 'holy war' of some sort is ignorant and not accurate considering the background of the conflict.
 
Quote    Reply

swhitebull    RE:The UN shows its backbone - as usual - as Muslims run amok and burn churches down   3/21/2004 8:55:52 AM
..I am aware that the large majority of Albanians are muslim. Why do you feel the need to state the obvious... Because its apparent that you fail to acknowlege the religious component in the conflict, which has as much relevance as ethnic lines. ...However, Albanians may consider themselves muslims but they aren't particulary religious considering religion was BANNED in Albania proper. Islam was also suppressed in the former Yugoslavia. As a result of this, most Albanians don't have a strong religious identity and are mainly secular.... I assume you unaware of the extent that Al-Qaeda has been recruiting in Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo among "ethnic" Albanians, who just happen to be Muslims and Jihadis? Since the fall of the Enver Xoxha regime, Islam has been FLOURISHING in Albanian, and they have been supporting and encouraging the expansion of Islam into the surrounding areas - Makedonia, Kosovo, and renewing ties with Muslim Bosnia. This flourishing of religion has occured EVERYWHERE in the world where it has been formerly suppressed, and then removed - whether it has been the former Soviet Union, all the Muslim 'stans in the former Soviet Union, Iraq, etc. To claim that since it was repressed under Xoxha in Albania, and in the former Yugoslavia, but isnt flourishing now indicates to me that you havent done your research. Again, it's apparent that your knowlege is woefully outdated, there being a STRONG resurgence in Muslim religious identity. I would suggest checking up on your current history. SO again, why would Al-Qaeda be recruiting among religious secularists? Not the most fertile ground for filling their ranks, is it? You go where the bodies are in order to make recruiting as easy as possible. The Albanians, Kosovars and Bosnians HAVE INDEED seen a religious resurgence, with all that entails, INCLUDING jihadi fanatics. Check out MEMRI.org, if you have no understanding of this. SO again, I make the claim that in addition to ethnicity, RELIGION PLAYS JUST AS IMPORTANT, if not MORE IMPORTANT a part, in the torchings of Serbian religious shrines, icons and churches. TO claim otherwise is either naive on your part, or your lacking in knowlege, or hostility to something that just doesnt fit into your neat little view of the conflict- I presume you've studied it extensively, right? Just like the Israeli economy? swhitebull
 
Quote    Reply

Thomas    RE:The UN shows its backbone - as usual - as Muslims run amok and burn churches down   3/22/2004 5:52:53 AM
Excuse me, but I don't think ANYBODY has been able to understand the Balkans.
 
Quote    Reply

swhitebull    Wrong War, Wrong Time, Wrong Wrong Wrong   10/20/2004 1:55:41 PM
How The Democrats - supported by John Kerry - destroyed Serbian Kosovo to support Islamic terrorists: http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15577 swhitebull
 
Quote    Reply

Schackleford    Islamification of the Balkans   6/5/2005 5:45:12 AM
The underlying theme of the break up of Jugoslavia was Muslims trying to decimate and destroy all other cultures in the Balkans. Surely the Serbians and Croats had their share of the blame, but it was the muslims (Albanians and Bosnians backed by Turkey and Iran) who took the initiative. Slobodan Milosevic started as a secular quasi-socialist who sincerely believed that national unity should be put above cultural identity. He turned 180 degrees, becoming a Serbian nationalist, when he saw how his fellow Kosovo Serbs were treated by the Muslim Albanians. In the following war, Bosnians and to a lesser extent Albanians, received weapons and funding from fellow Muslims in Turkey and Iran. Jihadists flocked to Bosnia by the thousands, forming an entire brigade in the newly-formed Bosnian Army. All this proves beyond dispute that what happened in Yugoslavia was not a civil war along ethnic lines but a truly global clash of civilizations as envisioned by Samuel P. Huntington.
 
Quote    Reply



 Latest
 News
 
 Most
 Read
 
 Most
 Commented
 Hot
 Topics