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In this Jihad Watch exclusive, Julia Gorin discusses yet another fruitless search for that ever-elusive unicorn, a genuine and broad-based moderate Islam:
In my fellow conservatives’ desperation to find a country that doesn’t hate America, and in the universal struggle to find a truly moderate Muslim population, articles and blog posts such as this one by Michael Totten, shamefully in Commentary magazine online, become ubiquitous.It’s titled “This is a Kosovar Muslim” and has a picture of an elderly Albanian man wearing a “USA” sweatshirt with an American flag on it:
I'm writing this from the capital of Kosovo, the least “scary” Muslim country on Earth…Kosovo is surprising even to me. Islam in this country is so thoroughly liberal (“moderate” doesn't quite cover it) that, if it weren't for the mosques, there would be no visible evidence that Kosovo is a Muslim country at all…Bosnia notoriously welcomed thousands of Salafist mujahideen fighters from the Arab world during Yugoslavia's violent demise. But the Kosovo Liberation Army brusquely told them to stay the hell out of their country--even while they faced an ethnic cleansing campaign directed from Belgrade. [They didn’t.]…
American flags are on sale at kiosks everywhere. They fly in front of government buildings. The world's second largest replica of the Statue of Liberty sits atop the five star Hotel Victory. The largest street downtown was renamed Bill Clinton Boulevard…Clinton is rightly hailed as a liberator, but one resident told me “We are Republicans here in Kosovo.” They want a strong American President who won't back down from commitments. Just a few short blocks from Bill Clinton Boulevard is the Israeli Odyssea Bakery. It is not just a Jewish bakery, but an Israeli bakery owned and operated by an actual Israeli.
As with everyone else who has deigned to finally write about Kosovo now that it’s back in the headlines, Totten sees only what’s on the surface, because he didn’t bother following Kosovo from 1999 on (not to mention pre-1999). Yes, Albanians are pro-American, thanks to our distinctly un-American operation on their behalf. The last time someone expanded Albania for them, Albanians were so grateful that they formed two Nazi divisions to show their appreciation, rounding up Jews for Bergen-Belsen, and killing Serbs. Before that, they converted to Islam to benefit from Ottoman patronage, get higher status and get the upper hand over the Slavs. Albanians will be whatever they have to be, and the love is always conditional.
As I wrote in an article titled “The Pro-American Terrorists” and in another titled “Why Do They Love Us?”: Whoever secures more land for Albanians--in the current case a second country (while Jews still struggle for just one)--that’s whom they’ll love. So now we’re their patrons. Ottomans. Nazis. USA (along with Saudi Arabia and UAE). Which means that just as there is a Clinton mural in Kosovo, there is also a Hitler diner and a “bin Laden Mosque” (dubbed as such because of all the photos of bin Laden that adorned its walls until the Americans complained).
Totten further reveals his credentials as an imposter to this issue when he writes that the “Kosovo Liberation Army brusquely told [mujahedeen] to stay the hell out of their country--even while they faced an ethnic cleansing campaign directed from Belgrade.”
The ever-present use of State Department-issued language concerning “ethnic cleansing directed from Belgrade” aside (and please note that when it comes to any discussion of Kosovo, there is no variation from government to media to art), the KLA did in fact have Islamist help. Bin Laden co-financed, co-trained and co-fought with the KLA. Even the Brooklyn-based gun smuggler Florin Krasniqi listed al Qaeda as among those helping his KLA in a PBS-aired documentary (2005), saying that he would have worked “with the devil” too. Just as Totten’s article was being published the other day, al Qaeda-linked Kuwaitis were admitting that they were also fighting in Kosovo, in addition to every other kind of mujahed—one of whom told a journalist in 1999, “This is my eighth jihad.” As one National Guard source recently told me, the jihadists come and go as they please.
But I would certainly be interested in seeing some documentation for the notion that Totten conjured up of KLA telling the mujahedeen to “stay the hell out of their country.” I’d like to see even something quoting an Albanian leader, an “ex” KLA fighter or international administrator making this up, but Totten naturally offers zero documentation in his Commentary blog post, which reads like a ventriloquist act to anyone who has heard it all before—from Albanians.
To understand how things work in Kosovo and surrounding areas, Totten needs a heavy dose of Chris Deliso’s book The Coming Balkan Caliphate, from which he would glean that the Albanians have an “arrangement” with the fundamentalists that goes like this: If your boys touch the internationals here--who are giving us what we need--we will kill them. Tell them to keep their heads low, and they can continue to operate in the region.
While Albanians are slowly reawakening to Islam after a communist slumber, Kosovo is filling with mosques and is the center of al Qaeda heroin-trafficking. In case anyone ever seeks to question why U.S. leaders and the State Dept. sabotaged Serbian-Albanian negotiations at every turn, using absolutist language throughout (e.g. “Independence is the only option”), he or she will find that we were responding to the perpetual threat of violence by the Albanian leadership, our new “friend”. Of course, the Albanian leadership does not mean all Albanians, but even those Albanians who don’t have blood on their hands are all too happy to accept their independent Kosovo/Greater Albania however the KLA managed and bludgeoned to win it. They take their goodies from whoever is handing them out, and however they can get them.
Meanwhile, the receptiveness that the jihadists have found among young Albanians (like young Bosnians) to fundamentalism isn't unlike the void that Islam is filling in millions of young people everywhere. But the point is that our intervention opened that floodgate, and we continue down the same road even post-9/11. Instead of promoting multi-culturalism, we promoted the most radical elements, ethnic supremacy and a victim mentality that ultimately seeks out the old faith. And that faith is making inroads in Kosovo with access it didn’t have before 1999. (Just look at how surprised the famous shill for Balkan Muslims, Stephen Schwartz, was on this bus trip.)
Totten goes on to assert not only Albanians’ pro-Americanism, but their pro-Semitism:
Accomplished businessman and practicing Muslim Luan Berisha told me that 90 percent of Kosovars support Israel in the Arab-Israeli conflict. I don't know if that's really true. But if so it means Kosovo is more pro-Israel than even the United States…No one in any Arabic country would say such a thing. Kosovo sharply contrasts also with nearby Serbia on this question, where General Wesley Clark is seen as a sinister Jewish figure who plotted Belgrade's destruction, and where Saddam Hussein was considered an ally.Forced into dealing with countries that weren’t part of the Western-led sanctions, boycotts and bombings against it, Serbia was isolated and had few options. Hence the dealings with Saddam Hussein, who was our ally as well when we needed him. While Wesley Clark is rightfully hated in Serbia, Israel is supported and, as Yohanan Ramati, Chairman of Jerusalem Institute for Western Defense, wrote in the Jerusalem Post in 1995, “Israelis are still liked and welcomed.” There was good reason that Israel was against the bombing of Serbia and was providing covert assistance to Belgrade even while providing humanitarian aid to “Kosovars”.
For years, Serbia continued to face Westward despite our crimes against it, even offering troops for Afghanistan and Iraq. But having dug ourselves into a hole, we continued to dig—and continued to kick Serbia’s teeth in. Whatever geo-strategic advantages and goals we’ve managed to carve out of our disastrous 1990s errors (quietly admitted to here and there), at least as much could have been accomplished working with our WWI and WWII ally, Serbia, which also has an incredible intelligence apparatus and had good border security in Kosovo until we dismantled it. (Recall it was Serbia that caught a key suspect in the Madrid bombings 16 months after the attack--as he transited untouched through Europe, most likely on his way to Kosovo or Bosnia, writes Deliso.)
While Totten is in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, he should look around and ask himself why it’s so pristinely Albanian. And while showing us “This is a Kosovar Muslim,” he should remember that so was one of the Fort Dix Six planning to massacre American soldiers—and three others were Albanian Muslims from western Macedonia, a.k.a. Greater Kosovo. Indeed, Totten’s timing on this post couldn’t be better, as today is the one-year anniversary of the arrests that should have been America’s red light on Kosovo independence.
Too bad conservatives can’t distinguish themselves from the Democrats and other appeasers on this front.
Posted by Robert at May 8, 2008 10:35 AM
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Looking for the proverbial needle in the hay stack. Really these so called Moderate Muslims do not exist it is a phenomenon that someone came up with so that they can some how write of the madness perpetrated by the jihadi Muslims. The ones that do not carry out violence still support the Jihad by money, silence, and other stealth means of spreading Islam.
Posted by: savsiv![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 8, 2008 11:06 AM
Spot on.
Moderate Muslim is a myth and a trap for musticulties and apologists.
The best jihadi is a dead one.
The next best is the one captured and facing permanent incarceration.
How's that for moderate ?
But it's the truth.
Posted by: dgene at May 8, 2008 11:11 AM
-that should be 'misty eyed culties' or 'multiculties' or 'multiculturalists'.
(just talking about these fools brings tears (of laughter) to one's eyes)
Posted by: dgene at May 8, 2008 11:15 AM
mujahed—one of whom told a journalist in 1999, “This is my eighth jihad.”
What was in the eyes of the jihadist who spoke to the journalist? Was it pride in his achievement or frustration that he was still here and not in Paradise?
Posted by: PMK at May 8, 2008 11:26 AM
Totten needs to look up "Potemkin Village", and then substitute "Caliphate" for the second word in the phrase, to understand how he was snookered.
As fish can be caught with rubber worms, thinkers of his caliber can be suckered with a few American flags and a token Israeli gesture.
Keep chewing, Mr. Totten.
You'll find the crescent-shaped hook eventually.
Posted by: profitsbeard at May 8, 2008 11:27 AM
We've supported the creation of a religious apartheid nation-state using NATO as an aggressor. Violent rebel movements worldwide support our newly found principles. We prove our hypocrisy by claiming the "territorial integrity" of Kosovo is sacrosanct thereby condemning the remaining Serbs to dhimmitude, church desecrations, life under seige, and eventual destruction.
All the Orthodox Christians think it's 1204 or 1389 all over again as we triangluate our way to Greater Albania, the stauchest of Hitler's WWII allies. Yeesh.
This is all a vain attempt to make ourselves out to be good pawns of our Saudi masters.
And we're paying through the nose for it every time we buy gas.
Posted by: Beagle at May 8, 2008 11:53 AM
A moderate muslim is an apostate. The thought is the father of the deed. Something that is already perfect cannot be questioned, not even in thought.
Disbelief/apostasy is brought on by thinking, then action. Have you ever tried to shut off your thoughts? Just as you think you have done it, you have failed. This is what happens to Islamic moderates, as soon as they think they are moderate, they are no longer Islamic, they are apostates.
This is why you only get straight answers from apostates. With Muslim moderates what you get is taqiyya in one strength or another. Which means they are not moderates at all...There may be muslims who appear to be moderate, but clinging to the radical ideology that they are a slave to, gives them away...
at May 8, 2008 12:31 PM
Any more news on that appalling possibility that young Serbs had their organs harvested and were then killed?
Perhaps the author could look into that one.
Posted by: Celsius at May 8, 2008 1:06 PM
I never realized why the US stepped in where the Europeans feared to tread--even under the guidance of NATO. This story needs to be given greater press.
Thanks for the time to put this together Robert.
Posted by: lonewolf at May 8, 2008 1:10 PM
Robert for Secretary of State!
Posted by: Charles Martel at May 8, 2008 1:30 PM
The list of useful idiots concerning islam is long. Totten is one; Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, who helped popularize Totten, is another. My advice to these & other opinion-makers who haven't studied islam & its history in depth is: Keep your opinions about any topic related to islam, such as trying to make the case for a tolerant kosovo, to yourself. You mislead people, and create false impressions. And in this epic struggle against islam, with the very survival of Western Civilization hanging in the balance, the stakes are too high for you to make ill-informed pronouncements about islam.
Posted by: sheik yer booty at May 8, 2008 1:38 PM
BTW, there are many sorts of moderate Muslims especially in 'the West,' or the House of War more precisely. Ali Eteraz and Resa Aslan are conducting da'wa and dissimulation warfare just as surely as jihadis (sorry, stateless actors, er, random murderers, serial informal soldiers named Mohammed mostly, ah...) are trying to kill us. I wondered about Eteraz until his latest in the Guardian. He's clearly in the deny and da'wa business.
Moderate Muslims, unfortunately, if we're honest, includes the entire pool of potential future jihadis, those who financially support, and those who run legal/journalistic interference for those who engage in qital, or combat for allah. Yes, jihad means more than combat, like supporting the spread of Islam and the mujahideen with your money and tongue.
Imams have been too enthusiastic in noting how much terrorism improves da'wa, don't you think?
at May 8, 2008 1:47 PM
American/EU involvement in Kosovo makes sense only if you look for the underlying geostrategic reasons. Clinton/Bush and their European equivalents couldn't care less about political correctness, or currying favor with the Left. Rather, the main focus has been to inject a forward NATO presence in the Balkans. Camp Bond Steel, created in the 1990s in SE Kosovo, is the largest military base the US has created since Vietnam. Considerations of culture/national identity/religion were brushed aside in favor of political/military expediency.
Why did we go to such great lengths to establish a strong military presence in Kosovo? As a giant WPA project? Hardly. Having such a presence does two things: (a) provides a forward operating base close to Russia, and (b) provides security for the pipeline projected to run from the Caspian sea to albania shipping ports on the Adriatic. Remember when Bush visited Albania last year and was celebrated as a hero? What do you suppose that was all about? We made a deal with the devil to be able to gain a military foothold in that region, and we stabbed Serbia in the back in the process.
Posted by: Eastview at May 8, 2008 2:40 PM
Forced into dealing with countries that weren’t part of the Western-led sanctions, boycotts and bombings against it, Serbia was isolated and had few options. Hence the dealings with Saddam Hussein, who was our ally as well when we needed him. While Wesley Clark is rightfully hated in Serbia, Israel is supported and, as Yohanan Ramati, Chairman of Jerusalem Institute for Western Defense, wrote in the Jerusalem Post in 1995, “Israelis are still liked and welcomed.” There was good reason that Israel was against the bombing of Serbia and was providing covert assistance to Belgrade even while providing humanitarian aid to “Kosovars”.Gorin does a good job dismantling the canard that Serbia is anti-Semitic, and puts their anti-Western stance in good context.
I just wish Russia would be more assertively supportive of Belgrade.
Posted by: Infidel Pride at May 8, 2008 2:47 PM
A good book on the area, though written before World War II, is "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon," by Rebecca West.
Another good one is by Ivo Andric -- his doctoral disserttion -- on the effect of Turksih rule on Serbian culture.
The fears raised among Serbs by Izetbegovic's declaration that he wanted to bring back and impose Shari'a are still, apparently, not understood in the West. Perhaps the word "devshirme" -- if investigated -- can help. And another word to keep in mind is "Jasenovac." And still another phrase to think about is the "Bosnian S.S." for which Izetbegovic as a boy served as a recruiter.
Yes, start there, with "devshirme" and "Jasenovac."
As for the query in a posting above -- "Any more news on that appalling possibility that young Serbs had their organs harvested and were then killed?" -- the former Swiss Attorney General Carla Del Ponte, hardly regarded as soft on Serbians (she has been a prosecutor at The Hague war crimes trials that have focussed unduly on Serbs), has written a book in which she discusses this charge, offers evidence, and concludes that the charge is very likely true.
For more simply google "Carla Del Ponte" and "Wikipedia."
at May 8, 2008 5:50 PM
Mr. Totten drives completely off the rails in this latest apologia for Jihad. At some point in the past I enjoyed reading his frontline accounts of war in Iraq, but began to notice a decided bias in his reporting. He seemed consistently determined to occlude the role of Islam and explain away the centrality of Arabic culture in the hideous backwardness he observed in Iraq. Perhaps he's one of those completely taken in by the offers of sweet tea and feigned Arab hospitality, like many before him.
Periodically he allows himself to wonder if the fact he's side by side with heavily armed US Marines might have something to do with the fawning kindnesses he's the recipient of, but always seems to conclude that the Arabs of Iraq are just that nice, that they're simply hapless victims of circumstance.
He recently showed himself to be a complete naïf viz. Islam and the newly minted Jihadi mini-state of Kosovo by suggesting it's the "Israel of the Balkans". The comparison is revolting and wrong-headed in so many aspects, some of which are dessected above. He's clearly clueless as to what he's been witnessing all along.
Posted by: jsla at May 8, 2008 6:34 PM
There are no "Kosovars". Muslims in Kosovo are Albanians, 50% of whom are illegal immigrants from Albania.
"Kosovo is our past and it is your future"
Serbian Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic
at May 8, 2008 6:39 PM
Just from personal experience.
The picture of the old man loving America and featuring a moderate Muslim from ALbania is a real one
It used to be like that. I met in NYC 18 years ago, an Albanian activist , a close friend from the king of ALbania. He was old , sick and had left his country to flee communism and practice Islam.For a while . he followed his king and finally came to Ny.
In his home, no veiled woman , men and women were sitting together at the same table.
I listened to the words of the old man.
His words were wise, his heart was bleeding for his homeland and he expressed a huge admiration for America.
He knew he would never been able to see his country again because he was "wanted" overthere.
Among the guest , was a young fellow whose father was the old man's close friend.
The old man requested a private meeting with the young fellow.
After the meeting, the old man called the young fellow 's father and told him
"I don't like your son. He has a dangerous mind. He is on the wrong side of the street.
He is not one of us He is an extremist. totally crazy"
Yes . the old school of ALbanian Muslims was moderate but IT IS GONE and has been gone for a while AND WILL NEVER COME BACK.
at May 9, 2008 9:43 AM
Well, I recently visited Kosova, and have to say I was quite surprised.
The people were overall friendly, but I got spit at, even by kids who saw me passing by (I have an Asian look). I had lunch at the homes of some locals (a Muslim, a Christian, a Catholic). The one at the Muslim home was tense, but they were friendly. The other two were nice.
I hardly see a hijab, but my translator, who is a Muslim, said that there is an increasing presence of Wahabbis (which he pointed out to me when we passed some of them on the road). One day, while walking along the streets, there was this middle-age women dressed in pretty decent Muslim clothes and wearing a hijab. All of a sudden, she turned around, and stretched out her palm towards us. She pan-handled! I had to say I forgot how to react.
People are norminally Muslims... on one lunch-time, I walked on the streets and passed a mosque, and it was prayer-time. I saw some old people entering the mosque and a few young people. The rest of the people (which is a huge crowd) were carrying out their business and talking on the road-side, all the while the loud-speakers were blaring the prayers.
I had many opportunities to talk to the locals... there was little joy in their faces. They said their govt is corrupt, and they see little future in their country... even though they love it.
So... Kosovar Albanians are mostly moderate and many are not mostly practicing Muslims. The increasing presence of the Wahabbis, as my translator pointed out, is a big concern.
Posted by: yaqub at May 9, 2008 1:47 PM
Celsius,
Here's an update Re: organ harvesing:
Despite the US & EUrabia effort to suppress the truth on Kosovo, it is slowly coming out.
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
Posted by: Enragedsince1999 at May 9, 2008 7:08 PM
Something that should be remembered.
At the moment, anyway, there is a substantial Christian presence in Albania proper. Please, everybody, DO NOT FORGET that there are Christians in Albania! Some Albanians are Christians!
The CIA factbook says (2008) that the religious breakdown is as follows - "Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10% " but it adds, "percentages are estimates; there are no available current statistics on religious affiliation; all mosques and churches were closed in 1967 and religious observances prohibited; in November 1990, Albania began allowing private religious practice".
My own source, a Christian factbook and prayer guide, 'OperationWorld', 2001, gives very different proportions, possibly in part because, unlike the CIA, it includes a category of 'non-religious' (I assume these are included among 'Muslims' by the CIA). It says thus: 41 % Christian [24 % Orthodox, 16.7 % Catholic, a small but growing group of Protestants, each group listed as INCREASING in numbers, some at quite a rate], Muslim 38.79 %, increasing [but at a SLOWER rate than the Christians!], about 20 % nonreligious [former Marxists, etc; legacy of Hoxha's atheism campaign], and a few Bahai and Jews.
There is an Albanian Evangelical Alliance representing the evangelical protestant groups. The Bible in both dialects of Albanian - Gheg and Tosk - has been circulating; so has the 'Jesus' film, an earnest and literal rendering of the Gospel of Luke; there are local Christian radio stations.
One should note that the Christian groups, especially missionary-minded bodies, have access to some sources of local information that the CIA may not take into account. I would also add that the 'Operation World' people do NOT make a practice of inflating numbers of Christians.
Either way - whether Albania is 40% Christian or 30% Christian, this is not a negligible number.
Rather than 'writing off' Albania and the Albanians as 'lost' to Islam, or as inherently evil, I would advise Christians of all stripes - Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox - to unite and pour energy and resources into encouraging and assisting the Albanian Christians, and helping them not just to withstand Muslim pressure, socially, economically and politically, but to CONVERT the Muslims. Radio broadcasts and audio recordings of Bible recitations are particularly effective. Saturate the air waves with winsome alternatives to Islam.
Christianity permits music of all kinds and uses it, while Islam, especially the Saudi variety now being peddled in Albania, rejects or devalues music; Christianity honours local languages and mother tongues, Islam devalues them in order to exalt Arabic. Therefore, Christianity has two ways of attracting people that Islam simply has not.
Turn Albania proper - break the deathgrip of Islam on the Muslims there - and you have a chance of rescuing from Islam the other Albanian populations, in Kosovo and Macedonia, which in turn releases their neighbours.
Want to save Europe from Islam? - among other things, donate to the work of the Bible Society in Albania, Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at May 9, 2008 11:53 PM
Thank you for that excellent post, Dumbledore.
Posted by: Eastview at May 10, 2008 1:10 AM
good article as usual from Julia Gorin. Can anyone figure out why littlegreenfootballs, which links to jihadwatch is an apologist site for balkan jihadists?
I've been banned from lgf repeatedly for stating nothing other than truth on these issues.
It's VERY fishy.
Posted by: jimbob22 at May 10, 2008 7:42 PM
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