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After publishing this story I got a number of form emails, some in true form email fashion addressed not to Jihad Watch but to other sites that had published it. They protested that it was full of various inaccuracies -- and the emails, though they came from different senders, were all the same. Now the American Council for Kosovo has addressed these allegations:
WASHINGTON, June 6, 2006 – As part of its mission to promote a better American understanding of the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija, the American Council for Kosovo supports dissemination of accurate information concerning Muslim Albanian violence against Christian Serbs and their churches and monasteries. The American Council for Kosovo commends Cliff Kincaid for his essay “Christians Under Siege in Kosovo” (June 1, 2006), in which he explains a “foreign policy disaster in the making,” as jihad terrorist and criminal elements push for an independent Islamic state.In his essay, published by Accuracy in Media, an independent media watchdog organization unconnected to any side in the dispute over Kosovo’s future, Mr. Kincaid quoted Fr. Keith Roderick of Christian Solidarity International, a Christian human rights organization for religious liberty. Fr. Roderick, who visited Kosovo following the March 2004 riots during which Muslim Albanians destroyed and desecrated 35 Orthodox Christian churches, serves on the Advisory Board of the American Council for Kosovo.
As soon as Mr. Kincaid’s essay was published it was subjected to what appears to have been an organized effort to discredit the accurate information contained in it. Specifically, it has been suggested in mass e-mailings that Mr. Kincaid was incorrect in asserting that by indicating their possible support for Kosovo independence “the U.S. and the United Nations are helping allies of Muslim terrorists come to power in Kosovo.”In an effort to discredit Mr. Kincaid’s accurate description of the jihad terror that threatens Kosovo’s Christians, it has been asserted that “Catholics [in Kosovo] are not endangered by Albanians (who themselves are more than 15% Catholics).” The testimony of Kosovo’s late Roman Catholic Bishop, Mark Sopi, is cited.
However, Mr. Kincaid is entirely correct in his observations and his critics are wrong. According to the same Bishop Sopi, as of 2001* Kosovo’s Roman Catholics numbered only 60,000 out of a population of some two million Albanians – and of these (again, according to Bishop Sopi) some 40,000 were living abroad! That is, even if all of the remaining 20,000 Roman Catholic Christians in Kosovo were Albanians, they would constitute only one percent of the total ethnic Albanian population in the Serbian province. (In fact, there are still a number of Catholic Croats living in Kosovo, almost all of them living in Serbian enclaves to avoid attacks by Muslim Albanians, so the percentage of Albanian Catholics in Kosovo undoubtedly is well below one percent.)
Criticism of Mr. Kincaid by citing Albanian Muslims’ alleged tolerance of Albanian Catholics, while justifying violence perpetrated against Orthodox Christian Serbs and their holy places, is unfortunately all-too-typical of some minority Christians in majority-Islamic countries and ethnic groups who seek protection by adopting the radical agenda of their Muslim compatriots. For example, in the 1960s and 1970s, when the Palestinian movement was primarily nationalist and even communist, Palestinian Christians were often even more extreme than Muslim Palestinians in their terrorist zeal against Israel. This phenomenon was epitomized by the founder and leader of the ultra-radical terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, George Habash, who was from an Orthodox Christian family. But as the Palestinian movement evolved in the 1980s and 1990s from secular nationalism to jihadism, the relevance of such efforts was ceded to Islamic terrorist groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.The end result has been a growing emigration of Palestinian Christians, who in many places are nearing extinction.
The almost complete disappearance of Albanian Catholics in Kosovo fits the same pattern. The fact that some Albanian Catholics (including some who are not from Kosovo at all) suggest that an independent Kosovo, illegally detached from Serbia, would be anything but a jihad terrorist rogue state are engaged in a deception. Or perhaps they are only fooling themselves.* Guerre etniche: Una Fatalita -- Un esempio: IL Kosovo,by Enzo Dalla Pellegrina, edited by Caritas Vicenza 2001 (in Italian); facsimile available from the American Council for Kosovo. (“In Kosovo ci sono 60.000 cattolici, ma di questi 40.000 sono all’estero.”)
Posted by Robert at June 7, 2006 9:44 AM
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Since the year 2000 alone, in the full light of history and the world's press, all over the world, a series of unrelenting attacks by Muslims on the religious sites and monuments and works of art important to Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and those who are interested in the collective artistic heritage.
Here's Ten:
1. 35 Orthodox churches in Kosovo.
2. Attacks on the World Heritage sites Ajanta and Ellora in India.
3. Destruction of Joseph's Tomb in Israel.
4. Burning of churches in France during the assorted Muslim riots.
5. Vandaliism of church and public statuary in Italy and France. One recalls Oriana Fallaci describing the Muslims who urinated all over the "Gates of Paradise" -- the Baptistery doors of Ghiberti in Florence)
5. Destruction, by the Muslim-run government, of a 100-year-old Hindu temple destroyed in Kuala Lumbpur.
6. Destruction of hundreds of churches each year in Indonesia, especially in the Moluccas.
7. Burning of of churches by Muslims in northern Nigeria during riots.
8. Destruction of the 1,500-year-old Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, that had survived only because the Muslims for a long time did not possess the means (large amounts of dynamimte) nor the expertise (supplied by Saudi and Pakistani "engineers")
9. Attacks on Buddhist temples in southern Thailand.
10. Destruction of an ancient Armenian cemetery -- seemingly simply erased from the face of the earth -- by Muslim Azeris in territory now part of Azerbaijan.
Posted by: Hugh![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 7, 2006 10:13 AM
OT but important (and chilling)
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1149572635030&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Jun. 7, 2006 18:19 | Updated Jun. 7, 2006 18:43
Ramle: 'Honor killing' caught on tape
A 26-year-old resident of Ramle was indicted in the Tel Aviv District Court on Wednesday on charges of murdering his 24-year-old sister Miriam by stabbing her 29 times.
Basel Abu-Dahal was caught on tape by security cameras at a parking lot of Bank Hapoalim in Ramle two weeks ago. In the footage, he is seen stabbing his sister while passers-by witness the act and do nothing. He is then seen calmly walk away carrying the knife (see images).
According to the indictment, Abu-Dahal, a former felon, stabbed his sister with a 23-centimeter knife. In his interrogation, he admitted to the stabbing, claiming he perpetrated the crime because of what he claimed was the improper way in which his sister had raised her daughter.
A passerby found Miriam and alerted the paramedics who were unable to resuscitate her. Abu-Dahal was apprehended nearby with blood stains on his clothes after citizens called the police saying they saw a man chase a woman with a knife.
In his interrogation, Abu-Dahal said he had committed the act because of "honor," stressing that he was "willing to do the time for the sake of honor."
'Honor killings' are a phenomena in Arab communities in which women are murdered by their relatives because the family believes that the woman's actions have besmirched the family honor.
Of the 15 'family honor' murders known to police committed in 2005, three occurred in Ramle.
at June 7, 2006 12:27 PM
Hello Ben-Hur,
The shocking persistence of honor killings in societies deeply immersed in Islamic culture is in marked contrast to the attitude of even early Israel.
Jacob's (Israel's) daughter Dinah was raped by Shechem. His father, an honorable pagan, immediately went to Jacob and proposed a settlement: his son would marry Dinah at whatever bride price was demanded, no matter how high, and he would allow Israel to settle in his territory and conclude an alliance most favorable to Israel. Jacob agreed, but his sons insisted that all the males in Shechem's clan be circumcised. They agreed. Then they were all murdered while unable to fight back due to their recent surgery. Jacob was deeply offended by the violation of the alliance and his word and that his sons had dared to steal all the property of the murdered men. So grieved was he by his sons' indefensible behavior motivated by the "honor" of their sister that he cursed the perps (Simeon and Levi) on his death bed! Though some features of the story are troubling in the context of present day Jewish and Christian ethics (bride price, no punishment for the rapist), the marked difference between very early Israelite sources and what passes for ethics in Islamic societies even today should be evident to all.
Posted by: Tom at June 7, 2006 1:41 PM
The Milosovich led Serbs went overboard but I have always been on their side. I never side with Muslims and their Jihadist imperialism. I've read much about the events in Kosovo since we (USA) bombed the Serbs and feel bad that we helped the Muslim side there. Clinton/Albright were in full suck up mode to Islam
Posted by: dennisw at June 7, 2006 2:09 PM
Albanian Catholics are just like their Arab counterparts, the Arab Christians, but more specifically, the "Palestinian" "Christians". They will shill for the Muslims as long as it is expedient for them and as long as it is to the detriment to their rivals, the Orthodox Serbs. Much like the "Palestinian" "Christians", they place their ethnicity above their religion and they will go along with any "Greater" Albania ideology if it serves as a check on Serbian power. Reject these guys, and don't weep about their declining numbers in their homeland because they brought it upon themselves.
Posted by: igor at June 7, 2006 2:34 PM
In the end I think the Serbs should eventually give up Kosovo. If they won't, the Albanians will become a majority in Serbia within a couple of decades because of their higher fertility rate.
I'm sure that the Serbs don't want that, so it is wiser to give up on the demographic jihad this time.
Posted by: Saatanan Islam at June 7, 2006 3:31 PM
"In the end I think the Serbs should eventually give up Kosovo. If they won't, the Albanians will become a majority in Serbia within a couple of decades because of their higher fertility rate.
I'm sure that the Serbs don't want that, so it is wiser to give up on the demographic jihad this time."
-- from a posting above
This same idea -- that one keeps giving up territory, and then more territory, and then still more territory, in order to preserve one's own identity -- is what now motivates the muddled Mr. Olmert. Such people fail to see that when they give up, give up anything, they encourage Muslim triumphalism, and the demands are never dropped. They continue, with greater force and assurance, than before. There is no end to this.
If the Serbians hold onto Kosovo, and are supported by outside Infidels, and remain sure of themselves, sure enough to procreate, sure enough to do nothing to make life easy for Muslims, sure enough, if the physical insecurity becomes too great from a Muslm presence, to simply remove that threat as Benes and Masaryk had ini 1946 dealt with the threat that they, and the Czechs whom they led, felt was posed by the Sudeten Germans, whose behavior in the late 1930s, and through the war, was all the evidence that was needed.
Posted by: Hugh at June 7, 2006 3:47 PM
I understand that giving up territory is immediately considered a major victory by the triumphalist muslims. However, Kosovo is almost 90 per cent Albanian as it is and the situation in Serbia proper is not nearly as bad.
If the Kosovo independence is to happen, the problems are far greater in the neighboring Macedonia than in Serbia. In Macedonia roughly 25 per cent of the population are ethnic Albanians and if the demographic trends are anything like in Kosovo, the Macedonians (who are actually Bulgarians who speak slightly different dialect) will have to face the reality very soon.
And some of us remember that the ethnic Albanians caused a lot of problems in Macedonia after Kosovo was "pacified" by NATO bombings.
If (or when) Kosovo turns out to be a failed state like most of the predominantly muslim countries tend to become, it is far easier to deal with a separate country than try to combat Jihad violence within your own borders.
Posted by: Saatanan Islam at June 7, 2006 4:07 PM
Saatanan Islam the reason the Albanians are a majority is because they are allowed to immigrate to wherever they want while there are restrictions on everyone else. Enough Serbs were ethnically cleansed from Croatia and Bosnia. The refugees if allowed to take their province back can make it majority serb again. If people keep on ceding territory once muslims get a majority they will be encouraged to keep up this tactic. I honestly belive the province should be split. At least 50/50. Muslims should leave the serb side and serbs will go the other way. The holy sites must remain serbian. The serb republic in Bosnia must be able to join serbia and leave Bosnia. Also Croatia should prove its multi ethnic allow serbs to go back to their homes in croatia and get some kind of autonomy or they should give up land too.
Posted by: pissedoffcanadian at June 7, 2006 5:36 PM
Hugh wrote: "that one keeps giving up territory, and then more territory, and then still more territory, in order to preserve one's own identity -- is what now motivates the muddled Mr. Olmert. Such people fail to see that when they give up, give up anything, they encourage Muslim triumphalism, and the demands are never dropped. They continue, with greater force and assurance, than before. There is no end to this."
Amen, Amen, and a very loud AMEN!!!!
Kosovo is the sacred origen of the Serbian people. For them to give it up, is like Israel giving up Jerusalem.
Posted by: Provoslavni at June 9, 2006 3:00 AM
Dear Mr. Spencer,
Thank you for reading my email and trying to take some action. I am puzzled and little amused; my email directed to you, expressing concerns about Cliff Kincaid article, is being addressed by an agency registered under Foreign Agents act as agents for Serbian National Council (available in the front page of http://www.americansforkosovo.org).
Original letter by Mr. Kincaid had two themes that I challenged and rectified to:
1. In Kosovo people are not endangered because of their religion.
2. US foreign policy supporting Kosovo independence is right (bipartisan) policy.
Public relation (PR) representatives of Serbian National Council attempted to defend Mr. Kincaid first claim by basically saying that Catholic community in Kosovo are not relevant. They bluntly present false statement “Kosovo’s Roman Catholics numbered only 60,000” and attribute it to Bishop Sopi’s statement.
For complete statement video see the links below:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7336140813292442999&q=mark+sopi
(9 min 56 sec - Mar 5, 2006)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4476907940031818039&q=mark+sopi
(10 min 1 sec - Mar 5, 2006)
Catholic population in Kosovo is above 200,000 (you can find unbiased demographic data on the CIA world fact book). Either way, numbers don’t matter; remember the claim is that Kosovo non-Muslim population is in danger – claim that without any doubt is disproved by Bishop Sopi.
In the closing statements (minute 7:00 in the second video link) direct question by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher: “Are you threatened by potential radical Islam overtaking Kosovo government if it becomes independent?”
Answer by Bishop Sopi: “We are absolutely not worried of being overtaken by radical Islam.”
The population in Kosovo is not unique in perceiving Serbian Orthodox as hegemonic.
Note that Croatian’s population is more than 88% Catholics and they share the sentiment that Orthodox Church was involved in Serb nationalistic policy making that resulted in ex-Yugoslavia ethnic cleansing wars. Currently even Montenegro Orthodox populations are under pressure from hegemonic thinking of the Serbian Orthodox Church who doesn’t recognize the Montenegro church and their religion practicing. This alone shows clearly a pattern of hegemonic and fanatic behavior of Serbian Orthodox church against everything external regardless whether that is Montenegro Orthodox Church population, Catholic Croatians and Albanians, or Muslim Albanians and Bosnians.
The Catholic and Orthodox churches in Kosovo were preserved for centuries exactly by Albanians. In the opening statement by Bishop Sopi (minute 9:50 in the first video link) “…All churches could have been destroyed during Ottoman Empire and nobody would have asked why. It was the Albanians that protected them and didn’t allow Ottomans to destroy them”.
He goes further and describes that Orthodox Church involvement in Serbian policy making (that resulted in multiple ethnic cleansing wars) was the main reason why these places of warship became a representation of Serbian oppression.
PR representative of Serbian National Council repeats Ms. Kincaid unfounded and reckless statement that “the U.S. and the United Nations are helping allies of Muslim terrorists come to power in Kosovo.” Although they repeat this statement without any support material, they fail to address:
1. Why did Serbs celebrate 9/11 terrorist attacks when we lost 3000 innocent souls (including my cousin)? On 9/11 Belgrade was filled with graffiti praising Osama Bin Laden and Serbs justified the celebration as a response to 1999 NATO bombing (celebrations happened only in Serbia and Middle East).
At the same time Mr. Goldberg, US representative in Kosovo at the time in an emotional statement thanked Kosovo population for extraordinary support they showed for US.
2. Why did Tomislav Nikolic, the leader of the strongest political party in Serbian parliament declared that Serbia’s goal and interest is to unite with Arabs because their goals are the same – defeating US?
3. Why does Serb government still refuse to arrest war criminals Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic?
It is clear that Serbian National Council PR activity has a vested interest in misrepresenting information about Kosovo or presenting them in a bias manner.
As I mentioned in my previous email, I worked for Catholic Relief Services in Kosovo for years and I can testify first hand that Kosovo society tolerates all religious practices (because of recent wars I would hesitate to say ethnic tolerance). Whether it is Bin Laden or Serbian Orthodox Church, promoting hate in the name of God is a blasphemy.
Mr. Spencer, I invite you to contact Montenegro Orthodox Church, Albanian Catholic Church, Croatian Catholic Church or any other community that has first hand and unbiased information about Serbian Orthodox Church and religious tolerance in Kosovo.
I sincerely hope that you will withdraw the article by Mr. Kincaid’s and by Serbian National Councils PR firm.
Best regards,
Posted by: Gaz Gjoni at June 10, 2006 3:03 PM
Igor,
In the last couple of years, there has been a radical reallignment in the attitudes of Palestinian Christians. I have heard so many Palestinian Christians (both Melkite and Orthodox) now living here in the US warn their relatives about visting the areas under Muslim control. "Only trust Christians or Jews" is a common refrain.
Just yesterday I drove a friend to the airport. He is going to Ramallah to sell his family's property before "the Muslims just steal it outright". Most of them consider the ones with Israeli citizenship to be lucky and almost every single Palestinian Christian I know considers Israel to be their only hope. Unfortunately, Israel is governed by Olmert and his corrupt dhimmis which should give no one hope.
In the last election, many of the Palestinian Christians were quite impressed by Liberman with a smaller group hoping for a Netanyahu comeback. Considering that 20 years ago these people were mostly PFLP supporters, this is a momentous shift indeed. It is truly sad for both Jews and Christians that there is no Palestinian Christian leader alive today of the caliber of the late Elias Freij.
Posted by: Provoslavni at June 11, 2006 12:16 AM
Pravo,
yes, Olmert is horrible, indeed horrible simply as a person without regard to politics. Tonight, we saw Olmert at a press conference with Tony Blair. We couldn't stand to watch them together. So we turned off the TV. Actually, we turn off Olmert when he is alone. But here you have blair playing ball with olmert, and blair drips his usual "peace" hypocrisy.
at June 12, 2006 6:16 PM
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