Showing posts with label Kosovo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kosovo. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
MALI: Islamists destroy heritage and take human shields
By Elizabeth Kendal
The cultural heritage of Timbuktu -- destroyed
Having seized control of northern Mali, al Qaeda-linked jihadists are now destroying the cultural heritage of Timbuktu.
Reached by telephone in an undisclosed location in northern Mali, Ansar Dine spokesman Oumar Ould Hamaha told Associated Press: "The only tribunal we recognize is the divine court of Shariah. The destruction is a divine order. It's our Prophet who said that each time that someone builds something on top of a grave, it needs to be pulled back to the ground. We need to do this so that future generations don't get confused, and start venerating the saints as if they are God."
See: Islamistscontinue destroying Timbuktu heritage
By Rukmini Callimachi, Associated Press 2 July 2012
According to Reuters: "The UNESCO ambassadors meeting in St. Petersburg on Tuesday joined Malian Culture Minister Toure in appealing to global governments and organisations and 'all people of goodwill' to act to prevent the prevent the destruction of the Timbuktu monuments by 'vandals'. 'We consider this action to be a crime against history,' the appeal said.
"Experts are comparing the Timbuktu tomb destructions to similar attacks against Sufi shrines by hardline Salafists in Egypt and Libya in the past year. The attacks also recall al Qaeda attacks on Shi'ite shrines in Iraq in the past decade and the 2001 dynamiting by the Taliban of two 6th-century statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan."
See: Timbuktu tomb destroyers pulverise Islam's history
By Pascal Fletcher , Tue Jul 3, 2012
No-one should be surprised, for as history demonstrates, cultural destruction such as this is to be expected when Islamist take power. [see footnote]
The citizens of Gao -- taken hostage
According to Mossa Ag Attaher, a Paris-based spokesman for the Tuareg-nationalist National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its offshoot, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), "have mined the area surrounding Gao. Many people are trying to escape, to take the bus to go to Bamako, but the Islamists are stopping them."
The MNLA spokesman told AFP that Gao residents "are facing a serious humanitarian crisis. After the criminal destruction of the shrines of Muslim saints, (the Islamists) are now using the population as hostages, as a human shield to protect itself from an MNLA counter-attack."
A west African source also confirmed to AFP that landmines had been planted around Gao "to prevent a possible attack by troops" from the west African regional bloc ECOWAS.
See: Al-Qaeda has mined access to key Mali town:Tuareg rebels
Monday, 02 July 2012
Also: Islamists smash Timbuktu relics
AEST Tue Jul 3 2012
" 'The population in Gao has been taken hostage,' Bernard Valero, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman, said separately. 'Within the context of war and a food crisis, mines appear to have been laid around the city to prevent people from leaving. This in our eyes is an act of terrorism. ' "
See: Islamists mine Gao
3 July 2012, By John Irish and Tiemoko Diallo
Footnote:
For more on this subject of Islam's destruction of its own history,
see: Islam vs. History
by Daniel Pipes
July 2, 2012
On Islam destroying Christian history:
Surely one the most horrendous "crimes against history" committed in recent decades is the desecration and destruction of well over 100 churches, monasteries and religious sites across Serbia's Kosovo province between 1999-2003.
What makes this "crime against history" so particularly egregious is that, unlike the crimes against history committed in North Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan, the crimes against history committed in Kosovo were not committed by militant African, Middle Eastern and "Afghan" Salafi jihadi purists exploiting a security vacuum, but by "white" Albanian Muslims and US-allied KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) personnel under the watchful eye of US-NATO KFOR "protection" forces.
For 60 pages of documentary evidence see: Kosovo Crucified.
This report lists 107 desecrated and destroyed sites; identifies which NATO force was responsible for protecting that site; details the degree of destruction; and provides foundation dates.
For example:
(2) The Church of the Mother of God near Suva Reka;
KFOR zone of responsibility: German;
church razed (terrain cleared, all traces of existence removed);
church founded in 1315.
Around 35 churches and monasteries were subsequently desecrated and destroyed when some 50,000 Albanian Muslims went on an anti-Serb and anti-Christian racial-religious pogrom across Kosovo over 17-19 March 2004.
Quite a few of the properties destroyed dated back to the mid 14th century and contained some of the most exquisite iconography known, but now lost, to the world.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
KOSOVO: unilateral declaration of independence
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | No. 467 | Wed 27 Feb 2008
FEB o8 UPDATE (excerpt)
KOSOVO: On Sunday 17 February Kosovo's Albanian leadership made a unilateral declaration of independence. Kosovo's Christians are now a tiny minority in a Muslim dominated self-declared independent state. Since the Balkan wars of the 1990s Islamic groups have been consolidating in Kosovo, with plans to turn the province into a base for terror operations. Kosovo's Serbian remnant (predominantly Serbian Orthodox), along with an incomparable wealth of Christian heritage dating back to the Middle Ages, are immediately and seriously at risk.
Please pray for the Church in Kosovo. Psalm 46.
FEB o8 UPDATE (excerpt)
KOSOVO: On Sunday 17 February Kosovo's Albanian leadership made a unilateral declaration of independence. Kosovo's Christians are now a tiny minority in a Muslim dominated self-declared independent state. Since the Balkan wars of the 1990s Islamic groups have been consolidating in Kosovo, with plans to turn the province into a base for terror operations. Kosovo's Serbian remnant (predominantly Serbian Orthodox), along with an incomparable wealth of Christian heritage dating back to the Middle Ages, are immediately and seriously at risk.
Please pray for the Church in Kosovo. Psalm 46.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
SERBIA: Wahhabi activism in Sandzak
Date: Thursday 10 May 2007
Subj: Serbia: Wahhabi activism in Sandzak
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
Sandzak (Raska) region in southwestern Serbia is for Islamic imperialists and jihadists highly desirable and enormously strategic territory. Wahhabi infiltration, radicalisation and agitation have escalated over the past decade. On several occasions during 2006 Wahhabi activism and aggression targeting the region's local non-Wahhabi Muslims culminated in violent clashes. Newfound evidence that Wahhabi jihadists in Sandzak's capital, Novi Pazar, have been preparing for acts of terrorism, has raised tensions in Serbia and especially in Sandzak and Kosovo.
------------------------------
SERBIAN POLICE RAID WAHHABI JIHADISTS
On 17 March Serbian police raided an Islamic militant training camp 30km from Novi Pazar, Sandzak region, southwest Serbia. While one militant escaped, four were arrested and a huge cache of weapons uncovered.
According to ISSA (International Strategic Studies Association) Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis (3 April 2007) the weapons cache included: "plastic explosives equipped with trigger mechanisms, various caliber bullet rounds, protective masks, several kinds of military uniforms and hand grenades. . . printed terrorist propaganda, military survival manuals, medical supplies, a sabre, compasses, binoculars and maps."
ISSA also reported: "The four arrested by Serbian Police on March 17, 2007, were identified as Mirsad Prenti, Fuad Hodi, Vahid Vejselovi and Senad Vejselovi, all members of the Muslim Wahhabi movement from Novi Pazar. All but one of the arrested men were bearded in the fashion of jihadis, but all were white Europeans. Their campsite, with a Wahhabist flag (similar to a Saudi Arabian flag, only black), was jury-rigged [assembled in a makeshift manner] with plastic sheeting."
On 20 April, Serbian police clashed with Islamic militants in Novi Pazar, killing militant leader Ismail Prentic (picture: link 1), and arresting two others, Safet Becovic and Senad Ramovic.
As the Serbian police approached Prentic's safe-house, the militants inside the house released attack dogs, threw grenades, and eventually opened fire at the police. The police shot back, killing Prentic and injuring Ramovic. A Serbian police officer also was wounded.
Igor Jovanovic, reporting from Belgrade for Southeast European Times (SET), writes: "The Wahhabis began to emerge in Novi Pazar in 2006. In one widely reported incident, they broke up a concert by Balkanika, a popular ethno band, smashing instruments and accusing the musicians of 'Satan's work'. In November they tried to take over the Arab mosque in Novi Pazar, fighting with moderate Muslims. Three people were wounded." (Link 2)
Amela Bajrovic, reporting from Novi Pazar for Balkan Insight writes (22 March 2007): "This latest incident comes after years of simmering conflict between the majority of local Sunni Muslims represented by the Islamic Community and the new followers of the Wahhabi movement. The Islamic Community's clergy and faithful have repeatedly complained of
harassment by the increasing number of the Wahhabi followers, whom they say want to impose their belief as the only true one.
"Shortly after the arrests, Serbia's interior minister, Dragan Jocic, described the men as enemies of the official Islamic Community and said the police action demonstrated the government's determination to crush all forms of violence and terrorism.
"The justice minister, Zoran Stojkovic, sought to defuse potential religious tensions, saying the men were apprehended not 'because they belong to a religious group but because. . . they were involved in alleged terrorist activities'." (Link 3)
Serbian authorities believe the Wahhabis operating the jihadist camp were recruiting potential terrorists and planning attacks on members of the local Muslim community. According to a recent report by the US Department of State, Serbian authorities are also "significantly
concerned about the potential for an increase of Middle Eastern terrorist transit through Serbia". (Link 4)
LINKED TO JIHADISTS AND SEPARATISTS IN KOSOVO
The police raid in Novi Pazar was carried out in co-operation with Kosovo police, marking the first time the two law enforcement agencies have worked together officially since the UN and NATO took control of the province. According to Igor Jovanovic (SET), "Prentic had been under
an arrest warrant in Kosovo [for illegal firearms possession and trafficking weapons]. He and a number of followers are said to have infiltrated the northern, mainly Serb-populated part of the province, bringing weapons with them." (Link 2)
This claim, that jihadists in Novi Pazar have links with Islamic jihadists and Albanian separatists in Kosovo, has been confirmed by a Slovenian intelligence source which confirmed for Balkanalysis.com: "the Wahhabis arrested at a training camp broken up near Novi Pazar on St.
Patrick's Day had connections with Kosovo militants, the final status process there and potential violence against Serbs in the North Mitrovica enclaves." (Link 5)
According to Balkananalysis.com, "The arrests in Sandzak had the immediate result of increasing distrust and fear, particularly for the minority Christian Serbs. But the arrests also prompted Pristina's Wahhabis to lay low. According to one source near the [Kosovo] capital, 'on that day, the muj [mujahedin, ie, Wahhabis] vanished. You couldn't see one of them on the streets'.
"New information received by Balkanalysis.com from a Slovenian intelligence source confirms Serbian media allegations that at least some of the weaponry found in the Wahhabi training camp had arrived from Kosovo – and for a reason: according to our information, extremist
Albanians in Kosovo opposed to negotiation with Serbs are collaborating with the Wahhabis [in Sandzak]. . . in the case of new violence, the goal would be a show of force against Serbs from both sides.'
"Adding that both groups have different ideologies and purposes, both the ex-KLA militants and Islamic extremists have similar needs. 'Both use weapons, and both reply to varying extents on organised crime to fund their movements,' said the Slovenian source, adding that his country had recently taken a more active role in Kosovo/Serbia intelligence-gathering."
LINKED TO WAHHABIS IN BOSNIA
The ISSA Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis (3 April 2007) reported that the Sandzak militants are also linked to Bosnian jihadist groups. ISSA notes: "During and after the [17 March] police action, there were a numbers of Wahhabists in the location where the camp was discovered and in the larger region. Most of them escaped into nearby Bosnia, across the so-called 'Gorazde Corridor' [which cuts through Rep. Srpska]. The location of the camp was carefully selected to be near three borders (Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia)."
The ISSA Special Analysis listed several Bosnian Wahhabist groups that are known to be co-operating with militants in Sandzak. Many of the jihadists in these groups have degrees from Universities in Sarajevo or the Middle East (mostly Medina), and some have served time in jail for criminal activities. ISSA notes that much of the terrorist training in the region is "directly linked to funding by criminal activities, largely narco-trafficking".
SANDZAK: THE MISSING LINK
Sandzak (Raska) region straddles the Serbia Monetnegro border and stretches from Kosovo to Bosnia. During Ottoman times Sandzak formed part of the trade route that ran between the northern Balkans and the Adriatic Sea. The Ottomans Islamised Sandzak for trade security
purposes. Only Muslims were permitted to live in the towns and Christians, who where were relegated to dhimmi (second class) and serf status, farmed the countryside. Still today in Sandzak Muslims live almost exclusively in the towns.
According to an April 2005 report by International Crisis Group report http://www.crisisgroup.org, Sandzak is 60 percent Muslim. Most of eastern Sandzak is majority Muslim – the regional capital, Novi Pazar (Turkish for "new bazaar") is 78 percent Muslim – while most of northwestern Sandzak is majority Christian Serb.
According to the ICG report, "Serbia's Sandzak: Still Forgotten" of 8 April 2005, Wahhabis control several mosques in Sandzak over which the local mufti has little influence. ICG notes that over recent years Muslim men and women have both become increasingly observant of
conservative Islamic dress codes. According to ICG, some observers believe that, as in Bosnia, Wahhabis are actually paying local Muslims to dress Wahhabi-style. ICG also reports" Numerous interlocuters told Crisis Group that the Wahhabis receive funding from Sarajevo, which in turn appears to come from Saudi charities that operate out of Vienna."
For Islamic imperialists and jihadists, Sandzak is the vital missing link. It has enormous strategic potential as a land-bridge between Bosnia and Kosovo. As such, Sandzak is yet another place where Islamists are eager to support, partner with, or even drive a separatist movement. Such a movement would initially lobby for autonomy as a stepping-stone to independence.
Islamic imperialists and jihadists have long desired to bring Sandzak under Islamic control so that jihadists (particularly white European ones), weapons and narco-traffick would have safe passage from the Adriatic Sea to Bosnia, through Albania, Kosovo, Sandzak, and into Muslim Bosnia via the Gorazde Corridor, which, as part of the Dayton Accords, is part of the Muslim-Croat Federation. This enables safe passage through Rep. Srpksa from the Muslim-held town of Gorazde which is on the Drina River close to where the borders of Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro, i.e. Sandzak, converge.
Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au
Links
1) Militant Wahhabi dead after attacking Serb police, 20 April 2007
http://www.serbianna.com/news/2007/01557.shtml
2) Wahhabi leader slain in gunfight; arrests made. 26 April 2007
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2007/04/26/feature-03
3) Raid on Wahhabi 'Camp' Raises Tensions in Sandzak
Most locals welcome police swoop on group seen as troublemakers.
By Amela Bajrovic in Novi Pazar (Balkan Insight, 22 March 2007)
http://www.birn.eu.com/en/75/10/2496/
4) Country Reports on Terrorism
Released by the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
30 April 2007 http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2006/82732.htm
5) BALKAN ANALYSIS 19 April 2007
Slovenian Intelligence Confirms Kosovo Link to Sandzak Arrests
http://www.balkanalysis.com/2007/04/19/slovenian-intelligence-confirms-kosovo-link-to-sandzak-arrests/
Subj: Serbia: Wahhabi activism in Sandzak
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
Sandzak (Raska) region in southwestern Serbia is for Islamic imperialists and jihadists highly desirable and enormously strategic territory. Wahhabi infiltration, radicalisation and agitation have escalated over the past decade. On several occasions during 2006 Wahhabi activism and aggression targeting the region's local non-Wahhabi Muslims culminated in violent clashes. Newfound evidence that Wahhabi jihadists in Sandzak's capital, Novi Pazar, have been preparing for acts of terrorism, has raised tensions in Serbia and especially in Sandzak and Kosovo.
------------------------------
SERBIAN POLICE RAID WAHHABI JIHADISTS
On 17 March Serbian police raided an Islamic militant training camp 30km from Novi Pazar, Sandzak region, southwest Serbia. While one militant escaped, four were arrested and a huge cache of weapons uncovered.
According to ISSA (International Strategic Studies Association) Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis (3 April 2007) the weapons cache included: "plastic explosives equipped with trigger mechanisms, various caliber bullet rounds, protective masks, several kinds of military uniforms and hand grenades. . . printed terrorist propaganda, military survival manuals, medical supplies, a sabre, compasses, binoculars and maps."
ISSA also reported: "The four arrested by Serbian Police on March 17, 2007, were identified as Mirsad Prenti, Fuad Hodi, Vahid Vejselovi and Senad Vejselovi, all members of the Muslim Wahhabi movement from Novi Pazar. All but one of the arrested men were bearded in the fashion of jihadis, but all were white Europeans. Their campsite, with a Wahhabist flag (similar to a Saudi Arabian flag, only black), was jury-rigged [assembled in a makeshift manner] with plastic sheeting."
On 20 April, Serbian police clashed with Islamic militants in Novi Pazar, killing militant leader Ismail Prentic (picture: link 1), and arresting two others, Safet Becovic and Senad Ramovic.
As the Serbian police approached Prentic's safe-house, the militants inside the house released attack dogs, threw grenades, and eventually opened fire at the police. The police shot back, killing Prentic and injuring Ramovic. A Serbian police officer also was wounded.
Igor Jovanovic, reporting from Belgrade for Southeast European Times (SET), writes: "The Wahhabis began to emerge in Novi Pazar in 2006. In one widely reported incident, they broke up a concert by Balkanika, a popular ethno band, smashing instruments and accusing the musicians of 'Satan's work'. In November they tried to take over the Arab mosque in Novi Pazar, fighting with moderate Muslims. Three people were wounded." (Link 2)
Amela Bajrovic, reporting from Novi Pazar for Balkan Insight writes (22 March 2007): "This latest incident comes after years of simmering conflict between the majority of local Sunni Muslims represented by the Islamic Community and the new followers of the Wahhabi movement. The Islamic Community's clergy and faithful have repeatedly complained of
harassment by the increasing number of the Wahhabi followers, whom they say want to impose their belief as the only true one.
"Shortly after the arrests, Serbia's interior minister, Dragan Jocic, described the men as enemies of the official Islamic Community and said the police action demonstrated the government's determination to crush all forms of violence and terrorism.
"The justice minister, Zoran Stojkovic, sought to defuse potential religious tensions, saying the men were apprehended not 'because they belong to a religious group but because. . . they were involved in alleged terrorist activities'." (Link 3)
Serbian authorities believe the Wahhabis operating the jihadist camp were recruiting potential terrorists and planning attacks on members of the local Muslim community. According to a recent report by the US Department of State, Serbian authorities are also "significantly
concerned about the potential for an increase of Middle Eastern terrorist transit through Serbia". (Link 4)
LINKED TO JIHADISTS AND SEPARATISTS IN KOSOVO
The police raid in Novi Pazar was carried out in co-operation with Kosovo police, marking the first time the two law enforcement agencies have worked together officially since the UN and NATO took control of the province. According to Igor Jovanovic (SET), "Prentic had been under
an arrest warrant in Kosovo [for illegal firearms possession and trafficking weapons]. He and a number of followers are said to have infiltrated the northern, mainly Serb-populated part of the province, bringing weapons with them." (Link 2)
This claim, that jihadists in Novi Pazar have links with Islamic jihadists and Albanian separatists in Kosovo, has been confirmed by a Slovenian intelligence source which confirmed for Balkanalysis.com: "the Wahhabis arrested at a training camp broken up near Novi Pazar on St.
Patrick's Day had connections with Kosovo militants, the final status process there and potential violence against Serbs in the North Mitrovica enclaves." (Link 5)
According to Balkananalysis.com, "The arrests in Sandzak had the immediate result of increasing distrust and fear, particularly for the minority Christian Serbs. But the arrests also prompted Pristina's Wahhabis to lay low. According to one source near the [Kosovo] capital, 'on that day, the muj [mujahedin, ie, Wahhabis] vanished. You couldn't see one of them on the streets'.
"New information received by Balkanalysis.com from a Slovenian intelligence source confirms Serbian media allegations that at least some of the weaponry found in the Wahhabi training camp had arrived from Kosovo – and for a reason: according to our information, extremist
Albanians in Kosovo opposed to negotiation with Serbs are collaborating with the Wahhabis [in Sandzak]. . . in the case of new violence, the goal would be a show of force against Serbs from both sides.'
"Adding that both groups have different ideologies and purposes, both the ex-KLA militants and Islamic extremists have similar needs. 'Both use weapons, and both reply to varying extents on organised crime to fund their movements,' said the Slovenian source, adding that his country had recently taken a more active role in Kosovo/Serbia intelligence-gathering."
LINKED TO WAHHABIS IN BOSNIA
The ISSA Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis (3 April 2007) reported that the Sandzak militants are also linked to Bosnian jihadist groups. ISSA notes: "During and after the [17 March] police action, there were a numbers of Wahhabists in the location where the camp was discovered and in the larger region. Most of them escaped into nearby Bosnia, across the so-called 'Gorazde Corridor' [which cuts through Rep. Srpska]. The location of the camp was carefully selected to be near three borders (Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia)."
The ISSA Special Analysis listed several Bosnian Wahhabist groups that are known to be co-operating with militants in Sandzak. Many of the jihadists in these groups have degrees from Universities in Sarajevo or the Middle East (mostly Medina), and some have served time in jail for criminal activities. ISSA notes that much of the terrorist training in the region is "directly linked to funding by criminal activities, largely narco-trafficking".
SANDZAK: THE MISSING LINK
Sandzak (Raska) region straddles the Serbia Monetnegro border and stretches from Kosovo to Bosnia. During Ottoman times Sandzak formed part of the trade route that ran between the northern Balkans and the Adriatic Sea. The Ottomans Islamised Sandzak for trade security
purposes. Only Muslims were permitted to live in the towns and Christians, who where were relegated to dhimmi (second class) and serf status, farmed the countryside. Still today in Sandzak Muslims live almost exclusively in the towns.
According to an April 2005 report by International Crisis Group report http://www.crisisgroup.org, Sandzak is 60 percent Muslim. Most of eastern Sandzak is majority Muslim – the regional capital, Novi Pazar (Turkish for "new bazaar") is 78 percent Muslim – while most of northwestern Sandzak is majority Christian Serb.
According to the ICG report, "Serbia's Sandzak: Still Forgotten" of 8 April 2005, Wahhabis control several mosques in Sandzak over which the local mufti has little influence. ICG notes that over recent years Muslim men and women have both become increasingly observant of
conservative Islamic dress codes. According to ICG, some observers believe that, as in Bosnia, Wahhabis are actually paying local Muslims to dress Wahhabi-style. ICG also reports" Numerous interlocuters told Crisis Group that the Wahhabis receive funding from Sarajevo, which in turn appears to come from Saudi charities that operate out of Vienna."
For Islamic imperialists and jihadists, Sandzak is the vital missing link. It has enormous strategic potential as a land-bridge between Bosnia and Kosovo. As such, Sandzak is yet another place where Islamists are eager to support, partner with, or even drive a separatist movement. Such a movement would initially lobby for autonomy as a stepping-stone to independence.
Islamic imperialists and jihadists have long desired to bring Sandzak under Islamic control so that jihadists (particularly white European ones), weapons and narco-traffick would have safe passage from the Adriatic Sea to Bosnia, through Albania, Kosovo, Sandzak, and into Muslim Bosnia via the Gorazde Corridor, which, as part of the Dayton Accords, is part of the Muslim-Croat Federation. This enables safe passage through Rep. Srpksa from the Muslim-held town of Gorazde which is on the Drina River close to where the borders of Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro, i.e. Sandzak, converge.
Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au
Links
1) Militant Wahhabi dead after attacking Serb police, 20 April 2007
http://www.serbianna.com/news/2007/01557.shtml
2) Wahhabi leader slain in gunfight; arrests made. 26 April 2007
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2007/04/26/feature-03
3) Raid on Wahhabi 'Camp' Raises Tensions in Sandzak
Most locals welcome police swoop on group seen as troublemakers.
By Amela Bajrovic in Novi Pazar (Balkan Insight, 22 March 2007)
http://www.birn.eu.com/en/75/10/2496/
4) Country Reports on Terrorism
Released by the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
30 April 2007 http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2006/82732.htm
5) BALKAN ANALYSIS 19 April 2007
Slovenian Intelligence Confirms Kosovo Link to Sandzak Arrests
http://www.balkanalysis.com/2007/04/19/slovenian-intelligence-confirms-kosovo-link-to-sandzak-arrests/
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Kosovo & Metohija, SERBIA: Precarious Situation
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | No. 415 | Wed 07 Feb 2007
--------------------------------------------------
KOSOVO AND METOHIJA, (Serbia) : PRECARIOUS SITUATION
--------------------------------------------------
What we know today as Kosovo, southern Serbia, was historically two regions: Kosovo and Metohija. 'Metohija' comes from the Greek 'metox' referring to land set aside for the Church. Metohija, a large basin in the south-west comprising nearly half of 'Kosovo', is the spiritual heartland of Serbia and is filled with historic Eastern Orthodox churches and monasteries.
The (Muslim) Ottoman Empire advanced its imperialistic jihad into the Balkans in the 14th Century. For centuries the Christian peoples of the Balkans were subjugated under Islam and sorely persecuted. But then the Ottoman Empire started to crumble and the Christians fought for and won their liberation. During the Ottoman era large numbers of Turkish and ethnic Albanian Muslims migrated over the mountains and into Serbia's southern regions of Kosovo and Metohija, eventually comprising some 50 percent of the population. Their descendants are known as 'Kosovars'. After the Balkan wars of liberation (1912) Islamist Kosovars/Albanians complained that their (Muslim) land was 'occupied', and the Kosovar/Albanian separatist struggle began. So the contemporary struggle between the Muslim Kosovars/Albanians and the Orthodox Serbs for control of Kosovo and Metohija is almost a century old.
The ethnic Albanian Muslim Kosovar cause has accelerated since 1941: first during World War Two through the Nazi-Muslim pact to exterminate Serbs, Jews and Roma/Gypsies in the Nazis' 'Greater Albania'; and then during the Communist era through the pro-Albanian, pro-Arab, anti-Serb policies of Croat Communist leader Marshall Tito. Tito refused to allow the Serbs who had been ethnically cleansed from Kosovo during WW2 the right to return. He dissolved Metohija because of its spiritual significance and turned Kosovo and Metohija into a single, separate and eventually autonomous majority ethnic Albanian province.
War erupted in 1999. After NATO's unilateral intervention Kosovo was declared a UN protectorate. Since then some 150 historic Orthodox Serbian churches and monasteries have been destroyed and an estimated 1000 Serbs and Roma have been kidnapped and murdered or disappeared (but not Jews, because Islamist Kosovars expelled the entire Jewish remnant in 1999). Kosovo's mostly internally displaced Serbs live in fear and poverty and cannot move without UN armed escorts. Meanwhile the Islamisation and radicalisation of Kosovo has advanced without restraint.
The UN special envoy's 2 February 2007 recommendation that Kosovo be granted supervised independence will soon go before the UN Security Council. Albania, all Islamic imperialists, the US and UK support this proposal. Russia and China (two countries that could face similar Muslim separatist claims should Kosovo be granted independence) are opposed to it. Needless to say Serbia rejects any suggestion that the UN excise 15 percent of Serbia's territory and cede it to Muslim separatists.
The West appeases Islamic imperialism in the Balkans for political expediency - the opposite of their response in the Horn of Africa. The situation for Kosovo's Serbs is precarious and Balkans' peace is tenuous.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR GOD TO:
* raise up voices for justice and right to speak against shameful political expediency.
* work powerfully through the UN forces to protect the tiny Orthodox Serb remnant in Kosovo so they will not be forced to defend themselves should hostile forces seek their removal or the destruction of more religious sites.
* protect all Kosovar converts to Christianity who are greatly at risk due to the escalating criminality and Islamic nationalist, imperialist and anti-Serb (anti-Christian) zeal in the province.
* give great wisdom and divine guidance to the political and religious leaders in Belgrade (Serbia).
'He [the Sovereign Lord] tends his flock like a shepherd: he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.' Isaiah 40:11 NIV
Monday, February 5, 2007
Religious Liberty Trend - Islamic imperialism: Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo
Date: Monday 5 February 2007
Subj: 4. RL Trend - Islamic imperialism: Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY (RL) TRENDS: 2006-2007
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TREND - ISLAMIC IMPERIALISM: SOMALIA, BOSNIA, KOSOVO
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines imperialism as: "The policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations."
Islam is an imperialistic political system that employs a religious component for political and imperialistic gain. It is natural therefore that Islamic reformation and revival should result in renewed zeal for Islamic imperialism. While Muslims as human beings are extremely varied, holding beliefs ranging from irreligious to indifference to secular to moderate to extremist and from liberal to fundamentalist, the agenda of orthodox, Quranic Islam is absolutely radical and imperialistic.
Islamic imperialism is advanced in myriad ways: through jihad and pro-Sharia Islamist political movements; economically and culturally through the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), the Arab League, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and vast oil profits. These profits are used strategically to disseminate Islamic ideology and advance Islamic politics and culture, as well as to transform free nations (such as numerous Christian-majority African nations) and institutions (such as numerous Western universities) into submissive debtors.
For this annual trends posting I will focus on two regions where Islamic imperialist zeal and rhetoric rose to dangerous levels through 2006: the Horn of Africa, and the Balkans.
THE HORN OF AFRICA (HOA)
The year 2006 saw the rise and fall of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). For background see WEA RLC News & Analysis postings "Somalia: Igniting jihad in the Horn of Africa" (28 July 2006) and "Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia: Death and Danger in the Horn of Africa" (20 Oct 2006).
The rise of the ICU under the leadership of the belligerent al-Qaeda-linked Sheik Aweys, a vocal proponent of the creation of an Islamic Caliphate over a Greater Somalia, meant that conflict with neighbouring Ethiopia was inevitable.
In December 2006 the Ethiopian Army and soldiers loyal to Somalia's UN-sponsored Transitional Federal Government (TFG) routed and all but crushed the ICU. It is imperative that Somalia's government receive maximum international support to secure the state and improve the lives of the Somali people, thereby securing their hearts and minds.
It is estimated that during the December offensive around 3,000 ICU militants abandoned their uniforms and diffused back into the civilian population in Mogadishu where they remain hidden.
Al-Qaeda deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, has called for an Iraq-style Islamist insurgency. Al-Qaeda will doubtless attempt to incite Islamic irredentism and imperialism in Somalia, and separatism in Ogaden, the eastern region of Ethiopia that is home to some four million ethnic Somalis. This would certainly lead to an escalation in persecution of Christians in Muslim-dominated regions of the HOA.
Inflamed Islamic imperialist zeal would doubtless also invigorate the Islamist movement in Khartoum, and this could seriously rattle the tenuous peace in Southern Sudan. The tensions in the HOA will doubtless also lead to an escalation in Eritrea (historic enemy of Ethiopia and ally of the Islamists) of persecution against the Church, including the previously tolerated Orthodox Church.
The degree to which the wider HOA becomes a theatre for an Islamic imperialist insurgency (jihad) will depend largely on the commitment and ability of those charged with keeping the peace in Somalia to persist with conviction in the long operation of mopping-up terrorists and jihadists as they emerge.
Several terrorist incidents occurred during January 2007. If Islamic terrorists and jihadist manage to establish a base of operations for imperialistic jihad in the HOA, then Western and Christian interests and assets will be at risk from Addis Ababa to Juba, Djibouti, Asmara, Mogadishu and Nairobi.
THE BALKANS: SITUATION EXPLOSIVE
While the Balkans remained relatively peaceful through 2006, the issues that emerged onto centre stage last year are reminiscent of those issues that were a prelude to war in the 1990s. The two great issues are essentially related to Islamic imperialism:
* the status of Bosnia's Serbs;
* the status of the Serbian province of Kosovo.
BOSNIA
The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was dealt with thoroughly in a lengthy posting entitled "Bosnia and Herzegovina: Religious tensions rising" (19 September 2006). That posting included a detailed overview of the historical context that has given rise to the present position. This is hugely important because at present the history of the Serb nation, a Christian nation of Eastern Orthodox tradition, is buried deep beneath a veritable mountain of lies and revisionist propaganda, myth and demonisation courtesy of belligerent Islamist imperialist forces and their Western allies.
That posting was followed up with one entitled "Bosnia and Herzegovina: Fragile stability threatened by Islamisation" (12 October 2006).
The 1992-1995 Bosnian war was essentially over the status of Bosnian Serbs. In 1992 the Bosnian Serb rejection of the Islamist Izetbegovic's illegal, unconstitutional move to declare Bosnia independent from Yugoslavia triggered war. As Bosnian Muslims (Bosniacs) fought for an independent, united, Muslim Bosnia, Bosnian Serbs fought to retain their liberty and autonomy as they had no desire to be reduced to a Christian minority in an Islamic state, let alone be further separated from their fellow Serbs.
The Dayton Accords of 1995 ended the Bosnian war by establishing an independent Bosnia divided into two autonomous entities: the Muslim-Croat Federation, which today is under immense strain, and the Republika Srpksa (RS, Serb Republic).
Hard-line Islamists have never accepted the Dayton Accords and view it as a betrayal by their war-time allies, the US. For RS to be part of an independent Bosnia, yet autonomous and not under Muslim rule, is totally against the Islamist order. Izetbegovic only signed the Dayton Accords because he feared that without I-FOR (the international peace keeping force) on the ground, Serbia and Croatia would attempt to divide Bosnia between them and that Bosnia alone would not have the capacity to resist. Izetbegovic knew the Bosniacs needed both the US to keep the peace and Iran to re-arm and advance the Islamist agenda.
The loudest voice against the "partitioning" of Bosnia and Herzegovina was war-time Foreign Minister and Prime Minister, Haris Silajdzic. Over the years Silajdzic has been persistently critical of Izetbegovic for making what he believed were too many concessions.
On 1 October 2006, Haris Silajdzic was elected as the Muslim representative in Bosnia's tripartite presidency. Central to his election campaign was his proposal that RS be dissolved. Silajdzic uses words that impress the West, such as united, democratic and non-sectarian. But what he is advancing is the Islamic agenda to put all Bosnian territory and citizens under Muslim rule.
Further to this, Bosnia is under immense pressure from the West to move from the "Dayton phase" to the "European phase". Before it can join the EU, Bosnia is being advised that it must undergo constitutional reforms aimed at strengthening the central government at the expense of the entities. Some of these reforms are unacceptable to the Bosnian Serbs as they lessen their autonomy. The Orthodox Serbs are especially determined to retain autonomy in the area of policing as they do not want to be under a centrally administered, Muslim-dominated police force. Islamist imperialists and their naive supporters then label Serb resistance to dhimmitude as racist and ultra-nationalist!
The situation in Bosnia is explosive. Serbs (Orthodox) and Croats (Catholic) are both becoming agitated by the Islamist imperialistic rhetoric that is rising in an increasingly Islamised Bosnia. The situation today closely resembles 1992.
KOSOVO
Ever since the Serbs liberated themselves from Ottoman (Islamic) rule (1912-1913), "Kosovars" (descendents of Albanian Muslims who migrated into Kosovo during the Ottoman era) have been complaining of "occupation" and agitating along secessionist lines. And the secessionism is both pan-Islamic and nationalistic in character.
The contemporary Kosovar vs Serb contest for Kosovo has really been going for almost a century now. Both sides have attempted to advance their status by diminishing the "other" when circumstances permitted. The Serb cause however, was particularly hurt by the Nazi-Muslim alliance in World War Two.
Yugoslavia came under Nazi occupation in April 1941, and while the Croats, Bosniacs and Kosovars were all allies of the Axis powers, the Serbs were aligned with the Allies. The Nazis, who viewed the Serbs as a threat to the Nazi advance in the Balkans, classed the Serbs as a "lesser race" to be exterminated along with Jews and Roma/Gypsies. Islamic imperialists joined Muslim Waffen-SS units, such as the mostly Bosniac Handschar Division in Bosnia and the mostly Kosovar Skenderbeg Division in Kosovo, and massacred Serbs with impunity.
The Axis powers created a "New" or "Greater Albania" by annexing territory from Montenegro and Serbia, including Kosovo and the western part of southern Serbia that is today part of Macedonia. Wide-scale ethnic cleansing occurred, aimed at creating an ethnically pure Albanian Kosovo, or "Kosova". The fascist Prime Minister of Greater Albania, Mustafa Kruja, and the Muslim leader of the Albanian National Committee, Bedri Pejani, both called for the total extermination of all Orthodox Serb Christians in Kosovo. Pejani also advocated for the union of Greater Albania with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Nazi-allied Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammad Amin al Husseini, approved the plan as being in the interests of Islam. However the Nazis, recognising that an Islamic super-state was not in their long-term interests, rejected the idea and kept the Muslim Bosniacs and Kosovars geographically separated.
Through the WW2 Nazi-Muslim holocaust in Yugoslavia, some one million Serbs, sixty thousand Jews and eighty thousand Roma were exterminated.
The Islamic imperialist agenda being advanced through the Nazi-Muslim alliance during WW2 was scuttled when the Allies won the war. However, while resistance to Nazi occupation came from both the Partisans (Communists, led by Marshall Tito, a Croat) and the Loyalists (loyal to Yugoslavia's ruling Serb monarchy), Winston Churchill elected to abandon his Serb allies and support the Communists for political expediency (peace with the Soviets). This guaranteed a Communist victory and further suffering for the Serbs.
Marshall Tito divided Yugoslavia along ethnic lines in order to destroy the hegemony of the Serbs who were the largest ethnic group in Yugoslavia. While the various ethnic minorities lived in their ethnic regions, Serbs, though concentrated in Serbia, were scattered over the whole nation. Dividing Yugoslavia along ethnic lines left millions of Serbs as religious and ethnic minorities under the rule of those who had attempted genocide against them in World War Two. Tito also re-cast the borderless regions of Kosovo and Metohija as a single, bordered province within Serbia. Tito was keen to form a federation with Communist Albania so he denied the Serbs who had been ethnically cleansed from Kosovo during WW2 the right to return. In an effort to appease Kosovar separatists, Tito granted Kosovo autonomy in 1974.
When Kosovo's autonomy was revoked in 1989 on account of rising persecution of Serbs and sectarian unrest, Kosovar separatism increased, even to the extent that the Kosovars set up a parallel government. Milosevic dissolved Kosovo's Kosovar legislature after it unilaterally declared Kosovo independent. While Albania recognised the "Republic of Kosova" the international community did not because at that time it still respected International Law and the UN Charter and would not re-draw international borders just to appease separatists, Islamic imperialists or terrorists.
Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since 1999. During this time, around 150 historic Serbian monasteries and churches have been destroyed while some 400 mosques have been built. Meanwhile it is estimated that more than 1,000 Serbs and Roma (no Jews, because the KLA drove out all the Jews in 1999) have been kidnapped, killed and disappeared, while around 230,000 Serbs have been ethnically cleansed.
On Friday 2 February 2007, UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari presented his proposal on the status of Kosovo. Ahtisaari has proposed that Kosovo have supervised independence.
The Kosovars have accepted the proposal while the Serbs naturally reject what is essentially a plan to excise 15 percent of Serbia's territory, which includes its historic spiritual heartland of Metohija and cede it to Kosovar Muslim separatists.
Ahtisaari's proposal now goes to the UN Security Council where Russia and China will oppose it while the US and the UK will support it.
The UN cannot declare Kosovo independent without unleashing a torrent of secessionist claims across the globe and Kosovo, which claims to be special and unique but isn't, would be the precedent for them all. Russia and China would both be threatened, which is probably one of several reasons, along with appeasement of Islamists and attraction to myth, why the US and the UK are supporting it.
The Serbs are advocating for Kosovo to have autonomy within Serbia (see http://www.kosovocompromise.com/ ). However Kosovars and other Islamist imperialists will doubtless accept nothing less than full independence.
The situation in the Balkans is explosive and Kosovo may well prove to be the fuse.
Subj: 4. RL Trend - Islamic imperialism: Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY (RL) TRENDS: 2006-2007
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TREND - ISLAMIC IMPERIALISM: SOMALIA, BOSNIA, KOSOVO
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The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines imperialism as: "The policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations."
Islam is an imperialistic political system that employs a religious component for political and imperialistic gain. It is natural therefore that Islamic reformation and revival should result in renewed zeal for Islamic imperialism. While Muslims as human beings are extremely varied, holding beliefs ranging from irreligious to indifference to secular to moderate to extremist and from liberal to fundamentalist, the agenda of orthodox, Quranic Islam is absolutely radical and imperialistic.
Islamic imperialism is advanced in myriad ways: through jihad and pro-Sharia Islamist political movements; economically and culturally through the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), the Arab League, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and vast oil profits. These profits are used strategically to disseminate Islamic ideology and advance Islamic politics and culture, as well as to transform free nations (such as numerous Christian-majority African nations) and institutions (such as numerous Western universities) into submissive debtors.
For this annual trends posting I will focus on two regions where Islamic imperialist zeal and rhetoric rose to dangerous levels through 2006: the Horn of Africa, and the Balkans.
THE HORN OF AFRICA (HOA)
The year 2006 saw the rise and fall of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). For background see WEA RLC News & Analysis postings "Somalia: Igniting jihad in the Horn of Africa" (28 July 2006) and "Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia: Death and Danger in the Horn of Africa" (20 Oct 2006).
The rise of the ICU under the leadership of the belligerent al-Qaeda-linked Sheik Aweys, a vocal proponent of the creation of an Islamic Caliphate over a Greater Somalia, meant that conflict with neighbouring Ethiopia was inevitable.
In December 2006 the Ethiopian Army and soldiers loyal to Somalia's UN-sponsored Transitional Federal Government (TFG) routed and all but crushed the ICU. It is imperative that Somalia's government receive maximum international support to secure the state and improve the lives of the Somali people, thereby securing their hearts and minds.
It is estimated that during the December offensive around 3,000 ICU militants abandoned their uniforms and diffused back into the civilian population in Mogadishu where they remain hidden.
Al-Qaeda deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, has called for an Iraq-style Islamist insurgency. Al-Qaeda will doubtless attempt to incite Islamic irredentism and imperialism in Somalia, and separatism in Ogaden, the eastern region of Ethiopia that is home to some four million ethnic Somalis. This would certainly lead to an escalation in persecution of Christians in Muslim-dominated regions of the HOA.
Inflamed Islamic imperialist zeal would doubtless also invigorate the Islamist movement in Khartoum, and this could seriously rattle the tenuous peace in Southern Sudan. The tensions in the HOA will doubtless also lead to an escalation in Eritrea (historic enemy of Ethiopia and ally of the Islamists) of persecution against the Church, including the previously tolerated Orthodox Church.
The degree to which the wider HOA becomes a theatre for an Islamic imperialist insurgency (jihad) will depend largely on the commitment and ability of those charged with keeping the peace in Somalia to persist with conviction in the long operation of mopping-up terrorists and jihadists as they emerge.
Several terrorist incidents occurred during January 2007. If Islamic terrorists and jihadist manage to establish a base of operations for imperialistic jihad in the HOA, then Western and Christian interests and assets will be at risk from Addis Ababa to Juba, Djibouti, Asmara, Mogadishu and Nairobi.
THE BALKANS: SITUATION EXPLOSIVE
While the Balkans remained relatively peaceful through 2006, the issues that emerged onto centre stage last year are reminiscent of those issues that were a prelude to war in the 1990s. The two great issues are essentially related to Islamic imperialism:
* the status of Bosnia's Serbs;
* the status of the Serbian province of Kosovo.
BOSNIA
The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was dealt with thoroughly in a lengthy posting entitled "Bosnia and Herzegovina: Religious tensions rising" (19 September 2006). That posting included a detailed overview of the historical context that has given rise to the present position. This is hugely important because at present the history of the Serb nation, a Christian nation of Eastern Orthodox tradition, is buried deep beneath a veritable mountain of lies and revisionist propaganda, myth and demonisation courtesy of belligerent Islamist imperialist forces and their Western allies.
That posting was followed up with one entitled "Bosnia and Herzegovina: Fragile stability threatened by Islamisation" (12 October 2006).
The 1992-1995 Bosnian war was essentially over the status of Bosnian Serbs. In 1992 the Bosnian Serb rejection of the Islamist Izetbegovic's illegal, unconstitutional move to declare Bosnia independent from Yugoslavia triggered war. As Bosnian Muslims (Bosniacs) fought for an independent, united, Muslim Bosnia, Bosnian Serbs fought to retain their liberty and autonomy as they had no desire to be reduced to a Christian minority in an Islamic state, let alone be further separated from their fellow Serbs.
The Dayton Accords of 1995 ended the Bosnian war by establishing an independent Bosnia divided into two autonomous entities: the Muslim-Croat Federation, which today is under immense strain, and the Republika Srpksa (RS, Serb Republic).
Hard-line Islamists have never accepted the Dayton Accords and view it as a betrayal by their war-time allies, the US. For RS to be part of an independent Bosnia, yet autonomous and not under Muslim rule, is totally against the Islamist order. Izetbegovic only signed the Dayton Accords because he feared that without I-FOR (the international peace keeping force) on the ground, Serbia and Croatia would attempt to divide Bosnia between them and that Bosnia alone would not have the capacity to resist. Izetbegovic knew the Bosniacs needed both the US to keep the peace and Iran to re-arm and advance the Islamist agenda.
The loudest voice against the "partitioning" of Bosnia and Herzegovina was war-time Foreign Minister and Prime Minister, Haris Silajdzic. Over the years Silajdzic has been persistently critical of Izetbegovic for making what he believed were too many concessions.
On 1 October 2006, Haris Silajdzic was elected as the Muslim representative in Bosnia's tripartite presidency. Central to his election campaign was his proposal that RS be dissolved. Silajdzic uses words that impress the West, such as united, democratic and non-sectarian. But what he is advancing is the Islamic agenda to put all Bosnian territory and citizens under Muslim rule.
Further to this, Bosnia is under immense pressure from the West to move from the "Dayton phase" to the "European phase". Before it can join the EU, Bosnia is being advised that it must undergo constitutional reforms aimed at strengthening the central government at the expense of the entities. Some of these reforms are unacceptable to the Bosnian Serbs as they lessen their autonomy. The Orthodox Serbs are especially determined to retain autonomy in the area of policing as they do not want to be under a centrally administered, Muslim-dominated police force. Islamist imperialists and their naive supporters then label Serb resistance to dhimmitude as racist and ultra-nationalist!
The situation in Bosnia is explosive. Serbs (Orthodox) and Croats (Catholic) are both becoming agitated by the Islamist imperialistic rhetoric that is rising in an increasingly Islamised Bosnia. The situation today closely resembles 1992.
KOSOVO
Ever since the Serbs liberated themselves from Ottoman (Islamic) rule (1912-1913), "Kosovars" (descendents of Albanian Muslims who migrated into Kosovo during the Ottoman era) have been complaining of "occupation" and agitating along secessionist lines. And the secessionism is both pan-Islamic and nationalistic in character.
The contemporary Kosovar vs Serb contest for Kosovo has really been going for almost a century now. Both sides have attempted to advance their status by diminishing the "other" when circumstances permitted. The Serb cause however, was particularly hurt by the Nazi-Muslim alliance in World War Two.
Yugoslavia came under Nazi occupation in April 1941, and while the Croats, Bosniacs and Kosovars were all allies of the Axis powers, the Serbs were aligned with the Allies. The Nazis, who viewed the Serbs as a threat to the Nazi advance in the Balkans, classed the Serbs as a "lesser race" to be exterminated along with Jews and Roma/Gypsies. Islamic imperialists joined Muslim Waffen-SS units, such as the mostly Bosniac Handschar Division in Bosnia and the mostly Kosovar Skenderbeg Division in Kosovo, and massacred Serbs with impunity.
The Axis powers created a "New" or "Greater Albania" by annexing territory from Montenegro and Serbia, including Kosovo and the western part of southern Serbia that is today part of Macedonia. Wide-scale ethnic cleansing occurred, aimed at creating an ethnically pure Albanian Kosovo, or "Kosova". The fascist Prime Minister of Greater Albania, Mustafa Kruja, and the Muslim leader of the Albanian National Committee, Bedri Pejani, both called for the total extermination of all Orthodox Serb Christians in Kosovo. Pejani also advocated for the union of Greater Albania with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Nazi-allied Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammad Amin al Husseini, approved the plan as being in the interests of Islam. However the Nazis, recognising that an Islamic super-state was not in their long-term interests, rejected the idea and kept the Muslim Bosniacs and Kosovars geographically separated.
Through the WW2 Nazi-Muslim holocaust in Yugoslavia, some one million Serbs, sixty thousand Jews and eighty thousand Roma were exterminated.
The Islamic imperialist agenda being advanced through the Nazi-Muslim alliance during WW2 was scuttled when the Allies won the war. However, while resistance to Nazi occupation came from both the Partisans (Communists, led by Marshall Tito, a Croat) and the Loyalists (loyal to Yugoslavia's ruling Serb monarchy), Winston Churchill elected to abandon his Serb allies and support the Communists for political expediency (peace with the Soviets). This guaranteed a Communist victory and further suffering for the Serbs.
Marshall Tito divided Yugoslavia along ethnic lines in order to destroy the hegemony of the Serbs who were the largest ethnic group in Yugoslavia. While the various ethnic minorities lived in their ethnic regions, Serbs, though concentrated in Serbia, were scattered over the whole nation. Dividing Yugoslavia along ethnic lines left millions of Serbs as religious and ethnic minorities under the rule of those who had attempted genocide against them in World War Two. Tito also re-cast the borderless regions of Kosovo and Metohija as a single, bordered province within Serbia. Tito was keen to form a federation with Communist Albania so he denied the Serbs who had been ethnically cleansed from Kosovo during WW2 the right to return. In an effort to appease Kosovar separatists, Tito granted Kosovo autonomy in 1974.
When Kosovo's autonomy was revoked in 1989 on account of rising persecution of Serbs and sectarian unrest, Kosovar separatism increased, even to the extent that the Kosovars set up a parallel government. Milosevic dissolved Kosovo's Kosovar legislature after it unilaterally declared Kosovo independent. While Albania recognised the "Republic of Kosova" the international community did not because at that time it still respected International Law and the UN Charter and would not re-draw international borders just to appease separatists, Islamic imperialists or terrorists.
Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since 1999. During this time, around 150 historic Serbian monasteries and churches have been destroyed while some 400 mosques have been built. Meanwhile it is estimated that more than 1,000 Serbs and Roma (no Jews, because the KLA drove out all the Jews in 1999) have been kidnapped, killed and disappeared, while around 230,000 Serbs have been ethnically cleansed.
On Friday 2 February 2007, UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari presented his proposal on the status of Kosovo. Ahtisaari has proposed that Kosovo have supervised independence.
The Kosovars have accepted the proposal while the Serbs naturally reject what is essentially a plan to excise 15 percent of Serbia's territory, which includes its historic spiritual heartland of Metohija and cede it to Kosovar Muslim separatists.
Ahtisaari's proposal now goes to the UN Security Council where Russia and China will oppose it while the US and the UK will support it.
The UN cannot declare Kosovo independent without unleashing a torrent of secessionist claims across the globe and Kosovo, which claims to be special and unique but isn't, would be the precedent for them all. Russia and China would both be threatened, which is probably one of several reasons, along with appeasement of Islamists and attraction to myth, why the US and the UK are supporting it.
The Serbs are advocating for Kosovo to have autonomy within Serbia (see http://www.kosovocompromise.com/ ). However Kosovars and other Islamist imperialists will doubtless accept nothing less than full independence.
The situation in the Balkans is explosive and Kosovo may well prove to be the fuse.