Although various of my friends have mentioned that there's widespread killing, and destruction of monasteries and churches in Kosovo - the Albanians doing this to the Serbians - I can't find anything about this in the news.
There have been a couple vague mentions of violence and that 28 people were killed. I can't find *any* mention of destruction of religious buildings, although I have looked in more than 4500 news sources.
Furthermore, the vague references to what's going on all suggest that NATO is doing everything in their power to prevent further bloodshed, while the article referred to by the OCA folks seems to suggest that they are doing nothing.
I find all of this very odd/suspicious/strange/troubling. While I have come to mistrust - well, most of the time, actively disbelieve - the mainstream US media outlets, it would seem that looking at news.google.com on a regular basis would give me enough of a spread of new sources that the overall effect would be that I'd get at least most of the truth most of the time.
So, what's actually going on over there, and who is putting the spin on things to advance their own particular agenda? Is the conflict primarily the latest incarnation of the ongoing ethnic war that's been going on for a few hundred years (or since Ishmael, depending on how you count) or is this an organized Jihad?
Ok, found one:
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100022_27/03/2004_41121
The indication here is that Mosques in Serbia have also been burned. So it would seem that it's not quite as one-sided as the OCA statement would lead us to believe.
I wonder why I could not find any of these yesterday:
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/templates/NewsTemplate_3.asp?recid=2491&table=news&bimage=news&issue=7359&count=2
Posted by: DrBacchus on March 27, 2004 08:21 AMI am sorry you must have missed the part of that address from his Beatitude that said this:
"During this turbulent time one should avoid any form of senseless and foolish revenge, such as that which certain imprudent persons committed against mosques in Belgrade and that in Nis."
It seems to me that right there our Patriarch was acknowledging the burning and destruction of mosques and was condemning it.
And I find it hard to believe that you could be so callous in this situation when you have yourself railed against the apparent lack of action on the part of NATO and others when the peoples of Africa were being mistreated. Of course we as Orthodox Christians are outraged at the destruction of Holy Sites and the injuring or murder of Clergy, Monastics and Faithful, just as you being still very African, are outraged when those who you feel kinship for are being killed and displaced.
Bottom line whether you are Orthodox or not, the spiritual heritage and identity of the Serbian Orthodox people is being systematically wiped out, I am not sure how you can deny that.
Posted by: Chris J. Davis on March 27, 2004 12:08 PMI'm not attempting to deny it. What I'm marvelling at was the apparent absense of any mention of it in the news.
Seems that the EU has a particular agenda to push. For example, they seem to value political correctness over peace, insisting that they won't permit Kosovo to be an independent state, because it would be essentially one ethnic group. Even though that would likely promote peace.
Seems that NATO has a particular agenda, and wants the world to see them as doing a good job, even though they apparently are not. Much like they seem to do in the rest of the world, or the UN, depending on the context.
Seems that the US press doesn't want us to know that this is going on. Perhaps it's because Iraq is what we're supposed to care about. Or was it Afghanistan? I forget.
Seems that the US government doesn't want us to know about conflicts that we're not actively involved in, because we have no reason to care and/or we don't want to be perceived as being inactive in things that matter.
I'm sorry I came across as being callous. I'm perplexed by the apparent contradictions in what's getting reported. I wasn't attempting to "take sides", although it always seems more likely that the people actually in the area would know what's going on a little better than the furriners. The later news stories seem to support this idea.
This was yet one more time that I marvel at what the press chooses to report, and what they don't.
Posted by: DrBacchus on March 27, 2004 12:22 PM