[soonahonsefalh]

The imminent declaration of independence by Kosovo from Serbia is surely another act by the US, Britain and the EU to increase western hegemony and evidence of the west's antipathy to Orthodoxy.

[jeaccatty]

The imminent declaration of independence by Kosovo from Serbia is surely another act by the US, Britain and the EU to increase western hegemony and evidence of the west's antipathy to Orthodoxy.

In the US we fought a bloody civil war to prevent states from declaring their independence and separating from the union. Now we foster and support the same rebellion that we ourselves once abhorred and violently opposed.

Fr David Moser

[immoceefe]

A new political paradigm these days. I do not understand it. It seems like madness to support the formation of a new country that will cetainly be anti-Christian, not to mention anti-Orthodox. But then the backers of this new country aren't supporters of the Christian worldview, but something entirely secular and ultimately anti-Christ.

But what can you expect? Outside of the RC Church (which ,as a direct competitor to Orthodoxy, is hostile), I think the West generally isn't particularly hostile to Orthodoxy. It's far too ignorant of it to have any real opinion about it. It's not on the Western radar screen at all. So they are not going to consider that Orthodoxy counts for anything politically or religiously. I would say that the US government is even more ignorant about Orthodoxy and Orthodox history as they were about Islam and muslims (before 9/11). Our politicians (federal or state) never visit Orthodox churches or church leaders, whereas you can see swarms of Protestant or Catholic leaders visiting them or receiving them. I would guess that western European politicians are no better.

Rather than see ourselves as poor, pitiful victims of supposed Western hostility, it would be far more constructive to make our presence much better known to the West. So far, Orthodoxy in the West has been too content to hide itself in ethnic enclaves, while Orthodoxy in the home countries has been suppressed by their governments up until recently. In either case, Orthodoxy is invisible to Westerners. Only rarely is Byzantine history taught--and when it is it's on the graduate level only for specialists--instead our entire school system is geared toward Western history, religion and Western ideologies. So of course the West is ignorant of the Orthodox and the Orthodox home countries and their concerns.

Because of all this, absolutely NO non-Orthodox will begin to take the Orthodox into consideration until the Orthodox themselves begin to make a strong case for themselves and do so often and consistently. So far that hasn't been done very well. The work was begun by Fr. Seraphim Rose, but it needs to go a lot further on. What are you doing in England to foster understanding among the ordinary folks there? How can this be done in either England or the US?

It would help also for Orthodoxy to present itself a unified front, which doesn't seem to be the case now with all the divisions (both nationalistic, political and theological) that are creeping in.

As the saying goes, it's the squeaky wheel that gets oiled.

[Ltftujkg]

Thaci, a thug and a terrorist will declare Kosovo's independence tomorrow, something Nato once swore would never happen.

"Apart from sending fighters to aid the KLA during the struggle in Kosovo with the Serbs, al-Qaeda is believed to have contributed funds to Albanian separatists and to have established strong links with Albanian Mafia leaders, who aid the formally disbanded but still existing KLA in schemes to raise money through narco-trafficking, prostitution and gun-running"

The Albanian Mafia controls the major Balkans narcotics-smuggling route that runs through Turkey, Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo and FYROM. Although evidence remains sketchy of al-Qaeda involvement in narcotics, that isn't the case for the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan that profited from the heroin trade.

According to Fatos Klosi, the head of Albanian intelligence, a major network of bin Laden supporters was established in 1998 in Albania under the cover of various Muslim charities. The network served as a springboard for operations in Europe. Klosi claimed the network had "already infiltrated other parts of Europe from bases in Albania through traffic in illegal immigrants, who have been smuggled by speedboat across the Mediterranean to Italy in large numbers."

The UCK(KLA) was recognized as a terrorist organization by the US State Department.

"Osama Bin Laden

The origins of the KLA are somewhat murky, as are its current finances, but there are those who say the KLA was founded by hardline Muslim Communists who were frustrated by the Kosovar Albanian leadership's policy of nonviolent protest. Also, according to the Financial Times, the KLA is partially funded by drug proceeds. There is no doubt that mujahideen from the Persian Gulf have been fighting alongside ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

The coercive, even murderous, methods the KLA used against ethnic Albanians to squelch dissent, as well as its attacks on Serbian police and civilians, earned it the terrorist designation from our State Department. Last February, for example, Robert Gelbard, then the department's point man on Kosovo, told Agence France Presse that the KLA rebels were terrorists. "We condemn very strongly terrorist actions in Kosovo," said Gelbard. "The UCK is, without any questions, a terrorist group."

Deeply troubling to some lawmakers are the ties between the KLA and anti-American Muslim terrorist Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden has millions of dollars, hundreds of followers, and has sworn to destroy America, which he sees as the main roadblock to the worldwide Islamic state.he wants to create. "



"Ten years ago we were arming and equipping the worst elements of the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan - drug traffickers, arms smugglers, anti-American terrorists…Now we're doing the same thing with the KLA, which is tied in with every known middle and far eastern drug cartel. Interpol, Europol, and nearly every European intelligence and counter-narcotics agency has files open on drug syndicates that lead right to the KLA, and right to Albanian gangs in this country."

former DEA agent and author Michael Levine
Quoted in the New American Magazine, May 24, 1999

We will now have another "state of Israel" right on our doorsteps. May God help us! Irresponsible politicians who can't help playing God have created another monster.

God help the few Serbs who have not been driven out and especially, God help the remaining Orthodox monasteries and their monks and nuns.

[CIAFreeAgent]

In the US we fought a bloody civil war to prevent states from declaring their independence and separating from the union. Now we foster and support the same rebellion that we ourselves once abhorred and violently opposed.

Fr David Moser

And we're doing it, supposedly, to be "fair" to Muslims ...

[vipBrooriErok]

I don't agree with this sentiment. Whether or not Kosovo is independent really doesn't matter. What matters is that there is peace and harmony, and that the Gospel can be declared there. There is an Albanian Orthodox Church, after all, and it could be quite possible given effort and prayer that the churches which used to have liturgies in Serbian will one day have them in Albanian. Is one really more important? Or does one group have the only "right" to the area? Come on, Serbs and Albanians have lived in the area for centuries. Instead of talking gloomily, we can try to work for something good--that Muslim Albanians will return to their roots in the Orthodox Church.

[soonahonsefalh]

In the US we fought a bloody civil war to prevent states from declaring their independence and separating from the union. Now we foster and support the same rebellion that we ourselves once abhorred and violently opposed.

Fr David Moser And in favour of Islamic thugs against Orthodox Christians. The website of Bishop Artemije shows how the cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Pristina is surrounded by a gypsy camp and used as a public latrine. The communists demolished the church of Our Lady of Kazan in Red Square, Moscow and built a public toilet on the site of the sanctuary. Thanks God, that church has been rebuilt. But the western powers are now content to preside over the same diabolic desecration in Kosovo. Who will say that they are not doing the work of antichrist?

[ApporpSothe]

I write from Serbia and I apologize beacouse my english is don't enough good. First I want to thank monachos.net Community for information about Kosovo and Metohija.

Secondly the 'independence' of Kosovo... is that some kind of joke!
I also free to ask does Europe has lost its moral compass?! Certainly looks like it?

Head and leader of Serbian Orthodox Church is Patriarch Pavle (Paul), with official title His Holiness the Archbishop of Pec (Kosovo-Albanians changed its name to Peja), Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovci, Patriarch of Serbs.

Also, the double standards used by the West are the problem. The West said: 'the republic border of Yugoslavia are unchangeable'. That instruction hurt the Serbs the most in 1991. But now the same West are saying: 'The border of Serbia could be changed'. Why?

Why don't we go and speak to the 'official' Kosovo-Albanian Tourism agency and ask them what their take on Gracanica is? Who built monasteries etc..'Probably' the Kosovars-Albanian built it? Who are the Kosovars-Albanian?

Gracanica monastery and other monasteries in Kosovo-Metohija was built in the 11th-14th century and Gracanica is one of King Milutin's last monumental endowments. So much for Serbs 'occupying and colonising' Kosovo. Correct me if I am wrong, but Albanians have anything there that was built beacouse Kosovo and Metohija was part state of Serbia not Albania never.

[Freeptube]

I don't agree with this sentiment. Whether or not Kosovo is independent really doesn't matter. What matters is that there is peace and harmony, and that the Gospel can be declared there. There is an Albanian Orthodox Church, after all, and it could be quite possible given effort and prayer that the churches which used to have liturgies in Serbian will one day have them in Albanian. Is one really more important? Or does one group have the only "right" to the area? Come on, Serbs and Albanians have lived in the area for centuries. Instead of talking gloomily, we can try to work for something good--that Muslim Albanians will return to their roots in the Orthodox Church.

Of course it matters if Kosovo is independent or not. In the times of EU we live, it is über-oxymoronic to have some land in the middle of Europe declare independence. It is not that now we are in 1910s and the "Greater Powers" are deciding the borders. What does it mean to have Kosovo independent?! Why? What are they trying to achieve with that independence? Read this - if they are Albanians why the new flag?

We pray about the situation to be peaceful and harmonious, but history past has not shown the same. The Albanian Orthodox Church does not include Kosovo. And it is not that Kosovo area was off limits from other Orthodox. There are some camps organized there by the AOC and maybe God willing things will change as you say (and I like your attitude on this matter) however those that are called Muslim Albanians are not really descendants of Albanians. Since the majority was brought there during Ottoman Empire from Turkey, when the Christians of that area were persecuted, killed etc. Their properties and homes were confiscated and turkish families were planted there and of course some other families who committed apostasy. Some days ago I even came across a video (but I can not find it at the moment) which claimed that the Serbian Orthodox churches of Kosovo, are really Albanian Catholic churches (!!!). This is such unscrupulous lie.

The Gospel not only has been declared there centuries ago but the Gospel lived there through the Serbian Orthodox, but Kosovo Albanians did not care for Christianity because they would have converted during all these years. With God nothing is impossible and I pray that things will work for the better, and we all must pray, however a prophecy of St. Kosmas Aetolos about Dalmatia rings in mind. Of course I do not know what it means and of course I can not interpret prophecies of our saints. We can just pray.

I have read things such as "United States of Albania", "Greater Albania" and that after getting Kosovo they will head towards Greece to get more land (!!!). I just pray that God shows mercy. Of course we must show love and mercy, but it is also proper to know and say the truth.

[soonahonsefalh]

What Effie says is absolutely right.

Whether or not Kosovo is independent really doesn't matter. What matters is that there is peace and harmony, and that the Gospel can be declared there. No chance! Even while under the 'protection' of KFOR forces, scores maybe hundreds of churches and monasteries have been destroyed in Kosovo. Monks cannot leave their monasteries except in Italian armoured personnel carriers. Independence which has now happened is a disaster for the Orthodox Church there so it should matter to all orthodox Christians.

I think the West generally isn't particularly hostile to Orthodoxy. The west can't stand Orthodoxy. It is hostile to every Orthodox country. They bombed Serbia at Pascha 1999. Ask the Greek Cypriots if the west isn't hostile to Orthodoxy. They do all they can to undermine true Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is associated with Russia and the west can't stand the idea of any sphere not being under its influence.

[Freeptube]

Kosovar Albanian hymn (maybe prospective anthem?). Notice the name of Allah, Mecca and many Islamic symbols.

The phrase as it appears above is a code mistake the phrase should be:

Kosovar Albanian hymn (maybe prospective anthem?). Notice the name of Allah, Mecca and many Islamic symbols.

[Ltftujkg]

Whatever has happened in this region has happened because of the political interests of foreign countries. Might is now right - in fact, isn't this the way it has always been. Politicians, ignorant of history, or pretending ignorance, or, even more likely, disregarding whatever history they managed to learn, have unleashed a monster. Far from their own doorsteps, of course, as is always the case. This blatant misuse of power is now becoming something that no longer surprises us, and I suppose that that is precisely the goal of those who now rule. As I said in my previous message, may God protect us and may our fears be proven groundless.

[AnimeThat]

I would say that the US government is even more ignorant about Orthodoxy and Orthodox history as they were about Islam and muslims (before 9/11).

Karen, I don't know if this statement is accurate. This may be true about the US public, but not the government. After all there is this famous phrase by Zbigniew Brzezinski ‘After the collapse of the USSR, the main enemy of the USA will be the Russian Orthodox Church’.

in the Lord,
Yura

[chuecaloversvv]

All the Churches in Serbia tomorrow will be having special Moleban services for Kosovo. Please include Kosovo in your personal prayers, and perhaps do a prayer rope or two.
In Christ
Tessa

Саопштење за јавност Светог архијерејског синода

Communiqué
of the Holy Hierarchical Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church
Regarding the recent events in Kosovo and Metohija


The Holy Hierarchical Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, at their special meeting held at the Patriarchate on February 17, 2008 brings the following public address for the local and international media regarding the latest events in Kosovo and Metohija:

As the Church has stated countless times in the past also now she states that Kosovo and Metohija was and needs to remain an integral part of Serbia, in accordance to the United Nations Charter, the Security Council decision 1244, as well as all other similar international conventions on human rights and the rights of a people and the protection of internationally recognized state borders. Any other decision represents a violation of Divine and human laws, as well as an assault with long ranging consequences, for both the Balkans and all of Europe. All internationally recognized and confirmed treaties, not annulled till now by any international act, beginning with the Treaty from 1913, the international decision from 1918 and 1945, to the decision of the Security Council 1244 from 1999, together with the recent reception of integral Serbia in the United Nations, affirms that the taking of Kosovo and Metohija from Serbian exemplifies a violence characteristic of periods of occupations and tyrannies, of which we had hoped that their time had passed in Europe and the world. In this particular case it represents a new legalization of the centuries-old Ottoman tyranny and its consequences on these territories, as well as a repetition of the application of a Fascistic solution (of Mussolini and Hitler) to the Kosovo question from the time of World War II, when Kosovo and Metohija were attached to the so-called Great Albania and when hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Serbs were expelled from their centuries-old hearths, as well as in 1999, with the goal that they never return their again.

Having said that, what deeply astonishes us is the fact that, according to the words of one American ambassador, with the now proclaiming and illegal recognition from governments of the United States of America, England, Germany, France, Italy, and others, of the self-proclamation of Kosovo – the bombing of Serbian and Montenegro is complete. Therefore, the supposed protection of human and minority rights of bombing, under the name of “Merciful angels” represented only a preparation for this final violation of justice and the gutting of Serbia’s heart from her bosom.

Thus, considering this proclamation of the independence of Kosovo as illegitimate, a violent act against justice, the Holy Hierarchical Synod and our entire Church, in hopes of a more sooner victory of God’s justice and true human rights, calls upon His Grace Bishop Artemije of Ras and Prizren, his clergy, monastics and the entire Kosovo-Metohija Serbian Orthodox people, as well as others in Kosovo jeopardized by this unjust act, to remain on their homesteads and with their holy sites, preserving peace and confidence in the final victory of God’s justice, having love towards everyone as it is fitting us. May they, in the words of the Apostle Paul, in these difficult times, as they have till now, especially in the Kosovo pain-enduring history, “commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses…by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor” (2 Cor. 6:4-8). Let us always have before our eyes and in our hearts the victorious word of the true God: “Who endures to the end will be saved”.

We await from the United Nations and the Security Council that, in the spirit of their Charter 1244, as well as their international obligations, that they defend and protect this violation of human, religious and the state rights of the Republic of Serbia.

[Ltftujkg]

They bombed Serbia at Pascha 1999. .

We could not believe this when it was happening!!! On Good Friday, Serbia was being bombed..............

Sorry about double post. I thought that I hadn't posted this message and so I reposted the same things a little later on.

[Ltftujkg]

http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-db031099.html

"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The U.S. Role in Kosovo
Testimony of
Doug Bandow, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute

before the

House International Relations Committee Hearing on "The U.S. Role in Kosovo"

March 10, 1999"

We were quite innocent back then.

Andreas mentioned the bombing of Serbia on Good Friday. I think this was a turning point for me. It was then that I realized that certain ideas about certain countries were absolutely wrong. I believe that lots of people lost their political innocence on this day and, probably, like me, started investigating the real reasons behind political actions. Bombing an Orthodox country on it's Good Friday is symbolic of the people behind the bombing.

Benign words together with hypocritical and deceitful public images that are used to hide evil actions, are no longer capable of deceiving us. There are no longer any "good" or "bad" "guys". We have seen the real face - the godless face - of what is really happening in the world.

[Ltftujkg]

A
Rather than see ourselves as poor, pitiful victims of supposed Western hostility, it would be far more constructive to make our presence much better known to the West.

Do you really believe that the Orthodox see themselves as "poor, pitiful victims of supposed Western hostility"?

I don't believe this at all. I do believe that all religions are being targeted because believing in a higher power frees our minds We cannot become slaves to man because we are given to God.

[Seiblybiozy]

Bombing an Orthodox country on it's Good Friday is symbolic of the people behind the bombing.
.

I have to take issue with this Effie.

I think it more proper to say symbolic of what is being told to the people by the media behind the bombing. I will admit I don't now or then know much about the politics, but I do remember being pressed upon us (or at least my understanding) was we were there to bring relief to the poor people by helping them attain a Democratic state. I can't say I remember knowing there were Christians in the middle east so I was always puzzled why we were helping nonchristians but I suppose all people should have a right to vote for their way of living.

I know nothing of the workings of my own government and am sure there are areas I don't want to know about. As much backstabbing as we have within it, I am hard pressed to understand how we get anything accomplished.

Now I know more about Orthodoxy and where we come from and where we need help, I am much more sympathetic to their plight. As much as people do not like President Bush right now, I fear future presidents will have less sympathy for and a propensity for more destruction outside US soil. I bow my head in shame for this as this is my country. But please believe the government is not necessarily representative of its people. We are vicitims of our liberal media.

Paul

[immoceefe]

Needless to say, we (America) would not likely have bombed Serbia had it not been for Milosevic. Not that I am defending it, but let's not forget the person who was a leading cause of the carnage to begin with.

In WWII, the Allies got together to defeat Hitler and Japan, but sadly millions of innocent people were killed, not just Germans and Japanese, but we killed tens of thousands of Africans, Italians and French in bombing raids and artillery fire against the Germans. The first Americans killed in WWII were killed by French soldiers in Morocco and Algeria! And let's not forget Poland, for whom Britain and France entered the war. They ended the war enslaved by the Soviets. So politics and war make for very strange bedfellows. It is never just. And it is never neat and tidy.

And when it comes to reading history, it can bring blessings and curses. I think one of the curses of some is to be harboring resentments from 500 or 1000 years past. The fact is that, for good or for ill, the glory days of a greater Serbia are over, just as they will be for my country some day.

[Oriesssedleli419]

Holy Father Sava, pray for and help your home country.

I am not well read in current events or politics, so I really have nothing of gain to contribute to the discussion at hand. However, the situation in Serbia/Kosovo causes me greater concern about the seeming attack on religion, but specifically Christianity. I am sad to know that the country I live in seems to be 'against' the orthodox serbians. However, I think this is unfortunately representative of the desire of our government to abolish traditional/orthodox Christianity. With the many seemingly anti-Christian laws and lawsuits that have occured in the recent past, I am afraid to see what will continue to happen, especially as the far left liberals continue to gain ground.

We must continue to pray more and more fervently for the peace of the world, for our Orthodox brothers and sisters who are suffering and in bondage.

Forgive me if this is sappy, but I am grived by the current state of things.