Religious Intolerance in Kosova

I have received recently the English translation of an article published in Albania, in the Kosova media, about the growing religious intolerance in this new country. The author, Nga Gani Mehmetaj, is a known journalist and director of KosovaFilm, a state-owned film company. He is a member of the Evangelical Protestant Church in Kosova.

The translation is far from perfect, but it is good enough to be understood by those who do not know Albanian.

Please read below the translated text. The original article can be found HERE.

If the police, state and the Intelligent Servile of Kosova was acting, some phenomens and problems that are treated in this article would have been their responsibility. Unfortunately, the worst ant-Albanian declarations in the last 100 years have been handed out, antinational Islamic organizations are acting, and no one know for sure where their head is, in Serbia or Arabia- and no one dears to oppose! How bad for the citizens of the new state, if it continues like this…

1. We always declared that we excel in patience and religious tolerance. We highlight this vainglory in front of the foreigners, like it really is to be proud of being so tolerant towards each other! In other words we blow the trumpet that we don’t kill one another for religion (!) instead of fighting for our mother land. In other words they would call it a civil war or religious war like in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran and all over the Islamic world, where they still didn’t pass the midlevel time. We are in Europe, Why do we have to take Oriental world as a model?

We never had differences inside the nation itself. Our fatality was collective: Serbians and Greeks didn’t bother if we were Muslims or Christians, but they dimidiated us because we were Albanians. Our enemies wanted our lands without our resentence on them. And surprisingly this two states have excellent relations with the Muslim states, but not with Albanians!!!

We blow the trumpet loudly for religious tolerance even to our selves, whenever we want to damp down any spark of religious intolerance, stimulated by foreigners, however we are very much aware that we are deciving ourselves, or we try to be self-convinced that it is so.  How does this religious tolerance reflect? All you need is a group of people that came from the Islamic world, with dresses almost covering their feet, to challenge the tolerance among us, with a lump sum of money. Before the war the Intra-nation unity was to be taken as good example. After the war, when lukunia and Muslim organizations came, a scary intolerance started to rise up. Our intellectuals, in order to neutralize these swarthy fanatics, give declarations that there is no way someone is going to divide us, that we are known for religious tolerance, gossip and so one. After they treat silent declarations of those that boast after threats because they consider themselves to be the “absolute majority”, like some clergyman declares with primitive arrogance. They remain silent even before those that supposedly become generous, by saying that they are tolerating the minority, they don’t obstruct its rituals , but they should ….still be aware and carful!!!

Hysterical responses ( I’m not saying that they are collective, God forbid, the majority in fact stays silent and watches the spectacle, the minority gets furious) they are groups, they are from absolute minorities, well financed and organized, they are extremely aggressive, very violent if we take into consideration the language that manifests through them.  More than ones they have desecrated the graves of those that have “betrayed” the Islamic religion and have gone back to their old religion. It is still fresh in our memories the desecration of the grave that some Muslim groups did to one of our well known writers, some years ago, because he had embraced the Catholic region again. We didn’t react, we ignored the fact or we didn’t have enough courage to say something, I don’t know which one of this two is true.  It can still be consider resent the desecration of Albanian graves-traditional Muslims graves or the graves of important people that were close to the old mosques. In fact one Islamic organization started demolishing graves in one of our towns, allegedly for the renovation of a mosque and this went on until people react. These types of groups never got cut or punished!!! Was this doen in the name of religious tolerance?!!!

Our media give plenty of space to some excesses in the idea of trying to equalize them. And some other they treat silent because they don’t want to discreditate or because they don’t have enough information to deal with them. How much did you hear about the imams that have incited violence against Christian Fellowships in Kaçanik, Decan or Istog, besides this entire happening people that live in these two towns are proud of their Christian background and they never try to hide it. In fact some of these families still keep with pride their Christian last names. How many times has something been written on the newspapers about the bomb threats that have been made against the Christian Churches from the “ Muslims that don’t forgive”? The world knows about all these things that are going on and it doesn’t matter if we hide it from our own opinion.

2. When some Catholic Albanians began getting baptized in Malisheva, a surprising raging of Muslim groups started at ones( and again, it wasn’t a collective reaction), financed from Arabia and Serbia, it’s hard to admit it, however Muslim states and Serbia and Russia have shared the same statement towards Kosova. Not even one newspaper said or for the sake of truth said it too late, that Albanians were Catholics since the preaching of Apostle Paul in the land of Illyricum, but with the changes that took place on religious configurations, Catholic Illyrians remained minority. And in the spirit of religious(in)tolerance of the Albanian  Muslim majority or of the tolerance that they disseminate for the others, catholic Illyrians didn’t have courage to practice their religion inside the Albanian territories. Even when the Serbian authorities were chased away, when we thought that the freedom came, so that they could declare with no fear that they want to worship Christ, the “fanatic” Muslims appear in scene, professional mercenaries that made an invasion on newspapers and web-pages, they started throwing stones and trashing on them.  It was discounting to read web-page comments those days. Even if those that were baptized were Muslim Albanians…so what? Do these imported Muslims with desert mentality want to keep by force ethnic Albanians and force ethnic Albanians on their religious confessions they need to make or take? Do we have to give explanations to wehabi and to devil and his son for our religious rights in our on state that we made it be with a lot of blood that was shed, did we do all this so that “these Muslims that don’t forgive” will muck it up?

Is this what you call religious tolerance? Is this mercenary furriness or encouraged ignorance from Anti-Albanian Serbians and Arabians?! May Gog keep us and save us from these fantaksated people, because our state and the democratic and intellectual voices are remaining silent. Intellectuals are treating this matter silent because they don’t have any protection, while “Muslims that don’t forgive” are terrorist groups that punish during the night in the suburbs through cities and villages. One day they will take control of the centre of town too, if we don’t come up against them. The state is silent since it doesn’t exist, because if it was existing and acting it shouldn’t have been silent towards many phenomenon of this kind, but instead  It would have taken stringent measures against anti-Albanian  Islamic organizations, that scatter religious hatred, they violate the chastity of old women and young ladies that need a helping hand. It is being said this days, that scandal of the Imam in Skenderaj is nothing compare to other scandals that can happen in some other mosques in the suburbs of Prishtina. May God take control and all this remains just gossip, because what I have heard has trembled me.

3. “Muslims don’t forgive” is the most anti-Albanian slogan that has ever been spread around.  This slogan appeared one morning in Prishtina, the capital of Albanians like they where fetva (Muslim rules on how to act)  of Homen’s Mujahedeen. There actually after the fetvas of mujahedeen, head were being cot of.  Some have ripped of with disgusting, groups of words from the walls of Prishtina, that could make you sick; other just passed by dispersed of not knowing if they were in Teheran or in Prishtina? Reading  this anti-Albanian   slogan with despise and indignation ( because Kosova is the state of Albanians and not the state of Muslims), it reminded me of a similar slogan that were said and spread out around  ten years ago: “ Serbians don’t forgive”! And not long after these slogans the massacres against Albanians, Bosnians and Croatians began.  And now: Who are Muslims not forgiving in the Albanian territories?!They dont forgive Albanians?! Are these Muslims that don’t forgive, going to start a war against Albanians, just like Serbians did ten years ago? This slogan, spread out by militant Islamic groups all over Prishtina and financed from Serbia and Arabia, really breaks your heart.

Meanwhile, Islamic organizations from desert, organized by some Albanian -mercenary, for ten years now, have initiated a scary hatred between Albanians, that only our inexcusable ignorance allows; they disseminate hostile statement towards Americans and western world in general, trying to make us forget that, it was for Americans and the western world that we were saved from genocide, and not by Muslim states that in in contrary supported the genocide of Serbians against us.  Representatives from the Muslim states that are serving in Prishtina want to buy Coca-Cola made in Serbian and not in Albania or Kosova, Because, they say to our sellers, Serbia is against America, that’s why they want to help and support the economy of a nation that’s fights against America. These swarthy people sun-tanned from the sun of desert, in the heart of Albanian land, request to buy Serbian products and they refuse Albanian products, inside the land of Albanians

The anti-Albanian slogan : “Muslims don’t forgive!”, spread out all around the streets of Prishtina as well as the rage ideology against Americans all over Kosova, it’s not the matter to be treated in the newspapers buts it is a job and issue for the Kosova Police and the Kosovar Secret Service, that unfortunately  we don’t have, because if we did have such authorities, organizations like this wouldn’t have been allowed to operate freely, their people to march just like the solders of Sheshel or Serbian gangsters, and to be violent in the mosques and make threats. All this is going to come to harm against us. Islamic Community treats silent these facts they report these things only when they get aggressive against them eswell, when they occupy their mosques and when they attract their believers with big amounts of money. It looks like some imam groups get many for their silence (they stay silent even for the matter of the mosques being painted white that is not part of the Muslim tradition in Kosova, rather it is a wehabian tradition, that in fact were the greatest enemies of an Albanian, called Mehmet Pasha of Egypt, who in fact fought against them and tried to wipe them off from the face of the earth) Besides all this with their silence they approve arising o the violent religious spirit.

4. The laud echo for our religious tolerance, brocken-hearted I can say was clearly seen with the campaign for building a Catholic Cathedral in Prishtina. Even though we were the only European and Albanian capital that didn’t have a cathedral (Skopje and Tirana both have them), although a cathedra, where Pjeter Bogdani was buried, existed until the beginning of World War Two, when the Serbians ruined it, earlier it was  burned from Turkish, a clutch of Albanians upraised fuming with rage, threatening so it would not be build. And these militants against the cathedral forgot completely that Prishtina is in Europe and not in Asia or Arabia, where cathedrals aren’t permitted; they completely forgot that Europe is the land of Cathedrals and Churches. They seemed to be so anachronistic as well as dangerous because they were trying to stimulate the feeling of impatience and intolerance. The wise man continued the work following the rule: “The Caravan goes on…”

“Albanians are converting, Albanians are abandoning Islam”,- are some of the common words you can hear from the religious leaders, in a form of accusation. This Asian mentality completely forgets that Albanians now live in freedom and democracy; therefore it is their absolute very basic right to be part of any religion they wish. There is no one to stop them. I personally have heard from the clericals saying that they have made an agreement between them self so they want take believers from one another, serving in this way the spirit of religious tolerance! Do these clericals live in the time of slavery or in the 21-st century?! Do they thing that Albanians of Kosova are serfs, Russian slaves or free people?! How dear they do trade with people, deciding what religion they are going to belong to, trying to violate the will of Albanians by making such agreements?!

And all in the end, to the “Muslims that don’t forgive”: Albanians do forgive, it is part of their genetic code, they are not Muslims nor Serbians, but Albanians, and in particular their state should not tolerate beyond  measure the mentality of people from the desert that in the name of giving humanitarian help and in the name of religion they plant intolerance and hatred.  The Police should deal with these groups. So far not even one Islamic State has entered Europe and it’s never going to happen. The civilizations are separated. It is our good luck that we are in Europe but we must deserve Europe.