[2banana]

Bosnian Muslims survived the horror of the Balkan wars of the 1990s, with hundreds of thousands of dead, tens of thousands of rape victims, and thousands of destroyed mosques, but with their Islamic spirituality and conscience intact. They did this because they were firm in their commitment to civility with their non-Muslim neighbors and acceptance of the legal norms of the West. Their Islamic leaders do not brand non-Muslims “unbelievers” (much less “infidels,” a term the Christian origin of which is revealed by its Latin roots.) They were tested by atrocities and horrors, and were forced to fight for their lives. But these Muslim teachers accept peace and preach peace. In all my time with them I have never heard the term “jihad” pass their lips.

Has the author done any research? Large areas of Bosnia were ethnically cleansed of infidels. And Kosovo is a textbook case on how muslims treat infidels when they come into power...

[wideawake]

Shhhh!!! Never criticize Stephen Schwartz.

I offered a critique of another column he wrote, and he accused me of censorship and of establishing a dictatorship because I thought his column on "Saul Bellow as Jewish Pope" was weird.

[Valin]

Has the author done any research?

He's spent a lot of time actually LIVING there.

Large areas of Bosnia were ethnically cleansed of infidels.

And the reverse is also true.
4/244/01 Bosnian Serbs blocked a takeover of their part of Serajevo after an int’l. judge gave it to the Muslim-Croat federation.
(WSJ, 4/25/01, p.A1)

4/30/99 Serbian forces began a forced evacuation of Prizren and 10,000 people crossed the border to Albania.
(SFC, 5/1/99, p.A6)


5/2/99 Serbian police ambushed a convoy of ethnic Albanians near Studime and 109 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/19/99, p.A12)(SFC, 3/8/02, p.A14)

3/31/99 Dzakovo, Kosovo, a witness reported the Serbian paramilitary forces invade a mosque during morning prayers and killed some 80 people.
(SFC, 4/6/99, p.A8)



Just a couple of quick examples