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My history studies were not a total waste..

The largest national group here are often considered Slavs. But many Macedonians contend hotly that they are in fact not Slavs, but descended from ancient Macedonians like Alexander the Great. Whatever their descent Whatever is correct. Whatever their descent, they are not the Macedonians of Greece and adopted the name as a way to solidify their nationalist claims.

What complicates matters further is that Mother Teresa was Roman Catholic, while most Albanians are Muslim, and this has opened a crack for speculation about Mother Teresa's actual ethnic roots. Moreover, her brother's name was Lazar, the name of Serbia's most famous prince. "It's very Serbian, to be frank," she said. - This is often forgotten, but the Albanians were Orthodox Christians (with a healthy mix of Latin Catholics) when they fought along side the Serbs under Lazar as allies against the Muslim Turks. To the Albanians who remained Christian, Lazar's name was still honored. There is no mystery here why her brother's name would carry on the name Lazar.

"Mother Teresa was a Vlach from Macedonia," one Macedonian writer posted smugly on a Web site. "Never a Shiptar," a derogatory term for Albanians. Shiptar is what Albanians call themselves in their own language it is not an insult (unless used in the way the Nazi's used the term "Jew") but the claim that Mother Teresa is "Macedonian" is typical of the irrational nationalist claims the pseudo-Macedonians use against the Greeks, Serbs or Bulgarians (whom they most closely resemble as a people).

Currently the "Macedonian Orthodox Church" is not in communion with the rest of Orthodoxy and is considered a schismatic church ever since the communists founded the church as a way to weaken the influence of the Serbian Patriarchite.

1 posted on 08/06/2003 8:29:17 PM PDT by Destro
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To: *balkans
bump
2 posted on 08/06/2003 8:29:41 PM PDT by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorisim by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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To: Destro
I don't know the history of this area, but why are the Albanians now predominantly Muslim? Did they lose the war against the Muslim Turks?
3 posted on 08/06/2003 11:12:45 PM PDT by Canticle_of_Deborah
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To: Destro
I give it 8 posts before the wackos come out of the woodwork, smearing Mother Teresa.
4 posted on 08/07/2003 5:40:39 AM PDT by Conservative til I die (They say anti-Catholicism is the thinking man's anti-Semitism; that's an insult to thinking men)
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To: Destro
Mother Teresa
9 posted on 08/07/2003 10:59:54 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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