Common misperceptions propagated by the media. The underlying divisions in the former Yugoslavia are along religious lines
Once again, religion was quite influential in the divisions, but in none of this do we see the Serbs exporting murder to unattached innocents as we see in the case of muslims worldwide. Moreover, in none of this conflict do we see Serbs appealing to Christianity for justification as we see muslims appealing directly to islam. Serbs were fighting against those who were directly involved in the threat to them, a threat which resulted of Hitler's efforts to destroy them. Religion has some indirect influence here. It always does, whether secular or theistic. But Serbs are not out murdering anyone in the name of Christ as muslims are murdering people worldwide in the name of allah, chanting the Koran as they slaughter. That is the point. You really have no argument here.
, but are being exploited by thoses who are obviously not representing the faiths - Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and Muslims.
You are in no position to claim these people were not representing their faiths. They think they are representing their faith and in the case of muslims, their opinion trumps yours because they are the ones, unlike all others, who are threatening the very existence of every civilized nation on earth, all directly in the of heathen allah. The Serbs have never done this, certainly not in the name of any religion.
The so-called 'ethnic' differences are revisionist contrivances meant to obscure the fact that religion is again being hijacked for worldly means.
The people involved in these conflicts do not think they are hijacking anything. They are living their faiths as they see it. It just so happens that with muslims, living their faith means murdering innocent people indiscrimminently, directly, and in the name of a heathen god. There are no indirect invocations of diety where muslims are concerned. It is all done openly and directly. Serbs have never done anything like this.
Here is a good article:
Dear me. You are terribly naive and uncritical. This "Swans" is not exactly an unbiased source.
If your point is that they were merely revenging themselves on the Croats for their WWII massacres, that's fine. But, the basic fact is that the Serbs and Croats have a mutual hate that is bred from their different religions.
I never argued against this. Religion is inescapable, whether theistic or secularistic. It underlies all conflicts. But this teaches us nothing. The point is that the Serbian struggle is not being prosecuted in the name of Christianity. But the muslim struggle is being prosecuted in the name of islam. Serbian religion apparently does not permit itself to be defined by the wholesale barbarity that is clearly permitted, without challenge, by islam. In fact there is no Christian group anywhere on earth that, in the name of Christ, employs without challenge the wholesale barbarity we see being exported worldwide in islam.
Christians killing Christians is a common theme in history. Protestants versus Catholics, Popes versus anti-Popes, Roman Catholic vs Orthodox. Just because they're all Christians didn't stop them from slaughtering each other in the name of 'their' brand of Jesus.
The problem with this is that most of the wars you mentioned were done by Catholics against other Catholics, all reporting to the same Pope. So clearly religion here was not being invoked as justification for these conflicts. It surely had some underlying influence, but since both parties agreed religiously, the conflicts obviously were based upon something else. Therefore, the lion's share of these conflicts are unavailable to you. You are left with such conflicts as the Crusades and the Inquisition. The Protestant/Catholic conflicts came along much later in history and the deaths they caused were very small relative to the deaths caused by islam and Atheism. In none of these conflicts do we find the razing of entire nations and slaughter of tens of millions of people. But we do find this carnage in the wake of islam and Atheism.
To them, they WERE out to destroy what they saw as a 'heretical' version of Christianity.
Very small when compared with the death and destruction wrought upon the earth by the religions of islam and Atheism. |
