What is Anti-American Muslim Hysteria Covering up?

By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of liberty \

May 27, 2005

I have been deluged with e-mail in the past couple of weeks in response to my articles on General Mihailovich being given the Legion of Merit and the deaths and riots supposedly caused by a Newsweek article, later retracted, that claimed Muslim prisoners were being tortured at Guantanamo by flushing their Korans down the toilet. Many people responding totally ignore any facts involved, but react explosively and emontionally to their hurt “feelings.” One e-mail, about Koran flushing began: “How dumb can you be? If I wanted to deface a book any book all I would have to do is tear out pages, crumble them up and flush away. Don't insult your readers by claiming the impossible.”

Of course, that is not what the Newsweek article in question said. What it said was a KORAN was flushed down a toilet – not PAGES from a Koran were flushed down a toilet. The issue, as it developed of course also brought to light that Bibles are routinely shredded by Saudi Arabian customs officials and obviously denied to Bible toting prisoners. That does not, however, cause either an international incident or much reaction even in nominally Christian Western countries.

Secondly, the issue was not about DEFACING a Koran. The word “deface” doesn’t quite describe the same action as flushing down the toilet. If DEFACING a Koran was all it took to torture a Guantanamo Muslim prisoner, the interrogator would simply draw a picture on the Koran. The word “deface” means to “mar the face or appearance of.”

Totally missed by the reader’s emotional response, was the point that there is something seriously amiss when the same nation that routinely and arbitrarily seizes and shreds Bibles, issues a formal protest about Newsweek’s erroneous report that a Koran had been flushed down the toilet at Guantanamo. Also, there is something seriously amiss in the media when such an incident, even if it happened, generates a deluge of worldwide news and riots that lead to the deaths of 17 people. Then the commentators cluck and warn that the incident “proves” that Muslims hate Americans – especially President Bush, when they have either ignored or barely mentioned the total destruction of 140 Christian Churches, by Muslims in Kosovo.

What is it in the way of a developing news story that we are watching here? In this country we are told by the media and by some judges that the 10 Commandments, as found in the Bible, CANNOT be displayed on public property, but the Koran, when the public property is Guantanamo Naval Base, must be treated with reverence and respect by US Government employees to keep Muslims from rioting and trying to kill Americans. .

Clinton’s decision to bomb Belgrade in 1999 was, many say, an effort to curry favor with the Muslims by taking their side in the ongoing battles in Kosovo between the Serbian government, then headed by Slobadan Milosevic, and the Kosovo Liberation Army, an Albanian Muslim organization that was listed for years by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist and criminal organization.

On Monday of this week Alex M., a reader in Belgrade sent me an on-the-spot report concerning the 2005 annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) that held its annual meeting in Belgrade last week. He was encouraged that “EBRD,had chosen not London or Paris, but Belgrade, for its annual meeting.

"Now, this was a clear signal, that Belgrade could become a good host once again, that the country is on a slow but sure path towards the EU, and that foreign investors can now invest even more in Serbia.”

"The visitors were received by Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine, who have been living in the royal palace in Belgrade since 2001, following the toppling of Milosevic and socialism.

I wrote back and asked about the comparative economies of Serbia and Kosovo. He responded:

“Kosovo is a melting pot of chaos, of hate and rascist crimes, of general crime, organized and individual, drug lords, prostitution, human trafficking, weapons smuggling and God knows what else. I like that, the sentence (in a letter to me from Kosovo) that one of your readers wrote - "The Serbs set their own churches on fire". Yeah, sure. We got nothing better to do in our spare time and we set our own churches on fire.

In relation to their economy, Kosovo has a huge reserve of wealth in metals and minerals underground. All of the big state enterprises have been built by Serbia over the years. All of Yugoslavia chipped in to get Kosovo going, but Serbia gave the most, for decades. Now those enterprises are being "privatized" in very questionable business deals, by very questionable individuals and groups (i.e. the mob), under blessings from UNMIK and KFOR. Kosovo would be in the Middle Ages if Serbia had not built it for 50 years, its power plants and factories. And now all that is taken away.

After the riots of March 2004, Serbian hooligans in revolt burnt 2 mosques in Serbia proper - in Belgrade and in Nis. Both are being reconstructed and the Serbian government is paying for it. None of the churches have been reconstructed in Kosovo. The Albanians promised renewal and they renewed an apartment block in Pristina, the building of "Yugo Program", and they paraded with that in front of the media, but, in reality, nothing has been renewed, especially not churches.

In the deluge of e-mail I have received from both Serbs and their adversaries, I have been struck by the absolutely hysterical and hate filled comments in most of the Anti-Serb letters and the reasoned and conciliatory comments from people like Alex. Think about his statement: “Serbian hooligans in revolt burnt 2 mosques in Serbia proper - in Belgrade and in Nis. Both are being reconstructed and the Serbian government is paying for it.” No self-defense that the “Muslims had it coming” – but restraint and recognition that what is wrong is wrong – whether it is the burning of 2 mosques or 134 Serbian Orthodox Churches.

What is remarkably different is the totally unreported fact that the Serbian Christians ARE rebuilding the Mosques while the Muslims in Kosovo are NOT rebuilding those Churches.

I suspect that much of the anti-American, anti-Bush hysteria we are being fed by the media is merely a cover-up. What, do you suppose, have those Koran-flushing rioters been doing lately to create a better world?