The Kosovo people are following closely the developments in the Arab world and the declarations of support that some of the Arab countries are giving to Serbia.

 

It is very irritating to see how the Serbian Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremiq, declares with hypocrisy in Cairo that Serbia believes in peace and diplomacy. It is heartbreaking to see that the Serbian Foreign Minister says that some Arab countries will represent Serbian interests in the Arab League and in other regional forums. It is very disturbing to see that our brothers in faith allow the Serbian Foreign Minister to say that Serbia never had issues with Kosovars as Muslims and the problems were only ethnically related.

For the purpose of providing some valuable information of the other side of the story, we as Kosovar-Arab Chamber for Friendship and Economic Cooperation need to give the following clarifications:

- It is very true that the Kosovo Albanians, as the absolute majority community in Kosovo, are very proud of their ethnicity, but is also a solid fact that 98% of the Kosovo Albanians are Muslims who try to live in peace among a predominantly Slavic Christian hostile environment surrounding them.

- It is very true that during their rule the Serbs have restricted our religious identity by lowering the voice in the speakers of our mosques during the call for prayers saying that it disturbs the community.

- It is very true that the Serbs have first destroyed the mosques in the villages they have attacked.

- It is true that Serbian Christian priests have blessed their paramilitary units on their massacres against Kosovo Albanians of Muslim religion. They have blessed their murderous and rapist paramilitaries as holy warriors waging holy crusades.

- It is true that the Serbs still refer to the Albanians and the Bosnians just Muslims (in their language they use the word Turk as a reference to Muslims since it was the Ottoman Empire that brought Islam to the Balkans). At every possible chance they present themselves as the last border outpost of the Christian Europe protecting Europe from the “Muslim hordes.”

- It is true that at every chance, Serbian bishops tell the Western world that Kosovo is going to become a nest of Islamic fundamentalism and a European base of Al Qaeda.

- It is true that the Serbs have forcefully moved tens of thousands of Kosovo Albanians to Turkey and Arab countries claiming that Muslims have no place in Europe.

- It is true that the Serbs have burned and destroyed more than 300 mosques in Kosovo.

The list goes on and on and we wonder how come that our brothers in faith allow this lie to be told in their presence. How can our brothers in faith turn their back on to two million Muslims living in Kosovo? Should we go back and live under the rule of those who cannot stand the call for prayer, who fought our very existence, who destroyed our mosques, who murdered and raped our women and children while claiming that they were fighting a holy war?

The Serbian Foreign Minister says that Serbia believes in peace and diplomacy but has never expressed an apology for the murders, rapes, mass torture and expulsion they have conducted since 1912 in Kosovo. How can murderers and rapists all of a sudden believe in peace? Should we trust the wolf that will slaughter us at the first chance possible?

We understand the sentiments related to Tito’s Yugoslavia. Today’s Serbia has nothing to do with Tito’s Yugoslavia. Tito was not a Serb and it was Serbia which through its policy of domination and intolerance started wars against Croatian and Bosnian people and in the end against Kosovars. It is Serbia that destroyed Tito’s Yugoslavia so it is total hypocrisy for it to claim any link with Tito.

Serbia is responsible for the sufferings of so many Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo. No one can deny this and those that try to neglect this should fear the day when we all will turn up in front of the almighty God.

Some of the Arab representatives have expressed concern, and some even support, for the initiative of Serbia to ask for an opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the independence of Kosovo. We expect nothing better from Serbia. We know and expect them to fight us until we are no more.

If the ICJ convenes on Kosovo this means that we face one more challenge, one more fight, and one more battle on our path to secure our freedom, our right to be proud of our blood line, our right to pray freely and turn ourselves without fear towards Makkah. Allah willing we will win this battle as well because Kosovo did not happen overnight and the blood of our martyrs, the suffering of our elderly, women and children are the best defense we have against them in any court.

Almighty Allah has helped our people by turning the entire world on our side. We strongly believe that the support we got from the international community to gain our freedom is the largest miracle of Allah and the largest sign of his mercy towards his people in Kosovo.

We will never lose faith in his support and we will never lose faith that with his help and his miracles we will finally end the cycle of torture and oppression and secure our freedom for all future generations to come.

We do hope that our brothers in faith will take their rightful place on our side.

Blerim Gashi is the Public Information Officer of the Kosovar-Arab Chamber for Friendship and Economic Cooperation , based in Prishtina, Kosovo. This commentary has previously been published on alarabyia.com.