Raymond Ibrahim: 'Field of Blackbirds’: The 630 Year-Old Reason Eastern Europeans Dislike Islam

This essential historical summary by Raymond Ibrahim — one of the leading scholars on Islam's 1400-year continuing jihad against Christianity — offers compelling reasons for Eastern Europeans' distrust of Islam. 

They remember, "those years—1541 to 1699, when the Islamic Ottoman Empire occupied Hungary—are replete with the massacre, enslavement, and rape of Hungarians."

The United States should learn from the abhorrent experience of our Eastern European brethren under the sword of Islam, and adopt their sane policy of prudent refusal to allow unbridled and unvetted Muslim immigration to America. 

Battle of Kosovo painting by Peter Radicevic, 1987

'Field of Blackbirds’: The 630 Year-Old Reason Eastern Europeans Dislike Islam

by Raymond Ibrahim, June 15, 2019


Why Eastern Europeans are much more reluctant to accept Muslim migrants than their Western counterparts can be traced back to circumstances surrounding a pivotal battle, that of Kosovo, which took place on June 15, 1389, exactly 630 years ago today. It pitted Muslim invaders against Eastern European defenders, or the ancestors of those many Eastern Europeans today who are resistant to Islam.

Because the jihad is as old as Islam, it has been championed by diverse peoples throughout the centuries (Arabs in the Middle East, Moors (Berbers and Africans) in Spain and Western Europe, etc.). Islam’s successful entry into Eastern Europe was spearheaded by the Turks, specifically that tribe centered in westernmost Anatolia (or Asia Minor) and thus nearest to Europe, the Ottoman Turks, so-named after their founder Osman Bey. As he lay dying in 1323, his parting words to his son and successor, Orhan, were for him “to propagate Islam by your arms.”

This his son certainly did; the traveler Ibn Batutua, who once met Orhan in Bursa, observed that, although the jihadi had captured some one hundred Byzantine fortresses, “he had never stayed for a whole month in any one town,” because he “fights with the infidels continually and keeps them under siege.” Christian cities fell like dominos: Smyrna in 1329, Nicaea in 1331, and Nicomedia in 1337. By 1340, the whole of northwest Anatolia was under Turkic control. By now and to quote a European contemporary, “the foes of the cross, and the killers of the Christian people, that is, the Turks, [were] separated from Constantinople by a channel of three or four miles.”

SPECIAL APPEAL: Help support our Orthodox brothers and sisters in Kosovo!

This is an appeal for a joint fundraising project of the Decani Monastery Relief Fund and the ROCOR Fund for Assistance. Please consider giving to help meet their April 21 fundraising goal! The Kosovo diet: cabbage Monday through Saturday... With your help, our Serbian brothers and sisters can get the help they need. Thanks to your incredible support, we have collected over $10,000 for our Orthodox brothers and sisters in Kosovo! But the humanitarian crisis is not over for the Orthodox Serbs.

VOTE NO to Kosovo's Membership in UNESCO before November 9

“Greater Albania” advocates the destruction of the remnants of Serbian culture and attempts to create a Kosovo culture which would appropriate everything on its territory. Over 100 Serbian Orthodox churches were destroyed in Kosovo between 1999 and 2004 alone, while the breakaway territory was administered by the United Nations.

Members of the UN cultural body UNESCO are expected to vote on Kosovo's entry into the organization on November 9.

There is an online petition enabling you to “VOTE NO to Kosovo's Membership in UNESCO.”

PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK TO THE PETITION AND VOTE IMMEDIATELY. SHARE ON FACEBOOK, EMAIL AND OTHER FORUMS AS WELL...

Photos and video below the break...

See also: Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church - A Letter to the Director General of UNESCO Ms. Bokova regarding the Kosovo's UNESCO bid

Instagram Deletes Account for Revealing Destroyed Serb Churches in Kosovo

Sputnik via Pravoslavie, November 7, 2015

Hoping to foil Kosovo's attempt to become a member of UNESCO, ethnically Serbian student activists in the self-proclaimed state created a page on Instagram called “No to Kosovo's Membership in UNESCO.” There they posted photos of numerous Orthodox Christian places of worship and significance, including monasteries, churches and cemeteries, which were demolished in the years after ethnic Albanian Muslims gained de facto independence with the help of a deadly NATO bombing campaign and EU endorsement. Instagram responded by blocking the account for its “disturbing content.”

“We have been told that we are posting disturbing images, and we simply posted the truth -- the burning of Serb churches and monasteries, the holy places, the destruction of monuments, tombs, and so on,” Nemanja Bisevac, one of the account’s administrators, told journalists.

Jovan Aleksic, another administrator of the account and an activist with the protest group Students for Truth (Studenti za Istinu), told Sputnik Serbia he believes the Instagram page was suspended after a complaint from “those who are pushing the so-called Kosovo state forward to UNESCO.” pointing at the Albanian administration of the breakaway region.

The account was a part of a broader campaign dubbed “No to Kosovo's Membership in UNESCO.” led by Kosovan Serbian students, which hopes to deny Kosovo UNESCO membership.

“We have sent letters with photos and videos attached that speak for the destruction of the Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo … to representatives of all 195 UNESCO member states. We’ve held a large protest in [the north Kosovan Serb town of] Sremska Mitrovica against so-called Kosovo becoming a member of UNESCO,” Aleksic said.

Also, Students for Truth have produced videos in Serbian, English and Arabic, showing the almost total annihilation of Kosovo's Serbian religious and cultural heritage.

The True Religion of the West

"The idea of a strong and robust nation that holds to traditional Christian values is an idea that Western Europe finds repugnant in the extreme. Why? Because such a nation would be an ideological rival and that is something that the current order can’t tolerate."

by Niko Pafras, Pravoslavie — May 5, 2015

I’m not a professional journalist or an expert in international affairs. Fortunately, one doesn’t need to be either to see what is going on in the popular western media these days. 

Living in America I am bombarded on a daily basis with the “expert” opinions on the Ukrainian crisis by a horde of analysts on the nightly news. The recurring theme in these interviews, regardless of political affiliation or news network, is the outrage felt by western leaders at the supposed “aggression” shown by Russia towards Ukraine. 

Conveniently, the aggression of President Poroshenko towards his fellow citizens in eastern Ukraine vis-a-vis the openly neo-Nazi Azov battalion and its ilk, goes almost entirely unreported. Be that as it may, one must ask, what precisely is it in the psyche of western leaders and pundits that makes them foam at the mouth with outrage at the crisis in Ukraine but turn a blind eye when it comes to similar incidents that are conducted by western countries or their allies?

For example, on July 20th, 1974, NATO member Turkey under the leadership of then Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit launched the invasion of Cyprus known as “Operation Attila”. What reason did Mr. Ecevit give for this naked aggression and violation of international norms? The prevention of “Enosis”, which is Union with the Greek mainland, and the protection of the Turkish minority from alleged pogroms by Greeks whose population, at the time, made up approximately 77% of the Island. The result of the invasion was the bifurcation of Cyprus into the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus and the so-called TRNC or Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus who is only recognized by Turkey. 

On paper, the TRNC is considered by Turkey to be a separate state but in reality, the TRNC is a de facto part of Turkey. In other words, an annexation. Now one would expect, all things being equal, that similar outrage was shown towards Turkey for its illegal invasion and subsequent occupation of northern Cyprus. 

Unfortunately, we live in a world where things are not equal. The Western response? Negligible at best. There was no American castigation of Turkey or heavy sanctions. No military build-up of American forces on the Turkish border or heaping of opprobrium by the western media. And interestingly, there were no Hitler-Ecevit comparisons made on a daily basis like there have ubiquitously been throughout the western press since the reunification of Crimea with Russia. No, on the contrary, Turkey cemented its ties with America and Europe and continues to receive billions of dollars worth of military aid through the Truman doctrine.

Unlike the violent invasion of Cyprus by Turkey, which claimed the lives of thousands, Crimea was received into Russia by a free and fair referendum in which an overwhelming majority of Crimean residents chose unification with Russia. The American response to the Turkish invasion was silence. Yet, when it comes to the people of Crimea exercising their democratic rights and their right to self-determination, which America holds as universal right, the response is outrage, sanctions and threats.

How do we explain this response or rather, lack thereof? Interests. Plain and simple. 

Once magnet for Foreign Mujahedeen’, Bosnia now exports them

Thousands of Bosnian Muslims "have adopted the ultraconservative Salafist brand of Sunni Islam... and their ranks are suspected of supplying scores of fighters to the wars in the Middle East…"

by Rusmir Smajilhodzic, AFP, April 29, 2015

h/t Jihad Watch

Church in Kosovo destroyed by Bosnian Muslims

A magnet for foreign jihadists during its 1990s war, Bosnia is now grappling with the threat from home-grown extremists wooed by the conflicts in Iraq and Syria.

While most Bosnian Muslims are moderates, a few thousand have adopted the ultraconservative Salafist brand of Sunni Islam introduced by the fighters who flocked to Bosnia from North Africa, the Middle East and Asia during the 1992-1995 conflict between Serbs, Muslims and Croats.

Most of those foreign fighters, or “mujahedeen”, left Bosnia when the war ended.

But the seed had already been sown. Twenty years on, the radical preachers giving fiery sermons in “mesdzids”, or improvised prayer halls, are no longer foreigners.

Those taking up arms are also local men.

On Monday, a gunman shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest” in Arabic) opened fire on a police station in the eastern town of Zvornik, killing one officer and wounding two others before being killed in a shootout.

Monument to Tsar and Passion-Bearer Nicolas II unveiled in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This is the first of two posts today venerating the Holy Royal Passionbearers and Martyrs Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Tsaritsa Alexandra, and their children, the Tsarevitch Alexei, and daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. 

This is a deeply moving and symbolic glorification of the Holy Orthodox Monarch and Martyr, planted in the midst of the Serbian land, ravaged by Western aggressors in World War I, and Muslim persecution of Christians in the 1990s, with American aid and support of the same. The words of St Nikolai Velimirovich in the final paragraph are immensely important to consider.


Monument to Tsar and Passion-Bearer Nicolas II unveiled in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Pravoslavie — June 26, 2014

A monument to the Holy Russian Tsar and Passion-Bearer Nicolas II was to be unveiled in Bosnia and Herzegovina, reports Sedmitza.ru, citing the SRBIN INFO agency. 

The monument was to be unveiled on June 21, 2014, in Banja Luka on the initiative of the Serbian Republic’s (Bosnia and Herzegovina) president, the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, the St. Basil the Great Charitable Foundation, and the Russian Military Historical Society. The Serbian Republic’s president Milorad Dodik and assistant to the Russian president Igor Shchegolev were to be present at the opening ceremony. The author of the monument is the sculptor from Russia Zurab Tsereteli. The monument was to be unveiled after the church service, and after the ceremony performances of the “Kazachsky Krug” Cossacks’ group, the choir of the Kostroma Ipatiev Monastery as well as a round table of Serbian and Russian historians were to take place. (The Ipatiev Monastery is historically connected with the first Tsar of the Romanov Dynasty.) 

Bosnia and Serbia hit by worst flooding for 120 years, Patriarch calls for help

At the IOCC site, you can donate online to their Emergency Response Fund.

Pravmir — May 18, 2014

Serbia declared a national emergency on Thursday as rain-swollen rivers across the Balkans flooded roads and bridges, shutting down schools and cutting off power, reports APTN.

Three people have reportedly drowned and more than 3,000 evacuated following flooding caused by torrential rain.

Hundreds of people had to be evacuated by military helicopters after meteorologists said the rainfall was the most since measuring started 120 years ago.

Authorities in Belgrade said the average rainfall of a two-month period hit the city in just 40 hours.

Surging water coursed through towns and villages, overflowing across streets and into homes, sweeping bridges off their moorings and causing landslides across the region.

Dozens of buses and cars were stranded on flooded roads and two main north-south railway lines in Serbia were impassable.

River levels rose all over Bosnia, including the capital Sarajevo and Maglaj, a town 60 miles north of the capital, was cut off by water surging into streets.

The rain was expected to persist until the weekend.

KLA graffiti appear on gate of Serbian Orthodox monastery

GRAČANICA -- A graffiti reading "UCK" - Albanian for "KLA", the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army - appeared on the gate of the Visoki Dečani Monastery early on Friday.

Pravmir — April 27, 2014

This is according to a statement issued by the Eparchy of Raška and Prizren of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).

The 14th century Serbian monastery is located in western Kosovo and is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

“This is the latest in a series of similar provocations by Albanian extremists who previously wrote messages containing hate speech on the church wall in Đakovica, after which similar writings appeared on the facades of Serb houses in Orahovac,” the Eparchy said.

This time, extremists wrote on the very gate of the Visoki Dečani Monastery, only a dozen metres from the KFOR’s Italian checkpoint, according to the statement.

The Eparchy of Raška and Prizren noted that this act constitutes an open threat to the Visoki Dečani Monastery and its brotherhood.

Metropolitan Amfilohije’s book on Kosovo presented in USA

"Western media played the key role in the intentional misinterpretation of events in the field and the portrayal of Serbia and Serbs as the side responsible for most – if not all – crimes committed during the clashes."

Pravmir — April 10, 2014

CHICAGO/BELGRADE – The book authored by Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral entitled ‘Letopis novog kosovskog raspeca’ (Chronicles of the renewed crucifixion of Kosovo) in the English language was presented in Chicago and the first copies will be sent to a number of US officials so that they could find out about the Serbian account of the events.

The book promotion was held in the Church of the Holy Resurrection. The book comprises diary entries of Serbian Orthodox Metropolitan Amfilohije since 1999 to the end of 2000 noted down in the Patriarchate of Pec after the withdrawal of the Yugoslav Army and the signing of the Kumanovo Military Technical Agreement Agreement.

Archpriest Radomir Nikcevic as the director of the Svetigora publishing house told Tanjug that 500 copies of the book would be sent to the U.S. president, congressmen, senators and prominent institutions and individuals so that the truth about Kosovo could finally be revealed in the American continent.

Patriarch Irinej: Serbs’ suffering in Kosovo still ongoing

OCP Media — March 18, 2014

BELGRADE – Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Patriarch Irinej said on Monday, commenting on the 10th anniversary of the pogrom against the Kosovo Serbs, that the suffering of the Kosovo Serbs was still ongoing.

The suffering in Kosovo comes at a time when we pride on democracy and freedom, he said at a forum held at the National Theatre in Belgrade, adding that the pogrom happened in view of Europe and the US.

Such suffering that happened in the late 20th and early 21st century was not recorded even at the time of the Ottoman conquest of Kosovo, he stated.

The imperial Prizren and other cities were hit during the pogrom of 2004, leaving them empty of Serbs, he stressed.

Unlawful Seizure of Monastic Lands in Kosovo and Metohija Continues

Pravoslavie — April 3, 2014

Orahovac, Kosovo and Metodija — According to a report of the brethren of the Serbian Monastery of Sts Cosmas and Damian in Zociste, a local Albanian individual has recently seized a parcel of land, belonging to the monastery.

The brethren have discovered that one of local Albanians unlawfully ploughed up and farmed the piece of land, situated not far from the monastery, reports the Kosovo Diary portal. At the same time, the monastery possesses all necessary documentation for this land. 

Furthermore, since the beginning of the construction work on the restoration of the monastery complex, there have been ongoing verbal provocations against the brethren and workers. 

Sts Cosmas and Damian Monastery is situated close to the settlement of Orahovac in Metohija and is famous for its numerous miracles of healing from the saints' relics. In spite of its nationwide popularity, the monastery was completely destroyed in 1999 by Albanian militants and the church was blown up. The Serbian population was virtually driven away from the immediate vicinity of the monastery. 

At the present time a small community of monks, headed by Archimandrite Stephen, is living in the monastery. It remains the center of spiritual life, first of all for the Serbians from neighboring Orahovac and Velika Hoca.

Источник: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/69726.htm

© Православние.Ru

Hate-filled Grafitti on walls of Serbian Orthodox Convent in Kosovo

Increased pressure from Muslims to eradicate Christianity from Kosovo. Thus is specifically anti-Christian, religiously-motivated, persecution.

"This incident is just one of a large number of indications that the situation of the four Serbian women, nuns of the convent, is worsening. These elderly women, who live as a monastic community, are all what remains of the Serbian population of Djakovica."

via

Insulting Grafitti on the Walls of Serbian Convent in Kosovo

Pravoslavie — Djakovica, March 1, 2014

The events of last two months indicate the ongoing persecutions of the Serbian population of Kosovo and Metohija.

According to a report of the website of the Diocese of Rasko-Prizren, on the wall of the Dormition Convent in Djakovica in the morning on February 23, graffiti appeared in Albanian: "The only good Serb is a dead Serb."

The day before, on the Saturday of the Reposed, the Kosovo police did not allow a group of Serbs to visit the convent and graves of their relatives at a local cemetery.

According to the diocese's report, the insulting graffiti was removed on February 24. However, Church representatives believe that, "The atmosphere of intolerance towards this shrine and Serbian refugees indicate that the level of their security has become much lower, and the Serbs who come here to visit the convent and the cemetery are not welcome."

This incident is just one of a large number of indications that the situation of the four Serbian women, nuns of the convent, is worsening. These elderly women, who live as a monastic community, are all what remains of the Serbian population of Djakovica.

This year on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, Albanians organized mass rallies in front of the walls of the convent, during which two coaches with Serbian pilgrims were pelted with stones. The Serbs were forbidden to visit the convent. On the next day—the very feast of Nativity—the sisters of the convent were unable to attend a Divine Liturgy because of the rallies.

Two thirds of Kosovo-Metohija Serbs still in exile

"Albanian [Muslim] terrorists in Kosovo-Metohija have destroyed around 150 temples and monasteries, [but] even after such violent acts, no one can diminish the significance of the Serbian spiritual and cultural heritage in Kosovo-Metohija."

InSerbia via OCP Media — February 3, 2014

BELGRADE – The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) in Kosovo-Metohija remains the mainstay of Serbian identity, although it is difficult to speak of normal church life with two thirds of SPC believers from the province still in exile, Bishop Teodosije of Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija has said.

“Thanks to God, our holy sites are as safe as they can be at this moment, and we will do everything to ensure their long-term survival,” Bishop Teodosije told the Christmas issue of Vecernje novosti.

Serbs In Kosovo-Metohija Are Not Forgotten – Patriarch Irinej

InSerbia via OCP — 1/4/2014

Patriarch Irinej of the Serbian Orthodox Church

Photo from: www.novosti.rs

BELGRADE – Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Irinej addressed his traditional Christmas epistle to Orthodox believers in Serbia who celebrate the holiday according to the Julian calendar, with special emphasis on the position of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) where suffering and injustice persist.

“Unrest and violence rule in Kosovo-Metohija. For decades and centuries, they have been robbing us of that province, of the historical Old Serbia,” said Patriarch Irinej in the epistle read at the Patriarchate, which he addressed on behalf of all bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

“To our brothers and sisters in Kosovo-Metohija we say: be aware that you are not alone and forgotten, the entire Serbian nation and the justice-loving people of the world are with you,” Patriarch Irinej said, calling on the Serbs in KiM to live in peace, harmony and love, both with each other and everyone else.

For more on Kosovo and Serbia, see my previous posts:

• Orthodox Church in Kosovo turned into public toilet and garbage dump
• If Kosovo Is The Price, Than We Say 'Thank You But No Thank You' To EU – Patriarch Irinej
• The Orthodox Christian Holocaust: 1894 to the Present
• Patriarch Irenej: Serbia Must Not Renounce Its Spirituality
• Patriarch Irinej Voiced Expectation That Russia Will Help Resolve Kosovo Issue
• Albanian extremists attack children’s buses in Kosovo
• For Kosovo Serbs, Pentecost on the Ruins
• Serbs' Sufferings in Kosovo Continue

Orthodox Church in Kosovo turned into public toilet and garbage dump

As much as the Albanian and Bosnian Muslims would like to destroy the Orthodox Christian faith, and especially the very site where St. Tsar-Martyr Lazar of Serbia and his army attended Liturgy and received holy communion before the Battle of Kosovo, we know from the Lord's promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against the His Church.

Regarding the Battle of Kosovo, I wrote this in my book, Facing Islam:

The Great-Martyr Tsar Lazar of Serbia, inspired by a vision, sacrificed himself and his army in the epic Battle of Kosovo on June 15, 1389. At the Divine Liturgy, before going out to battle, they chanted “For the glorious Cross and golden freedom!” and the stirring motto of St Sava of Serbia, “Give up everything for Christ, but Christ for nothing!” The battle waged by Tsar-Martyr Lazar and his army at Kosovo weakened the Muslim invaders enough so as to prevent them from conquering Western Europe.

Make no mistake, the repeated Muslim desecrations of the Church of the Beheading of St John the Baptist are specifically targeting this Serbian Orthodox National Shrine, which holds immense symbolic importance for the Serbs, all of Europe, and free people everywhere. Albanian Muslim attacks on this church are an attack on us all, and a new chapter in Islam's very old war against Christianity.


Orthodox Church in Kosovo turned into public toilet and garbage dump
InSerbia via Pravmir — 12/25/2013

Orthodox church dedicated to the Beheading of St. John the Baptist in the village of Samodreza near Vucitrn, was desecrated and turned into a garbage dump. The altar of this Serbian shrine, built on the place where Prince Lazar received communion with the army before the Battle of Kosovo, Albanian children turned into a public toilet, writes “Kurir”.

Photo: Kurir

All attempts to stop the desecration of the Orthodox church were unsuccessful because the Albanian population is against its renewal. The church was burned, vandalized and desecrated for the first time in 1999 after international forces arrived in Kosovo, writes the daily.

Syria, Bosnia and provoking international interventions by false flags

from Creeping Sharia — 9/1/2013

In light of the purported use of chemical weapons in Syria, months after Obama drew a red line on the same issue, the world is left with nothing but rhetoric regarding who actually used them. As we’ve noted before, it would not be the first time Muslims bombed their own people to initiate U.S. intervention. 

If Kosovo Is The Price, Than We Say 'Thank You But No Thank You' To EU – Patriarch Irinej

Patriarch Irenej is adding his voice to help preserve Serbia's Orthodox Christian spiritual and historical legacy, against the efforts of Albanian Muslims, Islamic supremacists, and their accomplices in the European Union, who seek to complete Islam's endless jihad against the Serbs. 

For more on the history of Kosovo and its honored and beloved status as the "cradle of Serbian culture and spirituality," visit Kosovo.net.

If Kosovo Is The Price, Than We Say 'Thank You But No Thank You' To EU – Patriarch Irinej
InSerbia via Pravmir — 11/9/2013

The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, said that Serbia can not give up on Kosovo, and if the price for the entry into Europe is losing Kosovo, then, he said, we would rather be out of Europe.

“If the price of entry to Europe is to secede Kosovo then we have to say ‘thank you but no thank you’ to Europe. We prefer to stay alone without Europe, if it must be, but with our Kosovo,” said the Patriarch Irinej receiving, at the Patriarchate, the participants of international Pan-European conference on human and religious rights.

Event to remember: Edict of Milan anniversary marked 15,000 people

See also my article 'Repealing the Edict of Milan: Obama as the Anti-Constantine'.

InSerbia — OCP Media — 10/8/2013

Kurir- 8/10/13

NIS – By awarding the Order of St. Emperor Constantine in Nis, in front of about 15,000 people, the central ceremony marking 1,700 years since the Edict of Milan was over. The manifestation was held in the temple of the Holy Emperor Constantine and Empress Helena, where the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said that the act is the source from which was derived the proclaimed principle of respect for religious freedom. The Edict, he said, was a turning point in the history of humanity, freedom and life.

“This is not just a ceremony of Serbia and Serbs, this is a ceremony and celebration of Orthodox Christianity, which is still being persecuted in some parts of the world, because of the hate and paganism of modern followers of Diocletian,” said Bartholomew, whose message was translated by Bishop Irinej of Backa.

Russian Patriarch praises Orthodox Kosovo Serbs for courage

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill conveys so much, without having to mention the specifics of which we are all aware.

Voice of Russia via Pravmir — 10/7/2013

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has praised the Orthodox Serbs of Kosovo for their courage.

“The suffering that has befallen our Serb brothers in Kosovo and Metochia fills the hearts of the Russian Orthodox believers with pain and grief. The Orthodox population of this territory is demonstrating enormous courage as they remain, amid threats and insults, devoted to the land bestowed by prayers of their righteous ancestors, whose memory lives in numerous churches and monasteries,” the Russian patriarch said at an official reception in Belgrade on behalf of the Serb president, Tomislav Nikolic.

Orthodox Christians mark 1,700th anniversary of edict of Milan

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew called in his sermon for more religious freedom, saying, “Many Christians are being persecuted these days in the Middle East, in Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Nigeria and other places, only because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. They cherish everyone and are persecuted by all … they live in good (faith) and are being persecuted as villains.”

By Aleksandar Vasovic — The Star via OCP Media — 10/6/2013

Editing by Zoran Radosavljevic and Andrew Roche

NIS, Serbia (Reuters) - Eight Orthodox Christian leaders, dignitaries from other faiths, politicians and thousands of others on Sunday celebrated the anniversary of the Edict of Milan, which established toleration for Christianity in the Roman Empire 1,700 years ago.

Roman Catholic Pope Francis was not present at the liturgy in the Serbian city of Nis, his absence reflecting centuries-old divisions between the two main Christian denominations, despite moves by both towards reconciliation and dialogue.

The city of Nis, 200 km (125 miles) south of Belgrade, was selected as the venue for the celebration because the emperor Constantine the Great, who proclaimed religious tolerance, was born in the then Roman city of Naissus in 272.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was flanked by patriarchs Theophilos of Jerusalem, Kirill of Russia, Irinej of Serbia, and their counterparts from Albania, Cyprus, Poland, Slovakia and other smaller Orthodox churches, as he called in a sermon for more religious freedom and reconciliation.