From:
Ahmed M. Rehab
Ordinary American Citizen
To:
Metropolitan
Archbishop PAVLOS
Of
the Greek Orthodox Old Calendar Church Of North and South America
Member
of the Holy Synod of the Old Calendar Church of Greece
Under
the Presidency of Archbishop CHRYSOSTOMOS II of Athens and All Greece
Hellenic
Orthodox Traditionalist Church of America
Holy
Metropolis of the Greek Orthodox
Old
Calendar Church of America
Cathedral
of Saint Markella
22-68
26th Street Astoria, NY 11105
Tel:
718-274-2875
E-mail:
Smyrna1922@AOL.COM
CC:
William Jefferson Clinton
President of the United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.
March 30th,
1999
I have read your Kosovo
letter addressed to Mr. William
Jefferson Clinton, in
which you accused him of being
naive, murderous, and
a sellout to the Christian world
- amongst other entertaining
things.
You spoke of morality,
of religion, and of God. Yet
your self-righteousness
have somehow failed to make
mention of the great inhumanity
and injustice the Serbs
have systematically practiced
against the minorities in
the area.
Indeed, you have failed
to mention that Serbia is
guilty of being the only
European post-WWII-era
sovereign state to resort
to a barbaric and primitive
campaign of ethnic cleansing
against its defenseless
minorities.
After several years of
merciless murder and rape of the
Bosnian people, which
has resulted in 250,000 deaths,
28,000 rapes, and 2 million
refugees, Serbia has once
again emerged as a fascist
power crushing the weak in
its reach.
The ravenous Serbian campaign
against Bosnia has left
many concrete evidences
of Serbian brutality for the
world to see. Serbian
fascist leaders are alone to
blame for their clear
violation of Bosnian human
rights. Their orders of
indiscriminate mass murder and
rape of civilians has
indeed led to their conviction on
several counts of war
crimes.
Once again the same perpetrators
are on the attack.
Once again the victims
are from the only remaining
indegenous Muslim population
in Europe. Your holiness,
in your letter to Mr.
Clinton, seemed to take pride in
such service, and indeed
indicate that the West is
indebted to the Orthodox
Serbs for it.
Does your Holiness truly
believe that God, to which you
made considerable reference
in your letter, could
approve the mass murder
of innocent civilians, simply
because they are Muslim.
How selfish, closed-minded,
and self-righteous!
Your attempt to cash in
on the western-coined, but
rarely-defined term, "terrorists",
as an appeal to Western
sympathy is deplorable
as well as rather obvious. The KLA
did not form until after
Serbian agression in the province
of Kosova had ordained
an armed resistance incumbent
for the mere survival
of its indigenous Albanian population.
I think you are not a
stranger to this reality though you may
choose to overlook it.
Had the KLA been terrorists, as only
the Serbs and yourself
have claimed thus far, they would
have been in existence,
practicing "terrorism", long before
the iron fist of Milosevic
started pounding their villages to
the ground. As we both
know, that was not the case.
Moreover, I draw your attention
to your provocative
anti-Islamic sentiments,
conspicuously expressed in your
letter, and echoed in
the Greek Archdiocese official web page.
Since when does an indigenous
population's struggle
against the forces of
annihalation constitute "Islamic
fundamentalism"?
On the other hand, why
do you insist on using terms
such as the "Christian
heartland" in reference to the Balkans.
Doesn't that automatically
disregard those Balkan natives
who happen to be Muslims.
Is that not Christian
"fundamentalism" on your
part? What are you saying?
That Slavs who are not
Christian are no longer Slavs,
and no longer deserve
to be a part of the region?
Isn't that the venomous
message Milosevic is trying to convey
as justification for his
massacres and mass abuse of
the region's Muslims?
The Bosnians' and Kosovars' only
crime is that they have
chosen to embrace Islam over
Christianity. Is that
not a personal choice, why is there no
freedom of religion? Now
all of a sudden, Muslim Slavs
are shunned off as foreigners
in their own ancestral homes;
how can that be? Islam
is a faith, not an ethnicity!
Why do you so passionately
defend those who persecute
on the basis of religion
O' Orthodox one?
The Serbs are well aware
of the general defenselessness
of the Muslim Slavs; precisely,
because they are
engulfed in the heart
of "the great cradle of Orthodox
Christian civilization"
you have so proudly referenced
in your letter. Indeed
Karadzic proclaimed with a
confident, thunderous
voice in one of his many fascist,
propagandistic public
speeches, overflowing with
Serbian nationalism: "do
not think that you can avoid
making the Muslim people
disappear, because the Muslim
people cannot defend themselves
if there is a war". And
I quote him word for word.
This sentiment is the underlying
Serbian motivation
behind the overwhelming
crushing, and ethnic cleansing
of the Muslim Slavs.
Luckily, every mighty force
must, one day, face a
mightier force than itself.
For the first time in modern
history, and under the
courageous leadership
of President Clinton, The US
armed forces has acted
to put a stop to the abuse of
the weak, acting not out
of self interest, but a
sincere and genuine desire
to preserve the human rights
of the weak and defenseless.
O' Orthodox man of God,
you must wholeheartedly thank
Mr. Clinton for being
the first US president to insist
on defending the weak
and anguished, in the face of
such controversy and opposition.
You spoke of morality...
Mr. Clinton will go down
into the history books as
being the only modern-era
world leader to anger the
strong, over nothing more
than the defense of the weak.
Indeed, in that regard,
Mr. Clinton is a hero.
Your letter also mentioned Turkey.
Mr. Clinton was justified
in characterizing it as a
"moderate Muslim state".
It is one of the few
significant nations in
the region that is a faithful
ally to the United States.
You have to remember that
Mr. Clinton is the president
of the United States, and
not Greece. If you are
to turn him on Turkey, you are
to delineate an example
of Turkish aggression against
the US, not Greece. Your
faith in the existence of a
Universal Moral Christian
Kingdom that binds the US and
Greece together is unfounded
and naive - albeit
amusing.
Moreover, it is worth mentioning
that Turkey is a
secular state. As far
as it is concerned, any act of
aggression or kindness
is rarely motivated by Islamic
reasons. In that sense,
Turkey is a "moderate Muslim
state". You ought to have
known that on your own.
You are a man of God. Please
pray for peace in the
Balkans, and pray that
God remove the hate from the
heart of the Serbian aggressors,
and from the hearts of
the Kosovar revenge-seekers.
You just might find that
to be more fruitful than
an unfounded, and delusional
attack on the Christian
identity of our president.
Respectfully,
Ahmed M. Rehab
"Whosoever doeth one atom's
worth of good, shall see its
worth; and whosoever doeth
one atom's worth of evil shall see
its worth."
- The Holy Koran