Page 133 - The Winter of Islam and the Spring to Come

HARUN YAHYA (ADNAN OKTAR)
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there was an attempt to change the demography of the region by moving
in Serbs. They wanted to "Serbianize" the region by getting rid of the
Muslim Albanians who made up fully 90 percent of the population. They
even tore up property deeds and marriage documents in order to erase
the Muslims' cultural identity. In 1989, Kosovo's autonomy was revoked
altogether. Every day, Milosevic imposed new sanctions on the region.
The Albanians continued their peaceful resistance in the face of all
the measures being used against them, and under the leadership of
Ibrahim Rugova they began a constitutionally based campaign to win
back their rights. The Albanian people, who had lived for many years
under an oppressive system possessing no rights at all and as targets of
assimilation, began to attract the attention of the world when they were
subjected to ethnic cleansing. The Serbs poured police and troops into the
region. These forces attacked the population, which lacked any means of
self-defense, using heavy weapons. It was Feb. 27-28, 1998 when the sys-
tematic ethnic cleansing campaign began. Serbian aggression was halted
by the NATO operation on March 24, 1999. However, the fact that this
operation came late meant huge suffering being inflicted on the Kosovar
Albanians.

Bosnia: A Massacre Before the Eyes of the World
When Sarajevo became part of Ottoman territory in 1463 it also came
into contact with the religion of Islam, and it remained an Ottoman do-
main for some 400 years. Throughout that long time the Slavs, linked to a
Christian sect called the "Bogomils" and living in the area of Bosnia-
Herzegovina, turned to Islam of their own free will. A Muslim people
thus emerged in Bosnia, in the middle of the Balkan Peninsula. With the
1878 Treaty of Berlin, Bosnia was given over to the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, although in effect it still remained part of the Ottoman territo-
ries. But the empire occupied it in 1908, and Bosnia was no longer under
Muslim rule. The Bosnians bade farewell to the withdrawing Ottomans
with much regret, as they guessed the persecution they would suffer
under their new rulers. Indeed, no sooner had the Ottomans withdrawn