Byzantine Blog

Conference: Reconsidering Kosovo

On Thursday, September 28, between 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM, in the Eisenhower Lounge in the Capitol Hill Club, American Council for Kosovo, Christian Solidarity International, and Religious Freedom Coalition will hold a Conference titled “Reconsidering Kosovo.”

One of the most serious but overlooked security issues facing the United States today is the future of the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. Since 1999, Kosovo has been under United Nations administration and NATO military control, with hundreds of U.S. troops still stationed there. Today the question is: should Kosovo remain a part of Serbia or – as many believe -- should it be detached from Serbia as an independent state?

Among the issues to be examined:

• Kosovo report card -- Europe’s “Black Hole”?
• Organized crime, jihadism, and Kosovo’s impact on the War on Terror;
• Human rights and religious freedom in an independent “KosovA”;
• Kosovo’s future status: impact on regional stability, international law, and other disputed regions.

Bishop Artemije of Raska-Prizren (Kosovo and Metohija) Diocese, the spiritual leader of Kosovo’s Christian Serbian community will be a keynote speaker, while Congressman Trent Franks (R-Arizona) will offer the luncheon remarks. Other confirmed speakers include:

Doug Bandow (commentator; author of Foreign Follies: America's New Global Empire; Former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan); Peggy Birchfield (Executive Director, Religious Freedom Coalition); Ambassador James Bissett (last Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia); Julia Gorin (commentator; contributor, Jewish World Review, FrontPageMag.com); Joseph Grieboski (Founder and President, Institute on Religion and Public Policy); Nikolas Gvosdev (Editor, The National Interest); John Hulsman (coauthor, Ethical Realism: A Vision for America's Role in the World; contributing editor to The National Interest; former senior research fellow, Heritage Foundation); Cliff Kincaid (commentator; Editor, Accuracy in Media (AIM) Report); Steven Meyer (Professor of Political Science, Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University); Fr. Keith Roderick (Washington Representative, Christian Solidarity International); Robert Spencer (Director of JihadWatch.org and author of The Truth about Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)); and Srdja Trifkovic (commentator; author of Defeating Jihad and Sword of the Prophet; foreign-affairs editor, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture).

Arrival and registration begin at 8:00 AM, attendance is free.

Kosovo, the Last Outpost on European Doorstep

If you understand that Kosovo and Metohija, though a small province far away, may prove to be the key to preserving the most essential tenets upon which the democratic structure of the free world is built, you will be there.

The Judeo-Christian civilization based on freedom, tolerance and respect for human rights is disappearing in front of our eyes, being swallowed, chunk by chunk, by the overwhelmingly aggressive, oppressive and totalitarian system of beliefs.

Jihad is spreading like a deadly malignant disease throughout the world, catching us unprepared, shocked and feeling helpless. Like Israel in the Middle East, Serbian Jerusalem -- Kosovo and Metohija -- is one of those chunks of Judeo-Christian civilization on the front lines of the World War Three that is now in full swing, and the last outpost on the European doorstep the world simply cannot afford to sacrifice.

Thursday, September 28, 8:00 AM, Capitol Hill Club (Eisenhower Lounge), 300 First Street SE, Washington D.C. 20003 -- be there and help us fight the world’s cancer!