Christian Christensen, native American who works as a professor of journalism at the University of Stockholm, spoke about the verdict to Radovan Karadzic. In his text, he pointed out the hypocritical attitude of the world towards the crimes that took place in BiH.
Although the genocide in BiH was committed against Bosniaks, crimes of Serbs no one named as “Christian terrorism”, while the media characterized victims as “Bosnian Muslims”.
“Radovan Karadzic was found guilty of genocide in Srebrenica in 1995, and he was sentenced to 40 years in prison. This is Radovan Karadzic: leader of Bosnian Serbs, a politician from the ranks of the Bosnian Serbs, war criminal from the ranks of Bosnian Serbs, a Bosnian Serb. But judging from the last 20 years of international reports, Radovan Karadzic is not European Christian,” as written in the text.
“I will not go in Karadzic’s religious history and his beliefs, but it is enough to say that this is the man who described this cruel bloodshed in 2010 as “fair and sacred”. Muslims were systematically killed. Mosques were blown into the air. Those were clearly sounds of the Crusades.”
“But still, European and American media, or at least majority of them, did not want to define and connect Karadzic with his religious identity. However, many of Karadzic’s victims were quickly characterized – they were “Bosnian Muslims” for the media,” said Christensen.
“However, if we would describe people like Karadzic as “Christians” (and persistently repeat it), then we would go into a whole new sphere of identity. Any thought of a great relationship or collective responsibility would be transferred from the region or the nation (state) to a much wider range of people linked by a common religion. Of course, the natural reaction of the global Christian community would be to distance themselves from people like Karadzic, and to claim that their misdeeds have nothing to do with ‘real’ Christians or Christianity.”
“In other words, Christians would be embarrassed – or they might even be offended – if we would claim that monsters like Karadzic represent them in any way.”
“In a similar way, I believe that the great majority of Muslims are upset – even insulted – with the way that leading mainstream media link acts of ISIL with their religion. Similarly, I believe that the great majority of Muslims are upset – even insulted – with media requests to ‘condemn’ violent lunatics from Paris and Brussels to which other Muslims have neither spiritual nor personal connections,” stated Christiansen.
“This is the power of language: the power of one word that can change how we understand and react to news. If the media is not willing to describe Karadzic as ‘Christian’ who was going after Muslims, should we wonder why they do not want to do that?”
“This is not about moral relativism. This is not about political correctness. It is about the fundamental principles of professional and intellectual consistency,” concluded Professor Christensen.
(Source: faktor.ba)
