I may not always be right – but I’m never wrong.

I heard that line in a film, long time ago, and I liked it. It’s a perfect accompaniment to the self-righteous among us. Political lies are a common place in every society. We only wonder why politicians continue to lie after they have been elected – but there is an answer to that too.

Simple drill: “"I bear witness that there is no object of adoration besides Allah, Who is One and has no associate and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger." Followed by: "I ask forgiveness of Allah for all my sins and to Him I turn. I have been cruel to myself, O Lord, and I confess my sins. So be merciful to forgive my sins; for no one forgives sins except Thyself."

Here is the kicker: “Once a person becomes a Muslim, he cannot be declared a non-Muslim until he himself renounces Islam in clear terms. There is a verse of the Holy Qur’an which tells Muslims not to call a person a non-Muslim when he offers you a salutation in the Islamic way, and there are Hadith (Traditions) of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, which declare that if a person has one out of a hundred reasons to be known as a Muslim and ninety-nine reasons for being a non-Muslim, he should not be called a non-Muslim. Then again there is a Hadith which tells us that the Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said that whosoever prays our way (man salla salaatana) and adheres to our Qibla (wastaqbala qiblatana) and eats our slaughtered meat (wa aqala zabeehatana) he is a Muslim and Allah and Allah’s Messenger vouchsafe for him.”

In plain language if a sword is held over your head (as was the custom in Mohammad’s times attacking the Jewish tribes of Mecca in year 663) and you pronounce that you’re Muslim you can NOT UN-Muslim yourself EVER. Dandy, heh?
Since we started with political lies let’s look at the most recent demonic people of Serbia. Their leader Milosevic is sitting in the Hague and it is more than likely he will be sentenced of something. After all, the prosecution threw in the whole 9 yards, everything but the kitchen sink, and something is bound to stick – in spite of his vigorous defense and apparent innocence of the crimes he’s been charged with. But that does NOT exonerate Serbian people. Those same Serbians (in the last 10 years alone) just lost a lot of land in Croatia (Lika, Banija, Kordun, Baranja, Slavonia) lost a lot of land in Bosnia (Sarajevo was almost entirely Serbian for the longest time, so was Pale, Srebrenica, Gorazde, etc.). Right now (exactly a year ago March 2004) we had “riots” in Kosovo where thousands of Serbians were expelled, killed, tortured, their churches were burned, their cemeteries desecrated, etc. By all accounts, Serbia seems like a “free for all” – whoever grabs it first – he gets to keep it.

Enter one virulent, discredited liar Stephen Schwartz who is a self-appointed authority on Balkan (Yugoslav) issues. Never-mind the little fact that this Jewish sounding Schwartz just recently took up Islam and changed his name to Suleyman Ahmad. So, now in the interests of his new found faith in Allah he lies in the name of Allah hoping that this would be a way to re-grab some more Serbian lands. Serbians have been loosing lots and lots of land as I have just pointed. They are down and show no signs of an impending recovery, this is a good chance to empty their pockets, and strip them of all their lands. But there are a few people who are vigilant enough, knowledgeable enough to refute his lavish spirits of lies and trying to create animosity between the Jews (a pretty frequent target themselves) and Serbs (present day very popular target). So, with impunity, this Schwartz writes all sorts of vivid and untrue observations with regard to the two people who were traditionally friendly to one another and even united in their struggle against Nazism.

Iliya Pavlovich