yugoslavias implosion

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to be fought “against infidels,” that is, against traitors who have
betrayed the centuries-old interests of the Orthodox Church and
the Serbian people. Much was made of the allegation that with sheer
numbers on their side Muslims threatened to displace Serbs and turn
them into a minority in their own territory. At a Round Table on
Scientific Research in Kosovo in 1988, Miloš Macura, a Memorandum
author and Yugoslavia’s foremost demographer, put forward
the thesis that “the demographic objectives, which are not essentially
different from those of past times, evidently stem from certain
modern aspirations. The pre-Islamic, pronatalist ideology enjoys
Islam’s strong support,” meaning “that the pronatalist consciousness
is upheld by the clan leaders, khojas and parents, so that the profuse
and uncontrolled procreation has the backing of the three most
important institutions of traditional society: brotherhood and tribe,
Islam as the organized religious community, and family as the major
institution of society.” 83 Miroljub Jevtić warned that the Muslim
population could achieve its goal of living according to Allah’s word
in the Balkans only if it gained the strength to do so through numerical
superiority. Thus, according to this theory, Muslims encouraged
a high birth rate in order to conquer the land in the Balkans. According
to Jevtić, religion is one way to promote a high birth rate because
the Muslims are bidden by their religion to have as many children as
they can. Jevtić believed that global Islamic planners were intent on
Islamizing Serbia as a first step in the penetration of Europe. 84
In a series of articles published in daily newspapers and magazines,
as well as in the Army weekly Vojska, Professors Darko
Tanasković and Miroljub Jevtić regularly portrayed Islam as inferior,
backward, and violent. The treachery of the Bosnians who allegedly
converted to Islam was a pet topic. At the height of the anti-Islamic
83 Miloš Macura, ‘Problem rađanja Kosova’ (The problem of births in Kosovo), Zbornik
Okruglog stola o naučnom istraživanju Kosova, SANU, Belgrade, 1988 .
84 Professor Dr Miroljub Jevtić, ‘Turci (opet) žele Srbiju’ (The Turks
[again] covet Serbia), Srpska reč, 19 August 1991 .