A billboard at a construction site, with a photo of an Ottoman-style mosque with four minarets and the flag of Turkey, was erected recently in the center of Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. With less than 2 million people, Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, is the home of over 800 mosques. Now the Islamic Community of Kosovo is building the “Central Mosque” at an estimated cost of $35- $40 million.
To listen to an audio version of this article, click here. As Turkey’s President Erdogan runs out of money, he is now, more than any time before, using religion to exploit the Balkans, especially the states that are more susceptible to Islamic influence.
Last week, the Israeli Knesset passed a new basic law which in the main enshrines “Israel [as] the historical homeland of the Jewish people in which the State of Israel was established… The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people… Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.”
Any protracted conflict can come to an end under certain circumstances that either evolve over a period of time or are precipitated by one side or the other of the conflicting parties, including: when both sides conclude they can no longer benefit from the continuation of the conflict; when both sides reach a point of exhaustion as they no longer have the resources nor the tenacity to continue the fight; when outside major power(s) impose a solution; when either side makes a unilateral significant concession that
