Over the past decade, since the U.S.-led NATO intervention to defend the Kosovar Albanians against the terrorism of the late Slobodan Milosevic, Artemije Radosavljevic, bishop of the Serbian Orthodox church in Kosovo, has gained considerable local and global publicity. Artemije’s media career began with his admission that Serbian nationalists had subjected the Kosovars to abuse. He later moved on to demands that the remaining Serb minority in the territory benefit from permanent international protection. Bishop Artemije became a frequent visitor to the United States, and, after September 11, 2001, emerged as a favorite of those who falsely accuse the entire Kosovar Muslim community of jihadism. He directed this flamboyant propaganda, which attributed unspeakably horrible crimes to the Albanians, from a large enclave at the Serbian monastery of Gracanica, near the Kosovo capital of Pristina. There Artemije and his cohort have been assiduously guarded by Swedish as well as NATO forces.

Kosovar Albanians have in fact repeatedly expressed their opposition to radical Islam. The Albanian response to extremist infiltration has been notably articulate and transparent. By contrast, candor was lacking on the part of Bishop Artemije. In recent years, Balkan experts exposed the distasteful fact that he was a leading advocate for the sainthood of a Serbian cleric and Nazi sympathizer, Nikolaj Velimirovic (1882-1956). Velimirovic, who died as an émigré to the United States, was inducted into the calendar of Serbian saints in 2003.