The Rev. Anton Kcira of St. Paul Albanian Parish was speaking in his church shortly after the arrests of three Albanian Muslim men who were involved in a plot to kill U.S. soldiers at Ft. Dix in New Jersey when he made the disparaging comments.
"I was angry, very angry, about the lack of response in the Albanian and Kosovar communities against the criminals who planned to kill American soldiers," he said Saturday. "The USA and NATO have done so much for our nation and our peoples over the years, and by not condemning the Albanian criminals, we appeared ungrateful."
In the speech, Kcira refers to a Serbian leader at one point, saying about the Balkan conflict: "Milosevic should have done to the 1.9 million dogs in Kosovo what he did to the 260,000 dogs in Srebrenica."
Albania is about 70% Muslim, 10% Catholic and 20% Orthodox Christian, according to the CIA World Factbook. In metro Detroit, both Muslims and Christians make up the Albanian-American community.
The speech was in Albanian and believed to be recorded by someone in attendance. It was translated into English. As of Saturday evening, it was no longer posted on YouTube.
Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said his group arranged a recent meeting with Muslim leaders and the Archdiocese of Detroit to discuss concerns.
Joe Kohn, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said Saturday that "there are many strong ties, and indeed a strong level of mutual respect, between leaders in the Muslim community locally and Archbishop Allen Vigneron and the archdiocese."
Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com
Source:freep.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment