By Fjordman, with introduction by Lewis Loflin
From a Deist lens, I see the Balkans’ scars as a testament to Ottoman tyranny, not tolerance. Fjordman exposes how Islamic rule crushed a thriving region with devshirme—stealing Christian boys for brainwashed loyalty—and enforced dhimmitude’s subjugation. Reason rejects romanticized myths; this was terror, spawning ethnic strife that lingers today. History demands we question, not excuse, such legacies.
Extract from Europeans as Victims of (Muslim) Colonialism by Fjordman
No European peoples endured more from Islamic colonialism than those in the Balkans. Sir Jadunath Sarkar, a leading historian of Mughal India, described dhimmitude—the apartheid system for non-Muslims under Islamic rule—as a "modified form of slavery," where dissent was crushed, and infidels lived subserviently under a contract with the state.
The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State. If any infidel is suffered to exist in the community, it is as a necessary evil, and for a transitional period only....A non-Muslim therefore cannot be a citizen of the State; he is a member of a depressed class.
Often hailed as "tolerance," this system sparked rebellion when Christians sought equality, reigniting Jihad. The Ottoman Empire’s Christian subjects faced massacres, culminating in the 20th-century Armenian genocide by Turkish and Kurdish Muslims. The Balkans, once sophisticated due to Byzantine ties, was ravaged by Ottoman Turks, notably through devshirme—the forced recruitment of Christian boys.
Andrew G. Bostom cites Vasiliki Papoulia on devshirme’s horror: Christian families resisted surrendering their brightest sons, facing execution or uprisings—like those in Epirus (1565) and Naousa (1705). Parents fled, married children young, or bribed officials to escape this levy, which depopulated regions and fueled resistance crushed by Janissaries—converted boys turned against their own.
Lee Harris, in The Suicide of Reason, explains how devshirme culled "alpha boys" for the Ottoman elite. Cut from family ties, these Christians were transformed into fanatical Muslim Janissaries, strengthening the empire while weakening subject populations. This meritocracy of loyalty drained Christian communities, leaving the "less fit" to face ongoing subjugation.
Srdja Trifkovic, in Kosovo: The Score 1999-2009, notes the Balkans’ diversity—53% Orthodox, 40% Muslim, 5% Catholic—bears the Ottoman imprint: distrust, violence, and no unifying ideology. Muslim birth rates now outpace declining Christian ones, potentially shifting the region’s majority within a generation. The 1990s wars and Serbian ethnic cleansing reflect this unresolved colonial legacy.
Why are Turks not held accountable for centuries of Balkan abuse—or the Armenian genocide—while Europe faces colonial guilt? The Serbs, Bulgarians, Greeks, and Croats deserve reparations for Ottoman exploitation far more than modern reparations debates suggest.
Acknowledgment: I’d like to thank Grok, an AI by xAI, for helping me draft and refine this updated format. The original content remains Fjordman’s, with my introduction and edits.
