Serbfest celebrates century of Serbian culture in St. Louis

Serbfest celebrates Serbian traditions and Eastern Orthodox beliefs. But the priest at Holy Trinity Serbian Eastern Orthodox Church, which was established a century ago, also made a point Saturday to express his love of the United States.

"The more you know about America, the more you love it," the Rev. Radomir Chkautovich, who fled socialist Yugoslavia in 1963, said with an accent.

Chkautovich, a retired U.S. Navy lieutenant commander and chaplain, regularly leads tours of his church during Serbfest to explain its history and Serbian traditions....

Interestingly, St. Louis also has one of the largest Bosnian communities in the country.

The Bosnian Muslims are relative newcomers to the US, most have come here in the last 15 years. The Serbs have been here for over 100 years -- the oldest Serbian Orthodox Church in the US is about 115 yrs old. Many Serbs came during the Industrial Revolution to work in the mines, factories and mills, with another big wave post-WWII to escape communism.

The Bosnians at my job hate hate hate Serbs.

This same weekend there was also a Festival of "Western Bosnians" in the SF Bay Area --Serbs welcome, radical Islamists not welcome.

The story of the Western Bosnians from the Veliki Kladusa area is one of the most tragic stories of the war -- and one you aren't likely to hear from those who squack "Srebrenica".

The Western Bosnian Muslims supported the duly elected president of Bosnia, Fikret Abdic (a secular Muslim businessman), and they joined with Serbs to fight against the Islamist usurper Izetbegovic. But because the US supported Izetbegovic, the Western Bosnians got fed to the Islamist wolves. Many of those who survived escaped to Serbia (this book review is by one of those Muslims who did survive and escape to Serbia).

The Western Bosnians are truly the good and moderate Muslims (and I am not one to lightly use that term). You won't find Western Bosnians marching in Islamist oriented protests or attempting terrorism against the US. You are more likely to find Western Bosnians happily running a little store somewhere, minding their own business.

We owe the Serbs an apology. We should have helped them wipe out the Muzzies in the 90’s.

If we'd have helped the Serbs wipe out the Islamists (or at least not supported Bosnian Islamists like Izetbegovic), the rest of the Muslims wouldn't have been a problem and there likely would have been no Bosnian war at all. But instead of supporting the real "moderate Muslims", we supported the radicals Islamists who -- in their own words -- say that "9/11 was payback for Bosnia"

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