Post by tripwire on Dec 7, 2007 23:13:14 GMT -5
The New Islamic Mafia
By M. Bozinovich
FBI has recently announced that ethnic Albanian gangs, including immigrants from Kosovo, are replacing the Italian La Cosa Nostra mafia as the leading organized crime outfit in the US. According to a CNN report the FBI "Officials said ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro" (From 2004 news item:
edition.cnn.com/2004/LAW/08/18/albanians.mob/
) make up the emerging American criminal cartel and "represent a major challenge to federal agents because of their propensity for violence and brutality." This statement comes several months after Amnesty International declared NATO-administered Kosovo province a hotbed of organized crime activity.
(You can read the rest of this S^%$ at this site..
www.serbianna.com/columns/mb/028.shtml
Below is a letter to Bozin. :
Good evening,
I just read your article on the "new Islamic mafia"
(http://www.serbianna.com/columns/mb/028.shtml).
The attempt pursued in your article to conflate Islam, Albanians,
mafia, and the war on terror (with polish sausage) is at once
offensive, crude (even a little hilarious), and ultimately a stark
reminder of the divisive and reactionary voices around us which
continue the kind of hate-mongering which fuels anti-Semitism, and in this case, Islamophobia.
The timing of this article, as it coincides with independence for
Kosova, would seem a thinly-veiled and rather ill-conceived (i.e.
poorly written) attempt to problematize the historic right of Kosovars to independence, in this case by manufacturing "terror" links in the Balkans.
Grasping at straws, Bozinovich...
While your grade for originality falls well below that of the
fabrications unfurled by the US administration in its various fronts in the "war on terror," as an English Lit major, I also marked you down for the following:
--outside of use in a stand-up comedy routine, the reliance on the "Kielbasa Posse" for solid information on purported Albanian gang activity seems dubious. Assuming you can continue your knack for ground-breaking investigative reportage with your uncanny sense of who's-who in the gangland underworld, whipping up something a bit less kitschy (and funny) wouldn't hurt credibility.
--your mention of the Canon reminds the reader of some carefree voyage into a docile literary realm, where the deer and the antelope play; and I suspect this is not the locale you intended. Thus, try the Kanun (with its Besa).
These are just some friendly thoughts and suggestions.
J.R
UCLA
By M. Bozinovich
FBI has recently announced that ethnic Albanian gangs, including immigrants from Kosovo, are replacing the Italian La Cosa Nostra mafia as the leading organized crime outfit in the US. According to a CNN report the FBI "Officials said ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro" (From 2004 news item:
edition.cnn.com/2004/LAW/08/18/albanians.mob/
) make up the emerging American criminal cartel and "represent a major challenge to federal agents because of their propensity for violence and brutality." This statement comes several months after Amnesty International declared NATO-administered Kosovo province a hotbed of organized crime activity.
(You can read the rest of this S^%$ at this site..
www.serbianna.com/columns/mb/028.shtml
Below is a letter to Bozin. :
Good evening,
I just read your article on the "new Islamic mafia"
(http://www.serbianna.com/columns/mb/028.shtml).
The attempt pursued in your article to conflate Islam, Albanians,
mafia, and the war on terror (with polish sausage) is at once
offensive, crude (even a little hilarious), and ultimately a stark
reminder of the divisive and reactionary voices around us which
continue the kind of hate-mongering which fuels anti-Semitism, and in this case, Islamophobia.
The timing of this article, as it coincides with independence for
Kosova, would seem a thinly-veiled and rather ill-conceived (i.e.
poorly written) attempt to problematize the historic right of Kosovars to independence, in this case by manufacturing "terror" links in the Balkans.
Grasping at straws, Bozinovich...
While your grade for originality falls well below that of the
fabrications unfurled by the US administration in its various fronts in the "war on terror," as an English Lit major, I also marked you down for the following:
--outside of use in a stand-up comedy routine, the reliance on the "Kielbasa Posse" for solid information on purported Albanian gang activity seems dubious. Assuming you can continue your knack for ground-breaking investigative reportage with your uncanny sense of who's-who in the gangland underworld, whipping up something a bit less kitschy (and funny) wouldn't hurt credibility.
--your mention of the Canon reminds the reader of some carefree voyage into a docile literary realm, where the deer and the antelope play; and I suspect this is not the locale you intended. Thus, try the Kanun (with its Besa).
These are just some friendly thoughts and suggestions.
J.R
UCLA