ANTONIĆ: A HYBRID WAR IS BEING WAGED AGAINST SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH WITH THE AIM OF SPLITTING IT APART

The Serbian Orthodox Church is being attacked from various angles and by various parties, with the main aim of splitting it apart. The enemies of the Serbian Orthodox Church are very powerful and wealthy, Antonić said. By: Vesna ŠURBAT

BELGRADE, OCTOBER 25 /SRNA/ - A hybrid war is being waged against the Serbian Orthodox Church /SOC/to split it apart because it has remained the only pan-Serbian institution that transcends the borders of the new states in the region, Slobodan Antonić, a full professor of sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, told SRNA. Speaking about his new book, Ponerology of the Anti-Church Mind: On the Propaganda War Against the Serbian Orthodox Church, Antonić said that this hybrid war was not a recent phenomenon but had been going on for a long time, as he demonstrated in the book through source material, analysis and available documentation. Antonić pointed to an evident attempt to turn the Serbian Orthodox Church into a "Bosnian-Herzegovinian Orthodox Church," a "Croatian Orthodox Church," a "Montenegrin Orthodox Church" and a "Kosovo Orthodox Church," adding that the enemies of the Serbian Orthodox Church are "very powerful and wealthy." He explained that the Serbian Orthodox Church is an institution that extends beyond Serbia’s borders, which is why it is subjected to a particular pattern of attacks, not only by groups that view it as hostile, but also by certain other groups in neighboring countries, especially those where anti-Serb nationalism is highly developed. "And this has been going on for a long time," Antonić emphasized. Antonić noted that the most important thing was to know how to distinguish justified, well-intentioned and legitimate criticism of the Serbian Orthodox Church from a propaganda war against it. "This is something that should be part of the media literacy and culture of every person in Serbia, Republika Srpska and, more broadly, every member of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who must be able to distinguish between a hostile stance and a propaganda war against the SOC and justified criticism," Antonić said. He stressed that the Serbian Orthodox Church was under threat wherever it existed — in BiH, Montenegro, Croatia and Kosovo and Metohija, as well as beyond the province, in central Serbia. Antonić said that these efforts to divide the Serbian Orthodox Church had progressed further in some places than in others, with the aim of breaking away part of the Church, seizing monasteries and churches, and proclaiming some new "Orthodox Church" in a particular territory. "The situation is most difficult in Kosovo and Metohija," Antonić said. THE WEST SEES SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE SERB PEOPLE AS EXTENSION OF RUSSIA AND RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH In the first part of the book, Antonić showed how the Serbian Orthodox Church is perceived and treated, primarily by the West, citing statements about the SOC and Serbs in general by various NATO generals, Western politicians, and figures at the highest levels of Western institutions. In the book, Antonić also described what media propaganda against the Serbian Orthodox Church looks like, adding that the difference between criticism of the Church and propaganda lies in whether a particular media outlet or publication carries any positive or at least neutral articles or commentary about it. "If you cannot find a single positive or even neutral article about the Serbian Orthodox Church, then it is clear to you that the publication, journalist or editorial team is part of the propaganda war against the Serbian Orthodox Church," Antonić said. In his book, he also demonstrated that NATO leaders view the Serbian Orthodox Church, and even the Serb people in the Balkans, as an extension of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church, or the Kremlin. "I showed how the Serb people are treated as a factor that is, in a way, closely tied to Russia - an ‘enemy structure’ in the eyes of NATO and the West - and as something that needs to be brought under control," Antonić said. In his book, Antonić focused primarily on the hybrid and media war against the Serbian Orthodox Church, particularly in Serbia. The book Ponerology of the Anti-Church Mind: On the Propaganda War Against the Serbian Orthodox Church, by Professor Slobodan Antonić, PhD, was published in October by Duhovne Reči, the publishing house of the Archdiocese of Belgrade and Karlovci. Ponerology is the study of the nature of evil, its origins, and the ways in which it spreads through social networks and institutions.