In America's diverse culture, the notion of a civil war charged with religious conflict is hard to grasp. But religious identity is present constantly in the antagonisms that have fragmented the Balkans for centuries -- setting neighbor against neighbor, Muslims against Orthodox Christians, and Orthodox Christians against Western Christians, who are represented, at least symbolically in the current conflict, by NATO. More than anywhere else in Europe, religion and nationality merge in the Balkans, making it possible to create potent propaganda and a unique mytho-history that can be used to inspire hatred. Yugoslavia sits on an invisible fault line between the Islamic Middle East and the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity. Over centuries, each faith has sought hegemony over the religious identity of the region. "In the Balkans, religious identification became part of national identity, as expressed through language and the communication of the national myth," said Peter Black, a senior historian at the United States Holocaust Museum. "Thus, being Orthodox is part of being Serbian. Americans don't have a single religion -- being Catholic or Orthodox or Muslim

isn't part of our American identity." Depending on which experts you talk to, you will hear about two conflicts now in the Balkans. In one view, the Kosovo war has historical and mythological roots in the long conflict between Ottoman Turks and southern Slavs, who are Orthodox Christians. The other war is being fought in the air by the NATO troops, who, by bombing the Serbs on the Orthodox Easter -- just as the Nazis did in 1941 -- have played into a view held by some Serbs that NATO is a force of Western Christianity attempting to crush the Eastern Orthodox underdog. "It really comes down to a war between Eastern and Western Christianity," said the Rev. Alex Karloutsos, an Orthodox priest in New York. In the United States, the war's religious undercurrents have gone largely unnoticed except in the religious communities -- Muslim and Orthodox -- who see the suffering of their brethren. Muslim relief groups have witnessed an extraordinary outpouring from the roughly 5 million to 6 million Muslims, who have collected more than $2 million to send to the Kosovo refugees as well as tents, food and medical supplies. "That is a lot of money for our community," said Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "This is one of those situations that has really struck people." Some Muslims in the United States voice the frustration that even when violence is targeted against Muslims, such as Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, the United States refrains from tarring Serbs with the extremist labels that are commonly used when Muslims target enemies. Americans who are Orthodox Christians feel the public picture painted of the Serbs by the U.S. media and government officials has tarnished all Serbs -- if not all Orthodox -- with the same brush as Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosev

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1245
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)