Anti-Orthodoxy

Anti-Orthodoxy is hostility towards or opposition to the Eastern Orthodox Church, its clergy and adherents. There has been historical Persecution of Orthodox Christians by Muslims and other Christians.

Middle Ages

The Crusades in the Middle East also spilled over into conquest of Eastern Orthodox Christians by Roman Catholics and attempted suppression of the Orthodox Church.

Ottoman Empire

All Orthodox people in the Ottoman Empire were regarded part of the Rum Millet. In tax registries, the Orthodox Christians were recorded as "infidels" (see giaour).^[1]

In 1656, Greek Patriarch of Antioch Macarios III Zaim lamented over the atrocities committed by the Polish Catholics against followers of Eastern Orthodoxy. Macarios was quoted as stating that seventy or eighty thousand followers of Eastern Orthodoxy were killed under hands of the Catholics, and that he desired Ottoman sovereignty over Catholic subjugation, stating:

God perpetuate the empire of the Turks for ever and ever! For they take their impost, and enter no account of religion, be their subjects Christians or Nazarenes, Jews or Samaritians; whereas these accursed Poles were not content with taxes and tithes from the brethren of Christ...^[2]

World War II

Persecution of Serbs

The Ustaše recognized both Roman Catholicism and Islam as the national religions of Croatia, but held the position that Eastern Orthodoxy, as a symbol of Serbian identity, was their foe.^[3] They never recognized the existence of the Serb people on the territories of Croatia or anywhere else in the world, for that matter – they referred to them only as "Croats of the Eastern faith", also referring to Bosnian-Muslims (or Bosniaks) as "Croats of the Islamic faith". The Ustaše in power banned the use of the expression "Serbian Orthodox faith" and mandated the use of the expression "Greek-Eastern faith" in its place.^[4] Some 250,000 Serbs were converted into Catholicism in a six-month-period in 1941.^[5] Hundreds of Serbian Orthodox Christian churches were closed, destroyed, or plundered during Ustaše rule.^[4] On 2 July 1942, the Croatian Orthodox Church was founded to replace the institutions of the Serbian Orthodox Church.^[6]

References

1. Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. BRILL. 13 June 2013. p. 44. ISBN 978-90-04-25076-5. In the Ottoman defters, Orthodox Christians are as a rule recorded as kâfir or gâvur (infidels) or (u)rum.
2. The preaching of Islam: a history of the propagation of the Muslim faith By Sir Thomas Walker Arnold, pp. 134–135
3. Ramet 2006, p. 118.
4. Ramet 2006, p. 119.
5. Cohen 1996, p. 90.
6. Tomasevich 2001, p. 546.

Sources

• Cohen, Philip J. (1996). Serbia's Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 0-89096-760-1.
• Ramet, Sabrina P. (2006). The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918–2005. New York: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34656-8.
• Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration 2. San Francisco, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3615-4.

Further reading

• Dionisije Milivojevich (1945). The Persecution of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Yugoslavia. Serbian Orthodox Monastery of St. Sava.
• Michael Bourdeaux (1970). Patriarch and Prophets: Persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church Today. Praeger.