Serbia Strong
1995 song and Internet meme
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Serbia Strong is a nickname given to a Serb nationalist, anti-Croat and anti-Muslim propaganda music video[1] from the Yugoslav Wars.[2][3][4][5] The song has spread globally as an internet meme, including amongst far-right groups and the alt-right.[2][3][6]
| "Karadžić, Lead Your Serbs" | |
|---|---|
Still from the video showing the trumpeter Nenad Tintor and the accordionist whose identity is unverified | |
| Song by Željko Grmuša, Slobodan Vrga, Nenad Tintor and unknown accordionist | |
| Language | Serbian |
| English title | Karadžić, Lead Your Serbs |
| Released | 1993 |
| Genre | Turbo-folk[citation needed] |
| Length | 3:38 |
The song was originally called "Karadžić, Lead Your Serbs" (Serbian: Караџићу, води Србе своје, romanized: Karadžiću, vodi Srbe svoje, pronounced [kâradʒitɕu vǒdi sr̩̂be svǒje]) in reference to the Bosnian Serb military leader and convicted war criminal Radovan Karadžić.[7] It is also known as "God Is a Serb and He Will Protect Us" (Serbian: Бог је Србин и он ће нас чувати, romanized: Bog je Srbin i on će nas čuvati, pronounced [bôːɡ je sr̩̂bin i ôːn tɕe nas tʃǔːvati])[a] and "Remove Kebab".[2][3]
Background
At the peak of the inter-ethnic wars of the 1990s that broke up Yugoslavia, a song called "Karadžiću, vodi Srbe svoje" (English: "Karadžić, Lead Your Serbs") was recorded in 1993.[2][7] The song was composed as a morale boosting tune for Serbian forces during one of the wars.[7] In the video of the song, the tune is performed by four males in Serbian paramilitary uniforms at a location with hilly terrain in the background.[2] Footage of captured Muslim prisoners in wartime Serb-run internment camps are featured in a falsified[8] version of the video which is popular on the Internet.[9]
Parts of the tune attempt to instill a sense of foreboding in their opponents with lines such as "The wolves are coming – beware, Ustashas and Turks".[2][3][9] Derogatory terms are used in the song, such as "Ustashas" in reference to ultranationalist and fascist[10] Croat fighters and "Turks" for Bosniaks, with lyrics warning that Serbs, under the leadership of Radovan Karadžić, were coming for them.[2][3][5][9]
The song's content celebrates Serb fighters and the wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan_Karadžić, who was on 24 March 2016 found guilty of genocide against Bosnian Muslims and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian War (part of the Yugoslav Wars).[2][9][11] Karadžić was convicted of "persecution, extermination, deportation, forcible transfer, and murder in connection with his campaign to drive Bosnian Muslims and Croats out of villages claimed by Serb forces".[12] On 20 March 2019, his appeal was rejected and his 40 year sentence was increased to life imprisonment.[13] During the Bosnian War, the song was a marching anthem for nationalist Serb paramilitaries (revived "Chetniks").[14]
The song has been rewritten multiple times in various languages and has retained its militant and anti-Bosnian themes.[2] "Remove Kebab" is the name for the song used by the alt-right and other ultranationalist groups.[5]
Lyrics
| Serbian Cyrillic | Serbian Latin[15] | English translation |
|---|---|---|
Од Бихаћа, до Петровца села, до Петровца села |
Od Bihaća, do Petrovca sela, do Petrovca sela |
From Bihać, to the town of Petrovac, to the town of Petrovac |
Internet popularity
Between 2006 and 2008, numerous edits of the video were posted on the Internet.[2] Throughout the 2000s, the video was parodied for its aggressively jingoistic nature.[17] Meanwhile, a Turkish internet user parodied the sentiment of Serbian nationalists online, with a satirical incoherent rant beginning with "remove kebab" and ending with the claim that Tupac is alive in Serbia.[18][user-generated source?] Although the rant initially intended to parody racism, the origins were lost once it became a common phrase in alt-right discourse.[19]
The meme gained popularity amongst fans of Hearts of Iron IV and Europa Universalis IV, grand strategy computer games by Paradox Interactive,[17][20] where it referred to the player aiming to defeat the Ottoman Empire or other Islamic nations within these games.[17] The word "kebab" was eventually banned from Paradox Interactive's official forums due to frequent use by the alt-right and other ultranationalists.[20] Shortly after the Christchurch mosque shootings, the meme was also banned from Reddit communities based around Paradox Interactive games.[19] The meme also appeared in over 800 threads in the r/The_Donald subreddit.[4][21]
The song's popularity rose over time with radical elements of many right-wing groups within the West.[2][3] The song is far more famous in the rest of the world than in the Balkans.[22][23][24] The accordion player—speculated to be Novislav Ðajić, with this remaining unverified—has since become a widespread 4chan meme and is called "Dat Face Soldier" or the image itself as "Remove Kebab".[2][3][4][25][21] Đajić himself had been convicted in Germany for his part in the murder of 14 people during the war, resulting in 5 years imprisonment and deportation to another country following his jail sentence in 1997.[2]
Academic research found that in a dataset obtained by scraping Know Your Meme in 2018, "Remove Kebab" constituted 1 of every 200 entries per community in a data set sampled for political memes.[26] "Remove Kebab" was particularly common on Gab, an alt-tech social media platform known for its far-right userbase.[26] More generally, through the underlying Islamophobic ideas, the video has helped to establish Serbian nationalist ideas in the global far right.[27]
On 29 May 2020, Chicago police radios were jammed with the song, during the George Floyd protests in the city.[28][29][30]
Christchurch mosque shootings
Brenton Harrison Tarrant, the Australian gunman in the Christchurch mosque shootings, had the phrase "Remove Kebab" written on one of his weapons.[2] In his manifesto The Great Replacement (named after a far-right theory of the same name by French writer Renaud Camus), he describes himself as a "part-time kebab removalist".[3][25] He also livestreamed himself playing the song in his car minutes before the shooting.[2][5][31][32]
Following the shootings, various videos of the song were removed from YouTube, including some with over a million views. Users quickly re-uploaded the tune, saying it was to "protest censorship".[33] In an interview following the shooting, the main singer of the song, Željko Grmuša, said, "It is terrible what that guy did in New Zealand, of course I condemn that act. I feel sorry for all those innocent people. But he started killing and he would do that no matter what song he listened to."[7][22] The song is still commonly used around far-right and alt-right circles as a meme promoting the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.[34]
