The Raskrinkavanje.ba portal published an article entitled "Fictitious biography of Milan Radulović: How the media in the region were deceived", about an Orthodox priest from Bar, whose name has recently appeared several times in Montenegrin and regional media.
According to them, Radulović came to the center of media attention in the Balkans at the end of 2018 when, according to his own claims, he translated the Qur'an into the Ukrainian language.
At the end of August, the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights transferred Radulović's address to the Government, in which he states that, as an Orthodox theologian, he does not see anything objectionable in the Law on Freedom of Religion. Last week, Radulović appeared as an interviewer in the daily of Television of Montenegro, and in January he addressed the crowd at one of the litia in Herceg Novi.
In parallel with the story about the translation of the Koran, media reports highlighted Radulović's impressive academic qualifications and biography. In the articles of various portals, it was possible to read that Radulović graduated in Orthodox theology in Chicago, that he obtained his master's degree in Thessaloniki, his doctorate in Rome, and that he attended Islamic studies in Lebanon and obtained his master's degree again. In addition, in some of Radulović's biographies available on the Internet, one can read that he was a professor of Islamic philosophy at (Brock) Ontario University; professor of the history of philosophy at the Islamic Faculty in Toronto, and that he speaks as many as 11 languages.
On the Bosnian portal, for example, the Raskrinkavanje portal states, on September 3, 2018, the most detailed biography of this priest was published:
ORTHODOX PRIEST PROF. DR. MILAN RADULOVIĆ TRANSLATED THE HOLY QUR'AN INTO THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE
(…)
Namely, the editorial office of Bošnjaci.Net has received information that an Orthodox priest serving the Bulgarian Church in Toronto, dr. Milan Radulović, also a professor of Islamic philosophy at Brock University in St. Catherins, Ontario, after a year of hard work, finished and completed the translation of the Holy Qur'an from Arabic to the Ukrainian language.
(…)
He completed his primary and secondary education in his native Bar. In 1992, he graduated from St. Sava School of Theology in Libertyville (IL) and received a Bachelor of Theology. He also received M. Div (Master of Divinity) and M. Th. (Master of Theology) at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Greece in 1995. He received his master's degree at Balamand University in Lebanon in 1996. He graduated from the Dawah Faculty of Islamic Studies in Beirut, Lebanon in 1996. Professor of liturgical theology at Pontian University Urbaniana in Rome, Italy in 1998.
(…)
He wrote many books and articles on the subject of church history and liturgy.
He writes poetry in his spare time. He is a member of the North American Poets Association.
(…)
He is fluent in Arabic, English, French, Greek, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Belarusian, Albanian, and as he likes to say Serbian-Croatian as written in his diploma.
All this, according to the portal, raised doubts among some of our readers that the statements from Radulović's biography related to his academic titles and career are not correct.
The team of the Raskrinkavanje portal found the first media report about Milan Radulović that contains an academic qualification on the SAFF portal. There is 28.9.2017/XNUMX/XNUMX. the article "Milan Radulović: Islam was, is now and will be - the faith of truth, justice and peace" was published in Radulović is presented here as a professor of Islamic philosophy at the University of Ontario:
Author: Milan Radulović, Orthodox priest and professor of Islamic philosophy at the University of Ontario / Source: Bosnjaci.net
The text was first published on the Bosnjaci portal, but the original article is no longer available on that portal. This article was also reported by the portals Novi Horizonti and MIZ Kalesija.
Although the author's text is signed with the name of Milan Radulović, he is not its actual author, the portal states, emphasizing that the identical text is authored by Sead Jasavić, published on the Bošnjaci portal 8 years earlier - on April 11.4.2009, XNUMX.
"It is unclear whether Radulović sent this text to the aforementioned portal with his signature, or whether its authorship was attributed to him by a third person. However, this is only the first in a series of falsehoods related to his achievements, which have been shared in one way or another with the public".
Higher education and the academic career: Truths and falsehoods
The claim that Milan Radulović is a professor of Islamic philosophy at Brock University, Ontario, was published again by the Bošnjaci portal in the aforementioned article:
Namely, the editorial office of Bošnjaci.Net has received information that an Orthodox priest serving the Bulgarian Church in Toronto, dr. Milan Radulović, also a professor of Islamic philosophy at Brock University in St. Catherins, Ontario, after a year of hard work, finished and completed the translation of the Holy Qur'an from Arabic to the Ukrainian language.
The head of the philosophy department at Brock University, Michael P. Berman, answered questions from the Raskrinkavanje portal that there is no "Islamic philosophy" course in that department, and that he had never heard of Milan Radulović:
First, I have never heard of the person you mentioned.
Second, the Philosophy Department at Brock has never had a course on Islamic philosophy as such, although I have had the opportunity to teach guided reading exercises on Mohammed Iqbal (only one student attended the exercises) and taught Abrahamic Religious Thought (PHIL 2P20) several times and that the course does have a section on Islamic thought. Feel free to browse past courses on the Brock website to see what is being taught in our department.
Other claims about the professorial career of Milan Radulović at the faculties in Toronto include the fact that he is (was) a professor of the history of philosophy at the Faculty of Islam in Toronto. This claim first appeared on the Facebook page of the Bar Islamic Cultural Center on October 5.10.2018, 8.10.2018. and then on the Islam Montenegro portal, October XNUMX, XNUMX:
VISIT OF THE ORTHODOX PRIEST PROF. DR MILAN RADULOVIĆ TO THE CHIEF IMAM MIZ MR MUIDIN EF. MILAIMI
Today, he is visiting the chief imam Mr. Muidinu ef. Milaimiju was an Orthodox priest prof. Dr. Milan Radulović, priest in the Bulgarian church and professor of the history of philosophy at the Islamic Faculty in Toronto. (Facebook page: Islamic Cultural Center Bar, October 5.10.2018, XNUMX)
Prof. Dr. Milan Radulović, priest in the Bulgarian church and professor of the history of philosophy at the Faculty of Islam in Toronto, visited the institutions of the Islamic community in Montenegro in recent days. (Islam Montenegro, 8.10.2018 October XNUMX)
The statement that Milan Radulović is a professor at the "Islamic Faculty" in Toronto was also published by the Radio Free Europe (RSE) portal on January 7.1.2019, 9.1.2019, and the same could be heard in the announcements of television shows in which Radulović was a guest (Recite Al Jazeera, January 1, 15.1.2019; Novi dan, N1, XNUMX), and read it on the portals NXNUMX, Mondo (.rs), Novosti, Fresh Press, Glas Krajine, Oslobođenje, Telegraf, Novi and others that transmitted information from RSE.
He has been living in Toronto, Canada for a long time. There is a priest in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and a professor of the history of philosophy at the Islamic Faculty there (RSE and others)
He was born in Bar, and lives and works far away in Toronto, where he teaches at the Faculty of Islam. (Al Jazeera)
Radulović's profile on the Academia (.edu) page also states that he was a post-doctoral student at the Middle East and Islamic Studies department at the University of Toronto. Milan Radulović's Facebook profile, on the other hand, states that he is a professor at the Islamic Institute of Toronto from October 2017 until today.
So, according to these claims, Radulović taught or teaches at the following institutions from Toronto:
- "Islamic Faculty of Toronto"
- University of Toronto
- Islamic Institute of Toronto
In order to check this, the Raskrinkavanje portal contacted the institutions whose names are clearly stated, and the Institute for Islamic Studies, which was probably meant by the vague name "Islamic Faculty in Toronto".
At the University of Toronto, within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, there is a Department of Religious Studies, which has a program in Islamic Studies. John S Kloppenborg, professor and head of this department, told the portal that Milan Radulović was never associated with that institution:
Mr. Radulović was never in any way a member of the Department of Religious Studies.
From Academia.edu I see that there is a possible connection with the old department of Near Eastern and Islamic Studies, now called Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations (NMC). But I don't see him listed as a PhD candidate in that department.
You may wish to contact the NMC to check if there is any information relating to Mr. Radulović with that department.
"As recommended, we also contacted the Near and Middle East Civilizations department, listed on Radulović's profile, but until the publication of this analysis, we did not receive a response. Additionally, we contacted the Institute of Islamic Studies, which is also located at the University of Toronto," the portal states. .
However, they add, they received a response from Mohamed Farhad Khadim, director of education at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, in a very short time.
Thank you for your question regarding Mr. Milan Radulović.
This gentleman is not affiliated with the Islamic Institute of Toronto in any way, as a student, graduate, or lecturer.
In 2017, we noted his claim of affiliation [with the Islamic Institute of Toronto] on his LinkedIn profile and disputed that claim. In his reply, he stated that his profile had been hacked.
I hope that your investigation will result in clarifying the allegations and activities of Mr. Radulović
"Thus, Milan Radulović never had the status of a lecturer at Brock University, Ontario, at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, or at the Department of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto. We were unable to determine the accuracy of other claims related to his academic career without a response from the aforementioned academic institutions," the portal points out.
Education claims
In addition to allegations about the faculties where Radulović allegedly taught, many articles about his translation of the Qur'an also contained, as the portal stated, a series of claims about his higher education. In addition to their first source, the Bošnjaci portal, other portals also published similar excerpts from Milan Radulović's biography:
He graduated from the Faculty of Orthodoxy in Chicago, received his master's degree in Thessaloniki, completed Islamic studies in Beirut, and received his doctorate in Rome (RSE, Novi dan, N1, Mondo, Oslobođenje, Novosti and others).
"Some of these claims contain quite obvious illogicalities, such as the fact that Radulović completed his Islamic studies in Lebanon in 1996 and received his master's degree, just one year after he received his master's degree in Thessaloniki. Others, on the other hand, were again confirmed to be incorrect by of the institutions mentioned in these articles and/or on Radulović's profiles on social networks," the portal adds.
Such, as they state, is the claim that he graduated from theology (or "Orthodox faculty") at the University of Illinois at Chicago (University of Illinois at Chicago), for which the Raskrinkavanje portal approached this university. After multiple checks by name and publicly available date of birth (November 23.11.1967, XNUMX), they were confirmed by this University that there are no records of Radulović studying there.
They add, they also received the same answer from the secretariat of the School of Pastoral and Social Theology, from the theological faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Αριστοτέλειο Πενερισσότελονική Σελλονική), where Radulović allegedly attended and completed his master's studies:
We inform you that no one with the name Milan Radulović has ever studied or graduated from the master's program of the School of Pastoral and Social Theology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
There is also a School of Theology at the theological faculty of this university, where they also tried to check if Radulović's master's degrees might have been obtained there. However, they point out, even after repeated inquiries, they did not receive an answer.
On Radulović's Facebook profile, on the other hand, there is information that he studied the "Medieval History" program at the mentioned university, which differs from the claims about a master's degree in theology, present in the media (for example, in the article of the Bosnian portal).
The team of the Raskrinkavanje portal also failed to fully verify the information that Radulović received his doctorate in Rome, because the Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana (Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana) did not respond to their inquiry. However, they add, all doctoral dissertations can be viewed on the website of this university, among which there is no dissertation of Milan Radulović, and it is possible that this is also an incorrect statement.
"In addition to the above, we also approached the Lebanese Balamad University on several occasions, but until the publication of this analysis we did not receive an answer to the question of whether Radulović received his master's degree there. A similar thing happened with the "Daawa Faculty of Islamic Studies in Beirut" (Al Daawa University Faculty for Islamic Studies), which only recently has a functional website, with a couple of contacts to whom we forwarded inquiries," the article adds.
Sources of false claims
Before the publication of this analysis, the Raskrinkavanje portal tried twice to get Milan Radulović's comment on the accuracy of biographical information from the media and social networks. In the emails, as they said, they asked him to comment on these allegations and say which of them are and are not true, but they state that they have not received an answer.
"We also contacted all the media that were the source of any separate biographical "sketches", with an inquiry about their source of that information. We received a response from the Bosniaks portal, from where we were told that that portal had "direct contact with the priest", and that all the biographical information they publish is obtained exclusively from the persons whose names appear in the biographies," the portal states.
They add that there are other indications that Radulović himself was the source of all the above incorrect claims.
"In conversations broadcast by various media (Al Jazeera Balkans, 9.1.2019/31.5.2019/16.9.2018, Radio Televizija Crne Gore, XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX), Radulović tacitly or explicitly confirmed all the above-mentioned allegations. In addition, he told an anecdote about the visit on RTCG representative of the Canadian government to the "Islamic faculty" where he teaches, saying that they were amazed that a Christian "can teach at an Islamic faculty", noting that this "happened for the first time in Canada". That part of the conversation can be heard at this link In an interview with Al Jazeera (September XNUMX, XNUMX), Radulović also stated the untruth about his alleged colleague from Brock University in Ontario:
When my friend Dr. Mustafa Kthab, professor of the Department of Islam at Brock University in St. Catherins, Ontario had a casual conversation with a Canadian, who, reading the first translation of the Qur'an by Alexander Ross from 1688, reprinted in 1989, had negative prejudices about the Qur'an and Muslims in general, then Professor Khatan decided to translate the Qur'an again and his translation NOBLE QURAN brought the Qur'anic text closer to everyone who speaks English.
Mustafa Khattab was not a professor of the "Islamic department" (which does not exist at this University), but in the period 2014 - 2016 he was actually a "Muslim Chaplain" - an Islamic cleric, which can be seen in his biography on Amazon, the portal points out. . Khattab, they added, found himself at the center of the controversy because in 2012, at the Edemont Islamic Academy, he declared that homosexuality is a disease. Brock University responded with a statement that made it clear that Khattab did not teach there:
The university also points out that Khattab is a volunteer, not paid, and was selected by the Muslim Students Association. "It receives no income from the university, has no office space and does not represent this institution," the statement said.
Radulović also made inaccurate statements about his biography to the English-language media. "This is the claim he made in an interview for the YouTube channel HolyFaith Media 1 in October 2017, saying that in the former Yugoslavia he was a movie star. The part in which Radulović makes these claims starts at minute 06:57. In addition to the fact that The "movie star" must have already known something to the public, we checked the claim on the Internet movie database (Internet movie database - IMDb), where there is no information about any kind of film career of Milan Radulović," says Raskrinkavanje.ba.
Back to the beginning of the story: Translation of the Qur'an into Ukrainian
What put Radulović in the media "orbit" was the story about the translation of the Koran into the Ukrainian language. This is another claim that the portal did not manage to fully verify, but, as they state, there are indications that it is also not true.
"Although it was claimed in various articles that Radulović had already translated the Qur'an, none of the searches we made online led us to any text or edition of this translation. At the same time, the Bosnian portals, Al Jazeera and A1 illustrated their articles about Radulović's translation an image of an already existing translation of the Qur'an into the Ukrainian language (translation by Mihailo Jakubović from 2012), although without an explicit claim that those illustrations depict Radulović's translation."
On this occasion, they addressed Haris ef. Mekić, who was stated to have written the preface for Radulović's translation, with the question of whether he had ever seen the entire text of the translation, and whether he knew which publishing house would publish it and when. According to the portal, Mekić said that he had an insight into "certain parts" of the translation, but not the entire text, noting that there was no need for that because he was not "a reviewer, nor a proofreader". It is indicative that, according to Mekić's knowledge, the reviewers of this translation are "certain imams in Toronto, and professors from the Islamic Faculty in that city," the portal points out. Regarding the issue of the translation itself, they received the following answer:
Translation of the Qur'an by Prof. Radulović has not yet been officially released. It is currently in that phase, and due to the situation with the COVID-19 virus, that process has slowed down. In this regard, we are not sure of the exact date of publication of the translation, but we expect, with prayers to God, that it will be soon. The publishing house that took over the printing and publishing of the translation of the Qur'an is located in Ukraine, and I do not have the authority to reveal its name to you for objective reasons. What I can help you with is to send you my preface, written in our and Ukrainian languages.
From all of the above, concludes the team of the Raskrinkavanje.ba portal, it can be concluded that a whole range of media, from different countries, received incorrect information from Radulović himself - or simply took it from other media. "Given that this is a de facto deception of media sources, we evaluate all articles and posts on social networks with incorrect information about Milan Radulović's academic qualifications and career as a mistake. Portal Novi Konjic, from which they informed us that they removed the disputed article, it also receives the grade denied," the article concludes.
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