Kosovo: Radical Islam as a "ticking bomb"

Arbana Xharra from Prishtina


The Kosovo experience, favored by poverty and unemployment, a rise of radical Islam. Whose supporters demand more rights and provoke a backlash from secular Kosovars

Believers, do not fit into the mosque sitting in front of the entrances to the sidewalk, which is covered with prayer rugs. The amplified voice of the clergy over the loudspeaker sounds over them on the street. Friday prayers in Pristina, Kosovo's capital, the main mosque grasp neither the faithful nor the sound of the sermon, which have come to hear them.

"Allah's enemies lead young Muslims astray," warned the minister. It lists alcohol, drugs and the corrupting influence of the Internet on as part of a concerted campaign "to stop the momentum of Islam." "The immorality is on the rise," said his diagnosis.

One need not go far to see evidence of the "immorality". Not far from the mosque young men and women sitting at coffee and beer around in the trendy bars of downtown Pristina. Nearby, new monuments that tell the recent history of Kosovo. A large bronze statue of Bill Clinton, raised his hand in triumph or in greeting adorns a boulevard that bears his name. The former U.S. president is celebrated as a hero because he sent 1999 NATO aircraft against Serb forces.
Converts and hardliners

Another indirect consequence of the conflict, but is now regarded with suspicion: a strict form of Islam attracts converts to throughout Kosovo. The rise of this group represents the traditions and expectations of a society considered which was defined less by their Islamic faith than by belonging to ethnic Albanians and their pro-Americanism. Until 1999, still largely unknown, the religious conservatives and hardliners today., A small but increasingly visible group with supporters in all the major cities and some of the poorest areas in the country

Security officials report that these severe forms of faith germinated after the war, as a result of the influx of Islamic organizations in Kosovo, and the training of local clergy in Arab countries. The security experts speak of 50,000 followers this conservative Islam in Kosovo. That's a fraction of the total Muslim population, which is estimated at around 1.8 million people.
Discrimination of the Pious

Some clergy and converts have but attracted the attention of domestic intelligence on itself. This new generation of religious conservatives, says the secular constitution of Kosovo discriminates against the upright. You want to ban a relaxation of restrictions on religious symbols in state schools, the Muslim women and girls to wear the headscarf.

The relationship between the State and the Conservatives is marked by uncertainty and uneasiness. Both sides rely on international human rights. "When people say we have freedom of religion, which is not true," says Shefqet Krasniqi, an imam at the main mosque in Prishtina. "We demand the same rights, Muslims in London or the U.S.."

Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi says, however, that in the meantime, human rights concerns have hindered his attempts to curb activities of suspected Islamist hardliners. He reported that he had tried during his tenure as prime minister nine years ago to launch a law against "radical sects." But he was dissuaded by "internationals" of this - namely officials of the UN mission, which helped from 1999 to 2008, to administer Kosovo.
Dangers of the UN and EU underestimated

Behxhet Shala, head of the most important human rights organization in Kosovo, says the danger of extremism had been underestimated by the United Nations and the EU. "Today, the internationals are here, but they will go back. And they leave us with a ticking bomb," says Shala. He said that poverty in Kosovo and the porous borders made the country a fertile ground for radicalism.

Indeed, the collapse of socialist Yugoslavia was accompanied by a religious movement in the region. The Catholic and Orthodox churches in Croatia and Serbia are stronger today than they were before the wars of the 1990s. Kosovo is no exception. Throughout the country, new mosques were built, often funded by donors from Islamic states.
Ramiqi on Mavi Marmara

Most Kosovars are Muslim and exert a relatively relaxed form of Islam, which is dominated by Ottoman and mystical Sufi traditions. The hardliners seem to be more influenced by Arabic interpretations of the faith. They describe themselves as defenders of the faith, who oppose the advance of the "Western" secularism in Kosovo.

Fuad Ramiqi, a representative of the "Bashkohu" movement says his group advocate public protests and nonviolent resistance. The group complained about the ban on headscarves in schools and on the importance of Christian monuments in Prishtina. "That can not be a democratic state, secularism imposed on me," he says.

Ramiqi fought in the 1990s in Bosnia and was on board the Mavi Marmara, a ship carrying aid for Palestinians in Gaza that was intercepted by Israeli forces in 2010.
Attacks on critics

At irregular intervals it comes to attacks on critics of extremist Islam. Musli Verbani, a former imam in the city Kacanik warned in a sermon in 2007, his church from extremism. Shortly after his parked car was set on fire. A man from the area was sentenced for the incident in January 2011 to three months in prison.

Other attacks against people who had spoken out against extremism led to no arrests. Xhabir Hamidi, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Prishtina and prominent critic of Wahhabism, was defeated in 2008 by masked men. He believes he was attacked because of his views. Osman Musliu, an imam from the city Drenas, was defeated in 2009 in a mosque. "I lost consciousness, and my hand was broken," he says. "I have always spoken out against the Wahhabis in our midst."

A senior police official, who asked not to be named, said that it had not then been enough evidence to leave the accusations of attacks against Hamidi and Musliu.

Musliu and Verbani say they from the reaction of the Islamic community - were disappointed to the attacks - the umbrella organization that administers the mosques in Kosovo. Both believe that the institution would condemn the attacks on their members more should. (Arbana Xharra, THE STANDARD, 29/01/2013)

Arbana Xharra, deputy editor of the daily "Zeri", has been running years investigative journalism. Last year she was on the entrepreneur Bejtush Zhugolli sued for 700,000 euros for damages because she had written that he and his brothers to support the election campaigns of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and receive public contracts. The jury is still out.