RADICAL ISLAMIST S REACH FOR CONTROL OVER KOSOVO
MUSLIMS
By Stephen Schwartz
Kosovo has not been spared infiltration by Islamist extremism.
In June, Imam Irfan Salihu from the historic and multifaith southern KOSOVO
city of Prizren—the country's second largest after the capital, Prishtina—was relieved
of his mosque duties after delivering a harangue in which he accused KOSOVO
ALBANIAN women of being "prostitutes" and exhorted their husbands to
abandon them. Salihu, it was noted, criticized only the behavior of women, and
not of men.
Notwithstanding
its overwhelmingly Muslim population, KOSOVO is a constitutionally secular state
in which women play leading political roles, none of them appearing in anything
other than modern, WESTERN-style clothing and hair styles. Fanatical Islamist
moral standards are unpopular among them.
Imam
Salihu's diatribe was condemned by the three biggest political parties, the
Democratic Party of KOSOVO (PDK), led by key players of the former KOSOVO Liberation
Army (UCK), the Democratic League of KOSOVO (LDK), which preceded the
appearance of the UCK and has always been committed to nonviolence and
dialogue, and the “Self Determination” movement, known by its ALBANIAN initials
LVV.
"Self-Determination!"
advocates an activist stance against apparently unending EUROPEAN control over KOSOVO.
Fourteen years after the NATO air operation, concluded in 1999, KOSOVO
continues to be administered legally by a EUROPEAN Union Rule of Law Mission
(EULEX).
ISLAMIC COMMUNITY OF KOSOVO IS HEADED BY A CLERIC OF
PRONOUNCED RADICAL SYMPATHIES
Imam
Salihu was, nevertheless, defended by a new Islamist minority party, the
"Islamic Movement to Unite," or LISBA, that as yet has no
representation in the Assembly. As soon as the party was founded under the
title "Join!" LISBA's leader, Fuad Ramiqi, led mass public prayers in
the streets of Prishtina calling for the erection of a "mega mosque"
as a response to the establishment of a Catholic cathedral in the municipal
center, dedicated to Mother Teresa. KOSOVO sources suggested that participants
in the religious demonstrations were mainly interlopers from the ALBANIAN
districts of neighboring MACEDONIA, where ARAB radical influence is dominant in
the state-recognized Islamic Community.
In
view of the controversy his hateful remarks provoked, Imam Salihu of Prizren
was discarded prudently by the authorities of the Islamic Community of KOSOVO (BIK
in Albanian). Nevertheless, the BIK, which is headed by a cleric of pronounced
radical sympathies, Naim Tërnava, will soon face a new test.
TËRNAVA WAS APPOINTED KOSOVO AMBASSADOR TO SAUDI ARABIA
Tërnava
was elected to direct the BIK in 2003, after supporting a constitutional
agreement for the Islamic institution which would ban its chief cleric from
serving more than two five-year terms. The BIK will vote for its top leader on
October 15, and Tërnava is expected to run a third time, in violation of the
charter he signed a decade ago.
Background Information:
INFILTRATION INTO THE BALKAN STATES
EDUCATIONS SYSTEM - THE KEY AIM OF WAHHABISM
and KOSOVO: RADICAL ISLAM A “TICKING TIME BOMB” http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/01/the-balkans-organized-crime-radical.html
and KOSOVO: RADICAL ISLAM A “TICKING TIME BOMB” http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/01/the-balkans-organized-crime-radical.html
HOW RADICAL ISLAM INFILTRATES KOSOVO http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/10/kosovo-and-radical-islam.html
EXTREMISTS
ESTABLISH FOOTHOLD IN THE BALKANS
http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/10/kosovo.html
Tërnava was challenged for the post
in 2008 by his predecessor, chief cleric Rexhep Boja, a confirmed moderate and
critic of Wahhabi Islam. Tërnava defeated Boja, who was then appointed KOSOVO
ambassador to SAUDI ARABIA, one of the few ARAB countries to recognize KOSOVO sovereignty.
BOJA MONITORED THE SPREAD OF WAHHABI AGITATION FROM ITS
SOURCE IN THE DESERT KINGDOM
Given
Boja's hostility to radicalism, the diplomatic appointment was brilliant, as it
allowed him to monitor the spread of Wahhabi agitation from its source in the
desert kingdom.
Another well-known moderate, Imam
Idriz Bilalli, was removed in 2011 from his congregation in the northeastern KOSOVO
city of Podujeva because he opposed plans for an ARAB-financed mosque in the
small, nearby location of Bajqina. Bilalli has announced that with the end of
this year's Ramadan fast, he and a dissident group he helped found, the Professional
Association of Islamic Community Workers, will focus attention on Muslim
community elections. Bilalli is assisted in the Professional Association by a
similarly moderate dissident, Mullah Osman Musliu, who was brutally assaulted in
2009 by a Wahhabi gang.
Musliu
is widely honored in KOSOVO as the only Muslim cleric willing to risk
conducting the funeral in 1998 of the UCK leader Adem Jashari, who was murdered
with his family by SERBIAN terrorists. Musliu was dismissed from his mosque at
the same time as Bilalli.
Bilalli, Musliu, and two more
outspoken moderates, Imam Adnan
Vishi and Musli Verbani, the latter an expert on Islamic law, have accused
Tërnava of manipulating local Islamic community council elections held in KOSOVO
last year. These BIK councils exist throughout the land, with four-year terms,
in contrast with the five-year period of service for the chief cleric managing
BIK. Verbani stated that all the candidates approved for the council elections
were vetted by Tërnava and favored by him.
Vishi,
who accused Tërnava of attempting to change the BIK constitution and institute
a permanent term as its head, was expelled from supervising the Islamic council
in the southern KOSOVO city of Kaçanik. But his adherents in the nearby village
of Begrac backed him, against a further attempt at his discharge from his
mosque itself, by Tërnava's clique.
Commenting
on the approaching balloting, Vishi repeated earlier charges that Tërnava seeks
to become the "sultan" or "monarch" of KOSOVO Islam.
ISLAMIC RADICALISM INFILTRATES SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES OF
KOSOVO
KOSOVO
Islamic community voting is constitutionally open to any Muslim above the age
of 18, as an elector or a candidate, regardless of religious credentials, and
is required to be secret and competitive. Term limits in the Kosovo Islamic
structure may be altered by amendment of the constitution, but such must be
carried out by a two-thirds majority of the BIK Assembly, which is independent
of Tërnava's office and currently led by Xhabir Hamiti, a professor of Islamic
studies who was one of seven moderate academics, including Idriz Bilalli,
deprived of teaching responsibilities at the Prishtina Faculty of Islamic
Studies in 2011.
At
the time, the seven warned that they would be replaced by "the promotion
of dubious professors, influenced by foreign ideologies, with rigid and
extremist orientations. . . . Behind this kind of professors are generous
donors with plenty of cash."
TËRNAVA DENIES THAT WAHHABISM OR ANOTHER RADICAL ISLAMIST
TREND EXISTS IN KOSOVO
Although
Hamiti was also assaulted in 2009, in his house, his anti-extremist stand is
popular, as shown by his election as head of the Islamic Assembly. Hamiti has
denounced the ambitions of Naim Tërnava to become "chief cleric for
life" as a "Communist" attitude. Bilalli has said that Hamiti
will likely be the sole candidate in opposition to Tërnava, with endorsement by
the Professional Association of Islamic Community Workers.
Tërnava,
as reported on August 4 by Radio Television KOSOVO (RTK) and United Nations
media monitors, denied that any form of Wahhabism or other radical Islamist
trend exists in Kosova. One problem may facilitate official manipulation by
Tërnava of the Islamic community elections this year. The date set for the
polling, October 15, coincides with the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, or hajj.
Background Information:
POLITICAL
ISLAM PROMOTER, EX GRAND MUFTI CERIĆ, STILL INFLUENTIAL IN BIH http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2013/03/bosnias-dangerous-tango.html
REIS-ULEMA
MUSTAFA CERIC - ISLAMIC COMMUNITY – THE SCHOOL ARE OURS http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/07/ethnic-rift-key-hindrance-to-bosnias.html
But BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA
has lately replaced another would-be Muslim "clerical sultan," Mustafa Cerić, with a presumed moderate
as head of its Islamic apparatus, and the same may take place in KOSOVO. The
conflict between radicals and moderates in the KOSOVO Islamic community bears
close observation by all those interested in the current upheaval within Islam
worldwide.
Background Information:
KOSOVO “ALBANITY” http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/01/greater-albania-united-states-project.html
CONTROVERSIAL OPPOSITION FIGURE: ALBIN
KURTI http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/12/kosovo-natural-resources-jackpot.html
WASHINGTON’S KOSOVO STRATEGY http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/04/kosovo.html
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