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IRANIAN “PROPAGANDIST‘S” IN
KOSOVO
KOSOVO ALBANIANS,
overwhelmingly MUSLIM, love AMERICA—which rescued them from SERBIAN aggression
in 1999—and desire diplomatic relations with ISRAEL. KOSOVO does not recognize
the Palestinian Authority and does not belong to the ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC
COOPERATION (OIC).
The ISLAMIC Republic of IRAN,
meanwhile, does not acknowledge KOSOVO’S formal independence. How has it
happened, then, that harsh voices are now detected against AMERICA and ISRAEL,
and for IRAN, in the BALKAN state?
In February, the independent
KOSOVO news portal Express, under the byline of a courageous opponent of
radical Islam, VISAR DURIQI, reported that IRANIAN ideological agents are
active in the territory. Their path has been opened by a non-governmental
organization (NGO) representing SHIA ISLAM and called the "QUR'AN
FOUNDATION OF KOSOVO." The foundation is affiliated with an
identically-named enterprise in ALBANIA.
Background
Information:
ISLAMIC
RADICALISM INFILTRATES SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES OF KOSOVO
WAHHABISM
– A TICKING TIME BOMB IN KOSOVO
The pro-IRANIAN NGO was
launched in KOSOVO, according to DURIQI, in 2002. Its patron was an IRANIAN,
HASAN AZARI BEJANDI, assisted by IKBALLË HUDUTI-BERISHA, a KOSOVAR woman and
devotee of SHIISM. Documents in the possession of Express reveal a turnover of
more than 100,000 euros per year by the QUR'AN FOUNDATION, DURIQI wrote.
The most notorious
representative of the IRANIAN NGO in KOSOVO is ZEHRA HUDUTI, daughter of IKBALLË
HUDUTI-BERISHA. A resident of PRIZREN, KOSOVO’S second city, ZEHRA HUDUTI announced
on IRAN'S Internet-based Nasr TV, in a visit to the ISLAMIC Republic three
years ago, that she was "[there] to fight ISRAEL and AMERICA."
WAHHABISM
VERSUS BEKTASHI SUFI
Express pressed ZEHRA
HUDUTI to explain how she proposed to combat these two countries, but without
success. Her mother, known as "the preaching woman IKBALLË," obtained
the property in PRIZREN on which the QUR'AN FOUNDATION was built, with the help
of her husband ASLLAN HUDUTI, a real-estate owner and likewise a SHIA adherent,
Express disclosed.
The QUR'AN FOUNDATION claims
it seeks to establish a museum of IRANIAN culture in KOSOVO and to endow a
chair of IRANIAN studies at the University of PRISHTINA, the national
institution of higher education. It offers religious scholarships to study in
the IRANIAN theological center of QOM. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qom) In 2009, the QUR'AN FOUNDATION OF KOSOVO joined
with the AHLUL BAYT World Assembly, a SHIA religious network directed from QOM,
to hold a conference in PRIZREN on IMAM ALI, the son-in-law of MUHAMMAD and
progenitor of the SHIA sect. (DERVISH)
Once a year the DERVISHES
(SHIA) of PRIZREN, in southern KOSOVO, celebrate "NEVRUz," (new day).
NEVRUZ marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in PERSIAN
calendar. During this dancing ritual, preachers pray for peace and tolerance
while remaining with their pierced faces, as part of the ritual ceremony. The
ritual occurs on March 22nd. Ancient piercing techniques are applied, by
stabbing their bodies with huge needles, as a way of finding salvation and the
way of god. The knives symbolize the healing of all wounds. "This is the
blessing of God and the power of the order", says an elderly high-ranking DERVISH
after the ceremony. DERVISHES are shunned by many fellow MUSLIMS as starry-eyed
mystics, but the DERVISHES who gathered recently in PRIZREN for a centuries-old
celebration do not see themselves as outside the ISLAMIC pale. "We are MUSLIMS
and, like them, we are in the same sea. They swim. We prefer to go
underwater" says SHEIK ADRIHUSEJN, the leader of PRIZREN'S RIFAI order.
IN
THE PAST, KOSOVO SHIAS ASSOCIATED THEMSELVES WITH SUNNI ORGANIZATION, NOW THEY
ARE ALLEGEDLY ASSERTING THEMSELVES
That event was endorsed
by a QOM-based cleric, AYATOLLAH HOSSEIN ANSARIAN, who advertises himself as a
spiritual SUFI. But the lessons the KOSOVAR SHIA IKBALLË HUDUTI-BERISHA took
away from her encounters with the IRANIANS had little, apparently, to do with
the contemplative traditions of the SUFIS and much to do with ISLAMIST militancy.
DURIQI found that
postings on social media by "the preaching woman IKBALLË" included
images shooting firearms. She was shown additionally in an IRANIAN news picture
with former president MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD. DURIQI identified several other SHIA
NGOs operating in KOSOVO. He and Express alleged that the QUR'AN FOUNDATION and
an NGO named "SUNNY HILLS" (after a neighborhood in PRISHTINA), are
under investigation by KOSOVO authorities for terror financing, money
laundering, and corrupt property deals.
Further, while KOSOVO
ISLAM is overwhelmingly SUNNI, and includes few conventional SHIA MUSLIMS, the IRANIAN-backed
QUR'AN FOUNDATION published a volume, The QUR'AN in ISLAM, edited by FAHRUSH
REXHEPI, a leading official of the KOSOVO SUNNI hierarchy. DURIQI argues that
after a long period in which the few KOSOVO SHIAS kept a low profile and joined
in the activities of the SUNNI organization, they are now asserting themselves.
It is hard to imagine that IRANIAN influence is absent in this gambit. An IRANIAN
internet radio service, the Voice of TEHERAN, broadcasts in ALBANIAN.
KOSOVO
NOW SEES BIZARRE CONVOLUTIONS IN ITS ISLAMIC STRUCTURES, AS COMPETING SECTS AND
FOREIGN ISLAMISTS ADVANCE THEIR INTERESTS
Paradoxically, the ALBANIAN
lands, along with small communities in BULGARIA and the snippet of TURKEY
included in EUROPE, possess the only indigenous SHIA MUSLIMS in the WEST. They
are members of the BEKTASHI SUFI (DERVISH http://bektashiorder.com/
) order in ALBANIAN society and the ALEVI
movement among TURKS. TEHRAN has flirted with them, but without success—the ALBANIAN
BEKTASHIS and TURKISH ALEVIS are firmly secularist and hostile to the IRANIAN
clerical regime.
Background
Information:
SAUDI-BASED
WAHHABI GROUP OPERATING IN WESTERN EUROPE EXERCISES ALARMING FINANCIAL
INFLUENCE OVER THE HIGHEST KOSOVO ISLAMIC LEADERS
EXTREMISTS
ESTABLISH FOOTHOLD IN THE BALKANS
Under the continuing and
often-arbitrary administration of the EUROPEAN UNION, KOSOVO now sees bizarre
convolutions in its ISLAMIC structures, as competing sects and foreign ISLAMISTS
advance their interests. Recruiters for the so-called "ISLAMIC STATE"
have appeared in KOSOVO and 40 ISIS recruits were detained there last year.
As noted by DURIQI,
KOSOVO police are investigating the shipment of IRANIAN atrocity
propaganda—gruesomely depicting dead "martyrs"—to KOSOVO via DUBAI.
Packets of inflammatory material were sent to the IRANIAN director of the QUR'AN
FOUNDATION, HASAN AZARI BEJANDI, labeled as "school notebooks." The
"notebooks" were seized by and remain in the hands of the KOSOVO
authorities.
By Stephen Schwartz
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