WAHHABISM AT THE DOORSTEPS OF EUROPE
THE ISLAMIC REVIVAL
During the 1970s and 1980s, Bosnia
and other parts of Yugoslavia witnessed Islamic revival.
The Islamic revival in BIH started
in the 1970s due to several factors:
- a certain aperture of the then
Yugoslav regime.
- an improved economic situation.
- the graduation of a new generation
of young Muslims intellectuals from Yugoslav and Middle Eastern universities.
- global trends in the Muslim world
that began in the Petroleum Crisis in 1973 and culminated in the Iranian
Revolution in 1979.
- the main manifestations of revival
until 1992 were:
- rebuilding or construction of
mosques financed by local money except in a few cases.
- opening or reopening of education
institutions.
- publishing of Islamic texts and
periodicals.
- intensified personal religiosity
and use of Islamic social symbols.
- establishment of Muslim political
organizations.
- emergence of Muslim solidarity
institutions.
SUPREME ISLAMIC ASSEMBLY IN SARAJEVO PASSED A NEW
CONSTITUTION OF THE ISLAMIC COMMUNITY
During this period, the Islamic
revival in BIH merged with the institutional framework of the Islamic
Community. Alternative organizations were practically ignored. This would be
dramatically changed after April 1992.
For all these activities the
existing Constitution of the Islamic Community was too narrow. Also in 1974
Yugoslavia adopted a new constitution, which moved the state organization
toward confederacy. As in the past, changes in the political system found
reflection in the organization of the Islamic Community.
On 12 April 1990 the Supreme Islamic
Assembly in Sarajevo passed a new Constitution of the Islamic Community. This
constitution divided the institutional structure of the Islamic Community into
organs, institutions, and officials.
The organs of the Community were local
yamaas boards, formed mostly formed in the level of boroughs, Mufti offices
which were almost at the level of district, the Islamic Communities assemblies
and their executive organs, mashiats, the jurisdiction of which coincided with
the borders of the Yugoslav states, and finally, the Supreme Assembly of the
Islamic Community as the highest representative body of the Muslims in
Yugoslavia. The executive body of this assembly was the Riaset, at the head of
which stands Rais Ul Ulema as a religious leader of the Muslims in Yugoslavia.
The seat of Riaset is in Sarajevo.
Members of all these bodies were to be
elected and their term of office was limited. There was also the Islamic
Council, a body of scholars in charge of keeping constitution within the
Islamic Community and providing interpretation of Islamic teachings.
THE COLLAPSE OF THE YUGOSLAV FEDERATION CAUSED A ‘DOMINO
EFFECT’ ENDING ALL ORGANIZATIONS, ASSOCIATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS
The institutions of the Islamic
Community were madrasas, faculties, institutes, libraries and a museum. The
Constitution also provided for the establishment of charitable, humanitarian
and other institution, something that was unimaginable in BOSNIA during previous
decades.
In 1992 the Yugoslav Federation
broke down and its ‘domino effect’ brought an end to all organizations,
associations and institutions built on the same principle.
In 1993 the representatives of
different bodies of the Islamic Community, Muslim organizations and
institutions, met in Sarajevo and proclaimed themselves as the Constituent
Assembly of the Islamic Community. This Assembly called for the reconstruction
of the autonomous Islamic Community in BOSNIA and proclaimed itself as the highest
authority in the Community and passed on the same day an interim Basic
Regulation that will serve as a legal basis for the organization and function
of the Islamic Community until the end of the war.
However, the interim Basic
Regulation for all practical purposes relied mainly on the Constitution of the
Islamic Community of 1990, which had been adjusted in certain aspects to meet
demands of the new situation. The new organization structure again was composed
of organs, institutions and officials. Basic organs were the same: yamaa,
boards, Mufti offices. Others were adjusted: Naibu Ar Rais, Deputy Rais,
replaced the President of the Mashiat, the Riaset replaced Mashiat and
Constituent Assembly replaced the Assembly of the Islamic Community.
Institutions and officials remained the same.
The organization of the Islamic
Community from the time of the Yugoslav Federation was slightly modified to fit
the circumstances of independent Republic of BIH. The basic regulation of 1993
provides that the Constituent Assembly will call for elections after the war
and thus replace the emergency administration with a permanent one. The
elections were conducted in the spring of 1995 and permanent Assembly of the
Islamic Community was constituted on 28 April 1995. On 26 November 1997 this
Assembly adopted a new Constitution, which is a legal basis for the present
administration of Islamic Affairs in BOSNIA.
TRADITIONAL ISLAM IN BIH VERSUS
WAHABISM / SALAFISM
For more than 500 years BOSNIAN
Muslims have maintained the Hanafi tradition, following a moderate and
open-minded version of Islam: rich on tradition, tolerant of other communities
and compatible with western values. The Islamic revival in BIH, which began
after the secularist Tito period, underwent radical changes from the beginning
of the war in April 1992. In those parts of BIH under SERBIAN and CROATIAN
forces, 75 per cent of BOSNIAN territory was ‘cleansed’ of Muslims, while
mosques and other Islamic buildings were in almost all cases destroyed.
FOREIGN AGENCIES BECAME THE PRIME FOUNDERS OF THE ISLAMIC
REVIVAL
However, freedom for Islamic
activities became almost unlimited in some territories under the control of the
Army of the Republic of BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA. It is reported that several
hundred Afghan-Arab Mujahidin, or
Holy Warriors, joined with, fought alongside BOSNIAKS during the 1992-5 war in
BIH. Highly religious and motivated, they brought a specific understanding of
Islam with them and they tried to indoctrinate those ideas into BOSNIAK minds,
having the opportunity to preach and spread propaganda freely. Thus the Wahhabi
ideas surfaced for the first time on a wider scale. This foreign creed was
different from the moderate and traditional version of Islam in BIH. During this
time the relations between BIH and the Muslim world were elevated to an
unprecedented level. The number of graduates of Islamic Studies outside the
country increased and Islamic literature arrived in significant quantities.
Additionally, the economic power of local populations was practically reduced
to nothing and the foreign agencies became the prime founders of the Islamic
revival. This financial support, coming from foreign Muslim countries,
undermined the power of the well-organized and structured Bosnian Islamic
community. SAUDI ARABIAN funding of mosques and economic help aimed to confirm SAUDI
global Muslim leadership (vs. IRAN) and to bring BOSNIAN Muslims closer to
beliefs and practices acceptable to Wahhabism.
 |
| Bugojno Police Station bombing June 2010 |
The June 2010 Bugojno police station bomb attack was carried out by Wahhabis. For
further background information see: http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Security-Watch/Articles/Detail//?lng=en&id=118664
THE FINANCING OF THE RECONSTRUCTION OF A MOSQUE BY A SAUDI
BASED ORGANIZATION WAS A PART OF A STRATEGY AIMED AT ACQUIRING THE SPIRITUAL
LEADERSHIP OF THE COMMUNITY.
The result of this process is the
replacement of the Hanafi, the moderate traditional local version of Islam,
with Wahhabism, a more radical and intolerant SAUDI version that in some cases
might be a shift toward more radical and, possibly, terrorist activities. The
elder and established Imams in some areas, who stand for a more moderate Islam,
were more controlled and restricted in their activities.
In the past, the High SAUDI Commission for the Relief of
Bosnian Muslims (HSC) has administered the Cultural Centre King Fahd
without consulting the Islamic Community of BIH. The HSC gave full support to
different Wahhabi organizations, including Active Islamic Youth (AIO) and
different Islamic NGO’s. After the terrorist attacks in the US on 11 Sep 01,
the situation changed because the media identified the HSC and related organizations
as potential sources of extremism. Some of their members were arrested or
questioned by local police or international forces about their links to
terrorism. At the end of 2002, the Cultural
Centre King Fahd, tried to change its public image and attempted to
distance itself from these extremist circles, and established closer relations
with the official Islamic Community of BIH. When the government of SAUDI ARABIA
decided to close the HSC all the mosques whose construction was financed by the
HSC were handed over to the BIH Islamic Community, and the King Fahd Cultural
Centres in Sarajevo and Mostar to the Embassy of SAUDI ARABIA for management.
According to the Cultural Attaché of the Saudi Arabia Embassy in BIH, the King
Fahd Cultural Centre is a cultural institution that remains under the
supervision and care of the SAUDI ARABIAN Embassy. Despite of this fact, the
facilities of the Cultural Centre King Fahd and the King Fahd Mosque in
Dobrinje, Sarajevo, are still the epicenter of the spreading of radical ideas
in BIH.
RADICAL MOVEMENTS ARE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE POOR CONDITION
OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES, IN SOME AREAS IN BIH, AND OFFERING YOUNG
PEOPLE A VARIETY OF POSSIBILITIES, AS MEANS TO SUBSEQUENTLY RECRUIT THEM
The spreading of radical ideas in BIH
has been linked to the return process of the people who were displaced during
the war and to the social, economic and education situation within the country.
The return of Muslims to some areas of BIH controlled by BOSNIAN SERBS or B-CROATS
is creating an unstable local climate, potentially leading to increased ethnic
tensions and inter-ethnic incidents. Some of these Muslim returnees are members
of the Wahhabi sect. The perceived harassment of BOSNIAKS may stimulate an
increased involvement of organizations tied to Islamic extremism in local
communities. Reportedly, Wahhabism was already attempting to take advantage of BOSNIAK
feelings of frustration by trying to radicalize the youth of these areas. These
radical movements are taking advantage of the poor condition of education and
social services, in some areas, and offering young people a variety of
possibilities, as means to subsequently recruit them. The same policy has been
used by different radical Islamic movements all over the world.
Extremist recruiters, who are likely
to be a few years older, take the young people under their care, organizing
bonding activities like camping trips and sporting events. The recruiter
gradually isolates the recruits from their families and steps into the role of
mentor. In this newfound clique, young recruits find the social integration and
spiritual space they have yearned for, as radical indoctrination intensifies,
and bonds tighten around a shared worldview.
DRUG ADDICTS, THE PRIME TARGET FOR INDOCTRINATION AND
RECRUITMENT TACTICS
Radical religious groups are also
offering health and social services to former drug users and petty criminals.
The weak mental and physical condition of the addicts makes them easy targets
for indoctrination and recruiting. In addition, former drug users are familiar
with illegal activities and once recruited these individuals may be used to
support the organization, through criminal activity. For these reasons petty
criminals inside jails all around Europe are also recruited. The FBIH
(Federation) houses numerous drug rehabilitation centers, funded by SAUDI
ARABIAN as well as IRANIAN NGOs who use “spiritual rehabilitation techniques”
to “cure” their patients.
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