From Creeping Sharia:
Militant Islam gains ground in the Balkans
Posted on October 13, 2010 by creeping
A recent online music video featuring Macedonians praising Osama bin Laden has fueled fears that Southeastern Europe could be emerging as the latest breeding ground for homegrown Islamist militants.
It has also focused attention on Muslim charities active in Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia and European Union member Bulgaria since the wars in former Yugoslavia in the mid-1990s. Many of those charities are funded by oil-rich Saudi Arabia and propagate Wahhabism – the kingdom’s austere and puritan interpretation of Islam.
A majority of Wahhabis favor peaceful proselytizing of Islam while Saudi King Abdullah has been seeking to soften Wahhabi practices as part of his reforms in the kingdom. Militant groups such as Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda, the Taliban and jihadists in Somalia have however embraced significant elements of Wahhabism as part of their ideology.
Jasmin Merdan, a young Bosnian who wrote a book after disassociating himself from Wahhabis groups in Bosnia, warned that “they express their convictions with violence, introduce anarchy in mosques and preach intolerance.” Women in the Albanian city of Skadar have reportedly started covering their heads or wearing the niqab, a full body covering that hides everything but the eyes, in newly found religiosity.
The video posted on YouTube is one of several produced by home grown jihadists in the Balkans and circulating in the region. “Oh Osama, annihilate the American army. Oh Osama, raise the Muslims’ honor,” a group of Macedonian men chant in Albanian on the video. “In September 2001 you conquered a power. We all pray for you.” Similar songs calling on Southeastern European Muslims to join the jihad have been produced in Bosnian.
This can’t be the “Western Balkans” Hillary Clinton is attempting to promote on her trip. It could be the Balkans hubby Bill Clinton ushered in. Read it al via Deutsche Welle – Militant Islam gains ground in the Balkans.
Also read “Terror in the Balkans,” in a Nutshell via Julia Gorin
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