Islamic Extremists Establish Foothold in Kosovo and the Balkans

Peace TV, an enterprise directed from India, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai by a fundamentalist Islamist preacher, Zakir Naik, has established a 12-hour daily program in Kosovo, a country 90% Muslim.

The entry into Kosovo of Naik’s Peace TV, broadcasting each day in Albanian from 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., appears to be an element in a novel campaign by South Asian Islamists to establish a foothold among Europe’s indigenous Balkan Muslims. Peace TV’s message is hard-line Wahhabism, which insults, in aggressive terms, spiritual Sufis, Shia Muslims, non-fundamentalist Sunnis, Jews, Christians, and Hindus, among others. Radical Islamist interlopers and their financiers, mainly from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, have also been relocating to Macedonia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia.

Peace TV is coordinated in Kosovo by a local “Center for Islamic Studies,” which appears to exist only online and via television – and, in addition to Naik’s propaganda, offers academic studies and fatwas [religious opinions]. The “Center” also does not identify its officials or financing – except for its link to Naik.

The channel, via satellite, broadcasts mostly in English and Urdu, to audiences in South Asia and South Asian Muslim immigrant communities elsewhere, and into Kosovo since 2009.

Naik, a physician with no Islamic religious training, has praised terrorism – including that of the late Osama Bin Laden; both he and his efforts have been condemned by Indian Muslim authorities. He was banned from entry into Britain in 2010, after which his multiple-entry visa to Canada was cancelled.

Peace TV now includes interviews in the Albanian language with Kosovo Muslim figures under the influence of Wahhabism. Previously, Peace TV featured lectures by Sabri Bajgora, named “chief imam” of the Balkan republic by Naim Ternava, Kosovo’s Wahhabi supreme Islamic cleric since 2003.

Bajgora has been the focus of several controversial incidents in the Kosovo Islamic community. In 2011, for example, Ternava, Bajgora and two other Muslim functionaries were denounced by seven highly-qualified and notably-moderate professors who had been dismissed without cause from Kosovo’s Faculty of Islamic Studies.

The expelled scholars pointed out that Ternava, Bajgora, and their group lack advanced credentials in religious instruction.

In March 2012, Bajgora also made news after removing a moderate cleric, imam Musli Verbani, from a mosque in the northern Kosovo town of Kacanik. The expelled imam was supported by some 1,800 local Muslims in Kacanik, who demonstrated for his reinstatement.

In July 2011, along with Peace TV, the “Center” produced videos supporting the proposed erection of a Wahhabi “mega-mosque” in Prishtina, the Kosovo capital.

Muslim extremists assembled in Prishtina – which has 22 mosques at present, some distinguished by their beautiful decorations – to demand a “big mosque” as a counterpart to a Roman Catholic cathedral currently under construction in the center of the city, and dedicated to Mother Teresa – an Albanian who was born in neighbouring Macedonia.

Catholics, about 10% of the populace of two million, are the second largest religious community in Kosovo, which is constitutionally defined as a secular state; and Catholics, although a minority, are prominent in Kosovo culture and politics.

The campaign for a “mega-mosque” was viewed by many Albanian Muslims as an extremist provocation. Observers of the demonstrations for a new and large structure reported that many participants were Albanians from Macedonia, where the official Islamic Community is under fundamentalist control.

“Rahma (Mercy)” is a charity operated out of Bolton and Leicester in the UK and following the radical Deobandi sect of Islam, which inspired the Taliban. The charity has also supported a radical preacher, Kastriot Duka, alias Xhemajl Duka – who, before he was expelled from Kosovo to his birthplace, Albania, in 2010, established a mosque and a program for orphans in the Kosovo village of Marina, near the city of Skenderaj.

Traditional Muslims in the Skenderaj vicinity obtained 6,000 signatures for a petition demanding closure of Duka’s compound, in which, they complained, young girls were forced to wear Wahhabi-style face veils and full-body covering.

In August, however, Artan Haraqija and Visar Duriqi of the Kosovo Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that since his expulsion, Duka has repeatedly reentered Kosovo and visited his mosque and orphanage, while money from “Rahma (Mercy)” in Britain is sent there through bank wire or by courier.

“Rahma (Mercy),” created in 1999, had the alleged purpose of assisting Kosovo war refugees. Peace TV and “Rahma (Mercy)” apparently chose to target Kosovo as a poor country ravaged by war a decade ago and in need of substantial aid.

The moderate interpretation of Islam and the respect for people who believe in other religions – for which Kosovo Muslims are known — may also have persuaded the South Asian agitators that Kosovo was in need of an “Islamic revival” of the kind Wahhabis, Deobandis, and other extremists apparently deem necessary for the moral and spiritual health of the global Islamic community. Kosovo, for instance, is the only continental European region, outside the small part of Turkey bordering on Bulgaria and Greece, in which Sufi spirituality is a major element in Islamic culture. As many as 40% of Muslims in western Kosovo are Sufis, with Sufi meeting houses and mosques open in every place.

For Zakir Naik and the luminaries of Peace TV, as well as the Deobandis of “Rahma (Mercy),’” the prominence of Sufism in Kosovo may be another incentive to “cleanse” local Muslims of their alleged “deviations.”

Kosovo Albanians are devoted to their own Muslim legacy and can become combative when faced with ideological aggression from abroad. In addition to Arabs, Iranian agents and Turkish fundamentalists have also attempted visible inroads in the Kosovo Muslim community. The possibility of fundamentalist subversion of Kosovo Muslims merits close scrutiny, and committed assistance to moderate believers.

Originally published on 2012-09-24

Source: Rescue Christians

Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection & Pinterest.

Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!

Donate to Support Us

We would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.

READ MORE!

United States and Venezuela: A Historical Background

“Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world and they own it and we want it” — (Anonymous Trump official)IntroductionUS hostility and efforts to overthrow the Venezuelan government forms parts of a long and inglorious history of US intervention in Latin America going back to the second decade of the 19th century.In 1823 US President Monroe declared, in his name, the ‘Monroe Doctrine” – the US right to keep Europeans out of the region, but the right of the US to intervene in pursuit of its economic, political and military interests.We will proceed to outline the historical phases of US ...

NATO’s ‘Unfinished Business’ in the Balkans now Targeting Bosnia’s Serbs

The crumbling “liberal” West is in a desperate hurry in the Balkans. More than a quarter century since the first Western states, pushed by Germany, unilaterally recognized the secession of the former Yugoslav federal republics of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and about 19 years since NATO’s air and land attack against what had remained of the country (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro) resulting in NATO’s occupation and subsequent forced amputation of Serbia’s Kosovo and Metohija province (by way of recognition of its unilaterally declared independence of February 2008 by the main Western powers, some – but not all Muslim ...

In Lithuania, some Nazi Killers are also Heroes

It’s not a common occurrence to be able to have a court establish the guilt of a criminal 72 years after his death, but such an opportunity has emerged in Lithuania and will be taking place in a courtroom in Vilnius next week, more precisely on Wednesday, January 16 [2019, editor].Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite: Shouting on Russia but keeping silence about Jonas NoreikaThe circumstances of the case are quite unusual. The charges against the alleged criminal were not brought forward by the government or its prosecutors, but rather by a private individual, who does not represent any political entity, but ...

Israel Cannot Use Violent Self-Defense While Occupying Gaza

Whenever bombings and shootings escalate in the Middle East, Israeli propagandists say that Israel is exercising its right of military self-defense against indiscriminate attacks coming from the Gaza Strip. But as this article documents, the right to use force in self-defense is contingent on Israel ending its military occupation and blockade of Gaza. DON’T MISQUOTE ME ON THAT! Doubtless some unscrupulous person or persons will quote or interpret this article out of context and claim that I’m saying that Israel has no right to self-defense at all. So, let me be clear: Israel is a nation-state like any other, like it or ...

Kosovo Albanian Muslims in the Nazi SS

Waffen SS troops in the Albanian Battalion of the Handzar Division, wearing SS-issued Albanian skullcaps, Bosnia, 1944 SS Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler formed a Kosovo Albanian Muslim Nazi SS Division during World War II, the Skanderbeg SS Division, 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian), in 1944. He planned to form a second Kosovo Albanian Muslim SS Division but was not able to because the war ended before he could do so. The history of the Skanderbeg division has been documented and analyzed. What has rarely been analyzed, however, is the role of the Kosovo Albanian Muslim members in ...

World Conquest: The United States’ Global Military Crusade (1945- )

GR Editor’s Note The following article by professor Eric Waddell was first published twelve years ago by Global Research in December 2003 in the immediate wake of the invasion and occupation of Iraq by US and British forces, with a postscript added in 2007. The article provides an incisive historical perspective on America’s “long war” against humanity, which is being carried out under a fake humanitarian mandate. Let us be under no illusions as to the intent of the US and its allies. We are dealing with World Conquest under the disguise of a “Global War on Terrorism”. Michel Chossudovsky, December 24, ...

Euromaidan: Anatomy of a Washington-Backed Coup D’etat

In late November 2013, the 'Euromaidan' in Kiev began as a popular protest against a generalized state of corruption and cronyism in Ukraine. The spark that ostensibly ignited the protests was the inability of then President Yanukovych to sign an EU Association Agreement that would cut Ukraine's economic and military ties to Russia in favor of a closer relationship with the EU and NATO. The EU had made the release of former Ukrainian prime minister and "gas princess" Tymoshenko a precondition for signing the agreement. But the fact that Tymoshenko was/is a convicted embezzler of state funds, combined with the rather ...

Nightmarish Global Military Agenda

Warring hotspots all over the world are flaring up in 2016 in what amounts to preparation for World War III between the military forces of the US led Western Empire against the forces of the Eastern axis led by Russia and China joined by Iran and North Korea. Let’s be clear – the globalists are the puppet masters behind the Western forces intentionally provoking catastrophic world war. We live in a time when the earth’s ruling elite has willfully created this foreboding, seemingly suicidal endgame scenario, using US Empire to prod, orchestrate, and push the world into two enemy camps in a West ...

50 Shades of American Fascism

Hitler was a very good student. Those who read Mein Kampf will find therein many good words about America. More precisely, not about the whole of America, but about the numerous attempts of the American socialists to change the foundations of the American way of life.The ideas of forced sterilization and forced abortion were adopted by Hitler from the founder of feminism, American socialist Margaret Sanger. Madame Sanger even founded a special clinic to promote mass abortions of black people to reduce their number with the aim of completely eradicating blacks in America. This organization still exists–it is called Planned ...

Ending NATO, a Monstrous Institution

Their anxiety about the future of NATO, recently on full display again when the American president was in Europe, could not be bettered as a measure of the incapacity of Europe’s top politicians to guide their continent and represent its populations. Through its provocations of Moscow, NATO systematically helps increase the risk of a military confrontation. By thus sabotaging its declared purpose of preserving collective security for the countries on either side of the Atlantic, it erases its fundamental reason for being and right to exist. Grasping these facts ought be enough to fuel moves aimed at quickly doing away with ...

The Authoritarian Militarization of the Croats in the 1990s

The internal and much more external destruction of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s was celebrating in 2015 its 20th years of anniversary. However, this historical and much more geopolitical event still needs a satisfactory research approach in regard to the true geopolitical reasons and political-military course of the destruction of this South Slavic and Balkan state. During the last quarter of century, the (western) global mainstream media unanimously accused Serbia and the Serbs for the national chauvinism as the main cause of the bloody wars on the territory of ex-Yugoslavia in the 1990s. However, the role and direct impact ...

Israel’s Story: Lies from Top to Bottom

A study by a Toronto-based consulting and research company has revealed that over the past fifty years mainstream reporting about Israel has been distorted to portray the Jewish state in positive terms while ignoring the plight of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. The media study, based on a computer analysis of 50 years of data, found that major U.S. newspapers have provided consistently skewed, pro-Israel reporting on Israel-Palestine. The slanting in news coverage included subtle manipulations like using word associations favorable to Israel and derogatory to Palestinians as well as persistent publication of stories praising Israel while also avoiding reporting anything ...

Western Policy Doing the Bidding of Islam in Kosovo: Destroying Orthodox Christianity

Islamic forces entered Europe from Asia and North Africa in order to enslave, convert, persecute and either completely destroy Christianity or to enforce dhimmitude. Before this process began you had the complete annihilation of Christianity in many parts of North Africa and in various parts of the Middle East it was one long sojourn into dhimmitude, pogroms and massacres. Christianity survived in some areas, for example in Egypt, however, numbers succumbed after Arab colonial and Islamic discrimination took route. Therefore, a complete Islamic inquisition took root in Arabia (modern day Saudi Arabia) and just like the Sunni Islamic inquisition against Buddhism ...

Documentary Film: “Kosovo: Can You Imagine?” (2009, Canada)

“Kosovo: Can You Imagine?” is a documentary film by Canadian film maker Boris Malagurski, about the Serbs that live in Kosovo and the lack of human rights that they have today, in the 21st century. Most of the Kosovo Serbs have been ethnically cleansed by the Albanians who make up the majority of Kosovo. Kosovo has been under UN administration since 1999 when NATO bombed Serbia for 78 days to halt a crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatism in its province of Kosovo. In the years following the war, thousands of Serbs were expelled from their homes, kidnapped and killed. Their houses, cultural and ...

America’s War Аgainst the People of Korea: The Historical Record of US War Crimes

The following text by Michel Chossudovsky was presented in Seoul, South Korea in the context of the Korea Armistice Day Commemoration, 27 July 2013 A Message for Peace. Towards a Peace Agreement and the Withdrawal of US Troops from Korea Introduction Armistice Day, 27 July 1953 is day of Remembrance for the People of Korea. It is a landmark date in the historical struggle for national reunification and sovereignty. I am privileged to have this opportunity of participating in the 60th anniversary commemoration of Armistice Day on July 27, 2013. I am much indebted to the “Anti-War, Peace Actualized, People Action” movement for this opportunity ...

An Isolated Tyrannical Regime – Not Pyongyang, It’s Washington

If Pentagon chief James Mattis was seeking to reassure the world of American restraint in the North Korea crisis, he clumsily did the opposite. The US Defense Secretary was speaking after intense discussions with President Trump and other senior military officials in the White House Situation Room following the sixth nuclear test carried out by North Korea on Sunday.Mattis emerged from the meeting to say that any threat from North Korea to the United States and its allies would be met with an «overwhelming military response». He then added – with a weirdly presumed ethical tone – that the US «was not looking to ...

The “Catalonian Question”

The Catalan identity and Catalonia Catalans are the people who live in the territories of Spain in the autonomous-historical region called Catalonia. Their significance for the Spanish inner politics can be understood as the best if we know that Catalonia (Catalunya) is being since 1975 the most politically and economically powerful autonomous self-governed region in the Kingdom of Spain – during the last 20 years, basically, a kind of “a state within the state”. As a matter of fact, Catalans are the most integrated ethnohistorical groups of Spain together with Basques.[1]What makes Catalans so interlinked could be understood if we know ...

70 Years of Disinformation: How the CIA Funded Opinion Magazines in Europe

When an intelligence agency arranges to disseminated fake news it is called “disinformation” and it is a subset of what is referred to as covert action, basically secret operations run in a foreign country to influence opinion or to disrupt the functioning of a government or group that is considered to be hostile. During the Cold War, disinformation operations were run by many of the leading players in both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and in the opposition Warsaw Pact. Sometimes the activity and the sponsorship were clearly visible, as when Radio Free Europe and Radio Moscow would exchange barbs about ...

Krymas: Rusijos aneksija ar JAV/NATO/ES agresija?

Šį straipsnį paskatino parašyti JAV specialiųjų tarnybų bei Lietuvos politinio elito sukelta ir eskaluojama plataus masto karo su Rusija propaganda ir tautinės nesantaikos kurstymas visame pasaulyje ir ypač Lietuvos viešoje erdvėje. Masinės Vakarų informacinės agresijos prieš Rusiją pretekstu tapo globalinė JAV-NATO karo nusikaltėlių gaujos klastotė 2014-03-16 Krymo pusiasalio gyventojų referendumo rezultatai ir jų pagrindu įvykęs Krymo prisijungimas prie Rusijos, savo istorinės, etninės Tėvynės. Vakarų reakcija į šį absoliučiai teisėtą Krymo gyventojų pasirinkimą, Vakarų inicijuotas ekonominis karas prieš Rusiją yra absoliučiai neteisėti tarptautinės teisės požiūriu – Vakarų sankcijos Rusijai už Krymo prisijungimą yra tik dar vienas globalinis JAV-NATO valstybių tarptautinis nusikaltimas. ...

The 2004 “March Pogrom” in Kosovo by Muslim Albanians

The 2004 “March Pogrom” in Kosovo: A book of photo evidence! (Making ISIL of a Greater Muslim Albania). Such books you will not find at any kind of the Western mass-media or university teaching programme's reading list. Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement! Donate to Support Us We would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations. Save