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The NATO occupation was seen by Arab/Muslim countries as an opportunity to transform Kosovo-Metohija into a Muslim state. Terry Boyd in the Stars and Stripes article “In Kosovo, Islamic groups work to rebuild country, attract followers,” September 21, 2001, examined how Muslim countries were seeking the Islamization of Kosovo. The US State Department listed Kosovo as having active cells of al-Qaeda, Ossama bin Laden’s terrorist network. Al-Qaeda and Ossama bin Laden were aiding the UCK jihad in Kosovo. Iran was also active in Kosovo and Bosnia. Boyd reported that an Iranian Islamic group offered 120-300 German marks a month for Albanian Muslim women to wear headscarves and other Islamic religious attire. He noted that Arab/Muslim countries had set up aid and relief agencies in Kosovo. Saudi Arabia had established the Saudi Joint Committee for Kosovo and al-Haramain, a Arabic language center. Saudi Arabian Abdullah Al Turki, the Secretary General of the Muslim World League, was providing aid to “Kosovo refugees”, which was announced on March 25, 2002 by the Saudi government. Bahrain had funded the El-Asla Society, Islamic youth centers and instruction in Islam and in the Arabic language of the Koran. Sudanese nationals had set up youth centers, the World Association of Muslim Youth.
What was the motive for Arab/Muslim “humanitarian” aid to Kosovo? Was Muslim aid to Kosovo based on humanitarian concerns or to transform Kosovo into a radical new Muslim state? Boyd, however, noted another goal: “But nations hostile to the United States may be using begin efforts to camouflage more sinister plans, including creating an Islamic republic—similar to Iran—on Europe’s southern flank, according to sources.” On July 19 and 22, 2001, four Iranians “gun runners” were arrested by KFOR. But as early as 1999, US Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, in the Congressional debate on Kosovo, stated that the KLA is “a collection of Maoist drug-peddlers and terrorists who have been armed by Iran and provided with training and support by Saudi terrorist financier Osama bin Laden.” Boyd revealed the goal of the Islamic relief/aid groups to be to achieve the independence/secession of Kosovo from Serbia as an ethnically pure Islamic nation/republic. He noted that if the US/NATO could not achieve this, the Islamic countries would be willing sponsors: “That plan is to present fundamentalist Islam as an alternative to Western reluctance to grant independence to Kosovo.”
Concomitantly with the destruction of Orthodox churches, Islamic countries are being encouraged by the US and NATO to build mosques and Islamic centers in Kosovo, further erasing the Christian history of Kosovo. On August 20, 2000, the United Arab Emirates announced that they would finance the construction of 50 new mosques in Kosovo. In “Mohammed Orders Building 50 Mosques in Kosovo”, in the UAE Interact, it was reported that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Dubai Crown Prince and Defense Minister, would fund this project.
Ahmadiyya is an extremist Islamic movement from Pakistan that came to Kosovo to educate Muslims. Ahmadiyya offered help only if Albanian Muslims would accept the radical Islamic doctrines of the group and if they would train Muslim preachers. Naim Berisha said: “The Ahmadiyya came with copies of the Islamic holy texts in Albanian, plus pamphlets promoting their leaders, and especially their hatred of the West.” Two other Muslim groups were in the Balkans seeking to recruit Albanian Muslims: Ahl as-Sunna and Wa’al Jama’at.
Originally published in 2014
Author: Carl K. Savich
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Source: Serbianna
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