"Albania Wary of Extremist Inroads," from the Washington Post, with thanks to Nicolei:
TIRANA, Albania -- A typical Saturday night in this predominantly Muslim capital means a few beers, a spin at the local disco and, for that late-night snack, a pork kebab. Albania wants it to stay that way.To protect its own tolerant brand of Islam from extremists, the Balkan country wants to stop importing foreign-trained preachers and make sure religion does not get in the way of its efforts to join the European Union.
Many European countries worry about foreign imams bringing fundamentalist rhetoric from the Middle East into their mosques. In Albania, the threat is seen from fundamentalists who visit the country under the cover of aid missions, and from religious schools vying to cater to an upsurge in religious interest since the collapse of the atheist rule of dictator Enver Hoxha in 1990....
About 60 percent of the population consists of moderate Sunni Muslims, but analysts say the national spirit is more attuned to the liberal overtones of Bektashism, a sect derived from a mystic Shia order that flourished in Turkey under the Ottomans.
Bektashis, making up an estimated 15 percent of Albanians, are allowed alcohol and do not require women to wear a veil. Bektashi poets and intellectuals played a key role in Albania's 19th-century enlightenment and nation-building.
"An Albanian of Muslim stock very likely drinks wine, eats pork, enjoys parties and marries someone from another religion," said Artan Fuga, sociology professor at Tirana University.
But as I have pointed out many times, they are vulnerable to those who would instruct them in "pure Islam":
In recent years, thousands of young men wanting to learn more about Islam have traveled to religious schools abroad, most attending month-long crash courses in the Salafi branch of Islam, which promotes a strict, traditional interpretation of Islamic doctrine.When they return, young Salafist preachers are known to clash with the Muslim leadership over its practices, build new mosques and deliver hard-line sermons. ...
The article in the Washington Post is not correct. More than 60% of Albanians in Albania are Muslim (and Kosovo-Albanians are nearly 100% Muslim). It is true that Albanian violence, in Kosovo, throughout Europe and in Albania proper is not so much religiously motivated, it is rather a sort of Nazi ideology inherent to Albanian nationalis that fuels the violence. The problem, however, is that Albanian goals (independant Kosovo, Grat Albania, including parts of all the neighbouring countries), even if not religiously motivated, are completely congruent with the goals of jihad and turning Europe into Eurabia. Those Albanians, portrayed by the Washington Post as tolerant, do not have any intention to live in peace with anyone. Even if they are not embracing Quran completely, i.e. consuming alchohol, they have internalized many practices set up by Quran, especially brutal violence towards others. The article from the Washington Post does not mention that Albanians destroyed about 150 ancient churches and monasteries in Kosovo since 1999 and that this destruction is carried on both by Kosovo-Albanians (Skipetares) and Albanians from Albania proper, since hunderds thousands of them settled in Kosovo, both before 1999 and after the establishement of Nato protectorate. This dreadful destructions continue in Kosovo, even though most Serbs have left. Albanian nation, both in Kosovo and in Albania, is today in a state of collective hystery (similar to what the world has seen in German in the 30es, but paired with many Islamic traditions). Since they have no any historical proof for their claim that Albanians are the most ancient nation in Europe and descendants of the old Illyrians, they are changing Slavic and Serbian names , both in Kosovo and Albania proper and destroying Christian monuments (and in case of Kosovo Christian churches and monasteries means Serbian) in order to deny any rights to anyone else. Not even the right to exist. This is the opposite of tolerant, but of course it is easy to for the Washington Post to call Albanians tolerant, since the price of their brutality is currently paid only by the Serbs. It is a crime to portray such people as victims of Muslim fundamentalism coming from the Middle East, while in the reality they are its major beneficiaries in Europe. And it is very sad that such an utterly biased article is posted nearly without any comments and explanation on the Jihad Watch.
Sorry for my orthography mistakes.
Regards, Your Serbian girl
"And it is very sad that such an utterly biased article is posted nearly without any comments and explanation on the Jihad Watch"
Serbian Girl that's exactly what you are here for. Thanks for your insights. Serbia has been demonised in the west and only now are we coming to realize that Milosovic definately had a point.
Just don't ask your government to sign up to the EU, or you will end up with more muslims than you ever imagined. I think many of us in western europe will end up moving east in the next couple of decades, while Paris and Amsterdam look more and more like a set of "Dawn of the Dead".
I still am appalled to learn how NATO and Clinton destroyed the natural barrier that the Serbs had created against the spread of Islam. There is a deeper more sinister story here that needs to be told. I wonder if anyone has survived that knows the truth and has the guts to tell it.
Well, I am a survivor, if you want so. I was six when I lived with my parents in Pec, a city in Kosovo. One day my mother sent me to buy something in the nearby butchery, hold by an Albanian. The man took a knife and told me he will kill me. Please note this was in 1970. My parents went to the butchery, after I told them what happened and were told that nothing happened. It was impossible to involve police or any authority, since Yugoslav state did not care.
After similar things happened several times, my family left. Moreover, after coming to Serbia proper, my parents, as most other Serbs who fled Kosovo, were threatened by the authorities to keep their mouth shut, not to talk about Serbs bein terrorized in Kosovo, otherwise their children will not be granted the right to visit schools and universities. This exodus of Serbs in 60es, 70es and later,fantastic natality rate of the Skipetares as well as the policy of Yugoslav authorities to settle Albanians from Albania proper in Kosovo (and often give them Serbian houses and land) have led to Albanians outnumbering Serbs. Why on earth the Yugoslav authorities did this. This is a complex issue that can fill the pages, - I´d say that the communist nomenklatura in exYugoslavia was basically doing the same that is EU doing currently : appaising Moslems by giving them other people´s property, in this case Serbian lands. And of course parroting the legend about the evil Serbian nationalism and Great Serbia, created by K und K in order to conceal its own expansionist policy towards the Balcans.
Please understand that currently Serbs cannot decide on any issue that concernes them. In Bosnia protectorate, foreigners can cancel elected politicians, just because they do not like it. In Kosovo, the small numbers of Serbs live in ghettos and cannot leave the house. In "Rest-Jugoslawien" to use the expression of the German media, the ruling coalition that is accepted by the West is threatening the impoverished population with new bombardmends by the West in case it dares vote for the opposition that is described in the Western media as "ultra right". You see, it would be great if Serbs wouldn´t need to fight alone, on behalf of us all. It would be great, if you in the EU , in USA and elsewhere, at least from time to time, protest when your governments announce that the indipendance of Kosovo is "inevitable" ,"must come" , Albanian violence "understandable" and an act of "revenge" etc.
I am from neighboring Macedonia, and agree with much of what Serb girl says. My father grew up in Pristina, Kosovo's capital, and says as long ago as 1948 (his childhood) he can remember widespread violence against Serbs. The fact that Kosovo's Albanian Muslim violence doesn't have a religious bent to shouldn't be comforting, however. Since Kosovo Albanians are largely non-religious or nominally religious, there is only one way for them to turn. Certainly, not all would become religious fundamentalists, but, worryingly, the numbers of fundamentalists, at this stage, can only rise. Combine that with the region's utter lawlessness and it is a recipe for disaster.
As for the Albanians in Macedonia, they are, and always were, heavily religious. Thankfully the authorities have managed to reassert some level of control over them, but they too remain a regional powder keg.
In contrast, the Albanian Muslims of Albania are quite different to their neighboring cousins in Kosovo and Macedonia. Not only non-religious, but, generally, a hell of a lot friendlier, without the Palestinian-like death wish toward Slavs. That country has problems enough -- you don't know what corruption is until you've seen Albania; the entire nation is built on it, at every level -- without the threat of radicalisation.
The Muslims of Bosnia are in a similar predicament: disfunctional nation, rampant corruption and now the threat of radicalisation. (Serbs, however, must understand their role in any radicalisation that takes place. I supported their war, in theory -- would you want to be ruled by a president who'd written a book describing how a Muslim nation should operate (more or less according to Sharia), as Bosnia's Alija Izetbegovic had done? However, pre-war, Bosnia's muslims were so tame they hardly deserved to be called muslims at all. Drinking, partying, girls sexually liberal -- not very Islamic at all. Unfortunately, while it is still largely true, like with the Albanians, radicalism is on the increase.)
It will be little comfort to folk like Serbian Girl and Spect8or when they see Europeans fighting
for their lives and dodging Islamic bombs in their own cities. Damn that fool Albright [dim Dhimmi] and wanker Clinton's policies!! Of course the truth is Clinton didn't want to upset his Saudi friends and sacrificed the Serbs [who don't have oil] instead. Well his policies will come home to roost with a vengeance as Kosovo remains a powder keg ready to explode in U.N faces. Albanians have no right to either Kosovo or other parts of the Balkans. The only way they are making
Greater Albania is by outbreeding the Slavs - maybe it is time to 'put something in their drinking water' or offer them free radios with every vasectomy??
Great incisive comments from serbian girl and spector.
Interestingly, the prosecution witnesses at the Milosevic trial talked of this rising Islamist prescence amont ethnic Albanians.
A prosecution witness testified how the Catholic ethnic Albanian villages were regarded as "loyal", i.e. "loyal to Belgrade". The witness said they never gave the Yugoslav security forces any problems. Many KLA units refused to allow any Catholics to join. I think Haradinaj is a Catholic though.
Pec? Doesn't the city have an area that is made up of Jewelry shops, etc? Largely owned by Catholic ethnic Albanians who were armed by the Yugoslave authorities? It gives an idea to the trust Belgrade has/had in the Catholic ethnic Albanians. The Catholic ethnic Albanians also largely come from the urban areas and so are (slihghtly) less anti-Slavic in outlook.
Please talk more about your experiences in KosovO, serbian girl.