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Albania arrests two imams who recruited Muslims for Syrian jihad

Mar 21, 2014 4:56 pm By Robert Spencer

imametThese are imams. They are teachers of Islam, and devout Muslims. They have dedicated their lives to understanding Islam and teaching it to others. How did they come to hold the idea that jihad involved violence against unbelievers — an idea that we are constantly told in the West is something that only greasy Islamophobes believe?

“Albania Nabs Suspected Al-Qaeda Recruiters,” by Besar Likmeta for Balkan Insight, March 12:

The seven suspects are accused of recruiting a number of Albanian citizens to fight in the bloody civil war in Syria.

The suspects include the imams of two Tirana mosques, Genci Balla and Bujar Hysi, who are believed to be ringleaders of the group.

Balla, who is also known as Aburrahman Balla, has drawn attention with his fiery sermons posted on YouTube, calling on Albanians to join Islamist militants linked with al-Qaeda in Syria.

“Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State [of Iraq and al-Sham] are the only groups that are fighting to create an Islamic state where sharia law will rule,” Balla says in a sermon posted on YouTube.

“The [mainstream, anti-government] Syrian Free Army… don’t want Islam to rise up,” the preacher adds.

Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the al-Nusra front, is a branch of al-Qaeda fighting in Syria. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, ISIS, was founded in the early years of the Iraq war. It pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda in 2004, becoming known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The mosques where Balla and Hysi preached are not part of Albanian Muslim Community, the official organization representing Muslims in Albania.

A 33-year-old Albanian, Anri Maliqi, who died fighting in Syria, used to attend Balla’s mosque, which is located in a poor suburb of Tirana.

A growing a number of Muslims from the Balkans are being drawn into the sectarian conflict raging in Syria, Iraq and, increasingly, Lebanon. Most Albanians are Muslims, at least nominally.

The International Center for the Study of Radicalization, ISRA, a think tank based in King’s College, London, believes some 300 Albanian fighters, from Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania, have joined Jabhat al-Nusra or ISIS.

The arrests follow an investigation launched by Prosecutor’s Office for Serious Crimes in cooperation with Albanian state police.

During the arrests, police sized an AK-47, a hand grenade and hundreds of automatic rifle rounds.

“All the suspects are accused of the crime of ‘recruiting of individuals in order to carry terrorist acts, incitement and propaganda”, the general prosecutor’s office said.

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Filed Under: Al-Qaeda, Albania, Syria Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. Bezelel says

    Mar 21, 2014 at 10:01 pm

    You could see where these imams would take offense at all the chatter about them misunderstanding islam when they are so diligent in their studies.

  2. enwhitenment says

    Mar 21, 2014 at 11:49 pm

    Anjem Choudary

  3. Salah says

    Mar 22, 2014 at 1:17 am

    “The seven suspects are accused of recruiting a number of Albanian citizens to fight in the bloody civil war in Syria.”

    Did you notice the pattern? Imams don’t fight, they recrute others to fight!!!

    Just like the coward Muhammad, they prefer death in jihad than life, as long as this jihad is fought by their gullible followers and not by themselves!

    http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2011/03/muhammad-coward.html

  4. southeuropean says

    Mar 22, 2014 at 1:08 pm

    And Albania became a NATO country,with 70÷ of its population- Muslims…and potential jihadists

  5. dumbledoresarmy says

    Mar 23, 2014 at 7:25 am

    From the article – “some 300 Albanian fighters, from Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania, have joined Jabhat al-Nusra or ISIS.”

    Macedonia, btw, is not officially an Islamic country: it is secular, with a majority of the population at least nominally Orthodox Christian.

    Let us hope that all 300 Albanian Muslims – whether from Kosovo, Macedonia or Albania – have met or will meet sticky ends in the jihad in Syria.

    That way, there will be fewer murderous mohammedans to endanger the lives of the non-Muslim remnant in Albania and in Kosovo, or of the non-Muslim majority in Macedonia.

    I would advise the government in Macedonia to declare that those ethnically-Albanian Muslims who have gone from Macedonia to Syria to wage jihad are no longer Macedonian citizens, and cancel their passports. Let them go; and don’t let them back in. The more Mohammedans leave Macedonia, the better.

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