Tweet
I don't believe eve 1% of that article. It reads like pure bullshit and propaganda. The part about Putin and Chechnya really topped it off for me, give me a break.
-
-
Yes, last paragraph you can ignore. From my research though the points are all factual.Comment
-
So you have tried to independently verify the assertions in that article and you have concluded that the Muslim leadership of Kosovo is pushing Catholicism on its population that is 96% Muslim, and this is actually being backed by the American "occupiers". If this is true it would be fascinating, but I am very skeptical. It seems contrary to everything that I thought was actually going on in Kosovo.
Can you provide some examples that can be proven to be factual that clearly show the Muslim leadership pushing Catholicism and discouraging Islam?
Originally posted by Volokin View PostComment
-
It appears you have not completely read the article if you still believe that Kosovo's leadership consider themselves "Muslim".
Hoxhaj: Kosovo will always be a secular state
Pristina, 6 August 2013 – Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo, Enver Hoxhaj, said at the opening of the summer program on “Religion and foreign policy” that the state of Kosovo was built on three policy principles, which are also its three pillars: democracy, multi-ethnicity and secularism.Download picture in higher resolution
Foreign Minister Hoxhaj addressed the students and lecturers participating in the program, which will explore the role of religion in Conflict and Post-conflict transformations, organized by the “Tony Blair Faith Foundation” and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo. Hoxhaj spoke about Kosovo’s path towards statehood and the main principles of Kosovo’s society and state.
Hoxhaj said that the century-long conflict over Kosovo has never been of religious nature, but that ethnicity and identity were its determinants.
“The conflict has also not been between Albanians and Serbs within Kosovo, but a conflict between Serbia as a state with hegemonic claims in the Balkans and the Albanian majority who fought for the preservation of their identity and who aspired for freedom and political independence,” said Hoxhaj.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo, Enver Hoxhaj, also stressed that today’s Kosovo state is built on three policy principles, which are also its three pillars: democracy, multi-ethnicity and secularism.
“These principles are the parameters of Kosovo’s existence and its character. As for the third principle, our society has always been secular and our state will always be secular,” Minister Hoxhaj told the participants at the opening of the summer program on “Religion and foreign policy”.
The Tony Blair Faith Foundation and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in collaboration with the Balkan Institute and the University of Pristina are launching a two-week Summer Programme on “Faith and Foreign policy: Investigating the role of religion in Conflict and Post-conflict transformations” between 5 and 17th August. The Programme welcomes 26 participants from 15 countries as far and wide as Morocco, China and Ukraine.
The politics of religion in Kosovo
SUNDAY, 02 MARCH 2008 18:00 NKR E-mail Print PDF
The Politics of Religion in Kosovo
The Politics of Religion in Kosovo
By Besnik Sinani - Respectable international news outlets keep telling us time and time again that Kosovo is the heartland of Serb spiritual heritage, the location of Serb medieval monasteries. Despite this being a relatively late Serbian claim, appearing in the 1800s with the advent of Serb nationalism, it is striking how churches of a universalistic religion like Christianity have become signposts of nationalism. The Serb Orthodox Church in Kosovo has maintained the same role that the former communist leader and butcher of the Balkans, Slobodan Milosevic, had assigned to the Church when he was arousing the flames of the future Balkan wars of the 1990s. This is the worst case scenario of mingling religion and politics.
The Serbs, however, are not the only ones who are politicizing religion in Kosovo. A controversial Catholic cathedral is currently being built in Prishtina. This project had from its beginning the extraordinary support of the late Kosovar president, Ibrahim Rugova, whose office was decorated with the picture of him with the Pope. Catholicism, the religion of less than 10% of the Albanian population of Kosovo, is being marketed politically in attempts to show a perceived cultural shift of Muslim Kosovars towards the West, mediated by Catholicism. This process of political marketing of Catholicism was referred to recently by the Bishop of the Catholic Church in Kosovo, dom Dode Gjergji, as “cultural baptism.”
This political marketing of Catholicism necessarily requires downplaying the presence of Islam in Kosovo. Following debates among devout Kosovars in internet forums, it is common to notice the dissatisfaction with the leaders of the Kosovar Muslim Community, for not reacting more aggressively in response to this “cultural baptism.” There has been at least one attempt from a political party, the Party of Justice, to capitalize on Muslim dissatisfaction. However, one is left to believe that in the last elections the Party of Justice was unsuccessful in attracting large sections of devout voters.
One of the main reactions to the current climate of politics of religion in Kosovo among many Muslims has been the embrace of forms of piety which promote detachment from the cultural, political, and social life of the society, Salafism. Contrary to a common held view, most forms of Salafism are apolitical. However, these are forms of visible piety and they clash with the attempts of the political and cultural establishment of Kosovo to shove visible signs of Muslim piety under the rug, fearing loss of much needed Western support.
Kosovar society aims at building a pluralistic, democratic, and secular new state. The promotion of religious identities as political identities creates the conditions for what French supporters of laicite would call the Balkanization of the society. If current conditions persist, institutions of Orthodox Christianity that play the tunes of Serb nationalism will be seen as a Serb Trojan horse in Kosovo.
Embracing Catholicism to serve as a European political ID card undermines the values of governance and secularism that are the hallmark of those same European models that Kosovo leaders wish to emulate. It also undermines the social cohesion of a newly created country. Ironically, the current American administration, as well as that of President Clinton, has emphasized the Muslimness of the Kosovars in attempts to show that America’s wars in the Middle East are not directed towards Islam.
The current forms of the Kosovo Muslim piety will affect negatively both the society and the interests of the Muslim community in Kosovo. It is therefore in everyone’s interest to see that the government of Kosovo creates a climate of freedom of religious expression while refraining from political manipulation of religions. It is the best bet in seeing a celebration of diversity of spiritual traditions, rather than political fragmentations of the kind that have enflamed Balkan history.
Now in 2014, it really is no secret that Kosovo's leadership are building a secular, but nationalistic society. They are using Catholicism to appeal to the West and also connect with the Albanian people by linking it to Albanian nationalism.Comment
-
guys you forgot to mention how wahabism works and what it means.Its not your usual muslims we have here radical and fundamentalist tthhe'll y are as crazy as hell and will die for their beleifs"Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
GOTSE DELCEVComment
-
Vecer: Islamic radicalism is a reality in Macedonia
22 August 2014 | 08:58 | FOCUS News Agency
Islamic radicalism is a reality in Macedonia and the threat that the country takes lightly, Macedonian Vecer daily writes.
According to the newspaper, Islamic radicalism is not a new phenomenon in the country which systematically spread for year, and the statements of the head of the Islamic religious community, the Monstrum case, the collapse of the Bekteshi temple in Tetovo and the death of Macedonian citizens in Syria and Iraq only took it on the surface. According to the former director of military intelligence Vladimir Pivovarova it is a serious problem that can have severe consequences in the future. According to prof. Metodi Hadjijanev, a former officer of the special services of the Army of Republic of Macedonia (ARM) it is currently not a major threat to the country because the situation is not in the red zone, but it does not mean that there won’t be serious consequences if measures are not taken.Comment
-
Skopie. Albanians and Muslims in the region are abusing war in Syria and Iraq, and it is wrong to think that those who died in these wars will become heroes. This was announced by the head of the Islamic Religious Community in Macedonia Suleyman Redzhepi, Macedonian newspaper Dnevnik announced.
According to Redzhepi, Albanians go to Iraq and Syria because of material interest. And those who incited jihad remained in their country. He does not rule out the possibility in some mosques in Macedonia individuals to recruit jihadists to Syria and Iraq. Redzhepi announced that two mosques in Skopje were not controlled by the Islamic Religious Community.
Skopje. The Islamic Religious Community in Macedonia has no control over the two mosques in Skopje. This was announced by the head of the community Sulejman Rexhepi, Macedonian Sitel television announced.
According to Rexhepi it is talking about Yayapashina Mosque and Tutunzus Mosque where imams were people from the Islamic religious community, but the chairmen of Mosque boards were specially appointed people. TV indicated that the spread of radical Islam is most often through such mosques.Comment
-
Macedonian Interior Affairs Minister Gordana Jankulovska announced that a proposed bill will make it a crime for Macedonian citizens to take part in foreign armies, police forces, paramilitary or militia forces. Jankulovska said that this amendment to the Criminal Code will be sent to the Parliament in a shortened procedure.
Jankulovska added that the minimum punishment for these crimes will be five years in prison. It will apply to citizens that offer, provide or collect financial assistance or equipment for foreign military forces.
The proposed amendment will also provide four year prison sentences for citizens who incite people to join foreign armed forces, by writing or preparing broadcast material.
- These proposed changes will give us more appropriate and stronger tools to fight against global threats to security and especially against terrorism. It will help us fill up a legal void that was not regulated sufficiently for Macedonians citizens who unlawfully take part in foreign forces, train with them, minister Jankulovska said, adding that this will be a clear signal such behaviour will not be tolerated.
Asked whether Macedonian citizens are already taking part in foreign conflicts, Jankulovska said she only has operational data that can't be confirmed or denied.
- There is no institution that keeps count of those cases, because this type of behaviour wasn't punishable by previous laws. It happened that we would get information that our citizens were killed in foreign battle zones, but they were not always recruited in Macedonia, some were recruited in Western European countries, Jankulovska said.
The changes to the Criminal Code will not apply to Macedonian citizens who have dual citizenship and join the regular armed forces of their other home country, or take part in missions approved by international organizations.
Am I misinterpreting here, or was it not a crime before this bill?Comment
-
How many have already participated in previous Islamic conflicts that have happened in the Middle East. If they want to fight for ISIS now, how many in the previous generation have received training from Al-Qaida, and have fought alongside them. What happens to these radicals after they have engaged in conflicts, what do these radicals preach when they return to their home countries.
I think this is good news.Comment
-
how does one change radical;s,fundamentalists.or those that are going towards the wahabi religion.These people will fight to the death before they give in.So in macedonia there is no solution short of an outright war.Not that i'm advocating for one."Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
GOTSE DELCEVComment
-
40 Jihadists Arrested in Kosovo, one is Macedonian citizen
Among the jihadists arrested yesterday in Kosovo there is one Macedonian citizen citied Kosovo’s media as reported by Dnevnik. According to the newspaper "Zeri", it is Besim A. Shabani, 32, from Skopje, who has been residing in Ferizaj for a long time. Besides him, Fikret Krco, a Bosniak, age 23 has also been arrested.
Kosovo Police had been looking for another 17 Kosovars who together with 40 people were arrested yesterday, as suspected of belonging to terrorist organizations, the Islamic State (IC) and Al Nusra, Pristina media reported. During the police raid few days ago, the leader of this group, Bujar Brahimi, was not found in his home, reported the newspaper "Zeri". Brahimi, who comes from Mitrovica, was a member of ID in Syria for a year and a half. In addition he is a close friend of Lavdrim Muhajer, one of the leaders of this group.
In April this year, Brahimi returned to Kosovo and immediately began to agitate among citizens to leave and join the other Muslims in jihad. Brahimi is at the top of the list of 57 suspects for terrorism and for inciting terrorism. With another 16 suspects, he is in a run. During the police raid, two facilities suspected to have been used to recruit young people to leave for Syria had been closed.
One of them is the improvised mosque in the building "Termokosa" in Dardania neighborhood in Pristina and the other one is the Tower for orphans in Prevala which according to the police have been the assembly points of this terrorist network. There are suspicions that the majority of the 40 arrests had fought in Syria and Iraq as part of the terrorist organizations ID and Al Nusra.
Kosovo’s Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi for the newspaper "Express" said that many organizations that act as humanitarian are actually associated with the arrested jihadists. He hasn’t named the organizations, but has mentioned that among them there is a Turkish one. "In the second or the third phase we will have enough evidence to investigate these organizations", points out Rexhepi.In the name of the blood and the sun, the dagger and the gun, Christ protect this soldier, a lion and a Macedonian.Comment
-
Macedonia Press Review – September 12, 2014
Villagers in Macedonia prevent young people from joining Syrian war; Macedonian parliament lacks debate
Skopje
DNEVNIK
Ethnic Albanian villagers near Skopje have prevented several young people from going to jihad in Syria, the daily says. In one case a young boy has been literally pulled out from a bus that was supposed to take him to war. This happened after the boy disappeared from home and was found in a mosque in the town of Tetovo where he had been indoctrinated to head for Turkey and then to Syria. The Macedonian Commission for Religious Communities confirmed these events, the daily said.
Skopie. Residents of a village in Skopje region prevented a young man to go to war in Syria, writes Macedonian Dnevnik daily. According to the edition the young man was literally taken out of the bus, which traveled to Turkey, where he had to go to Syria. He was gone from home for some time and then went to the mosque in Tetovo. Mrs. Valentina Bozinovska, President of the Commission for Relations with the Religious Communities and Groups stated that the Wahhabis are increasingly taking over mosques and preach a different Islam.
"If the same trend continues, many young Muslims may join them," Bozinovska said. In her words often happens youths who have gone on their way to Syria to be taken out of the bus.
Disturbing. Mostly at how such radical Islam can be taught without any consequences.Comment
-
Kosovo 'imams held' in raids on Islamic State recruitment
Masked police outside court in Pristina (17 Sept)
Masked police stood guard outside a court in Pristina after the arrests
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories
'Islamists' held in Kosovo raids
Kosovo profile
Germany arms Iraqi Kurds against IS
Fifteen people have been detained in Kosovo in an operation aimed at tackling recruitment of fighters for Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq.
Among them are several imams, including the head of Pristina's Grand Mosque, Shefqet Krasniqi, local reports say.
Some 200 Kosovo Albanians have gone to fight in Syria and several have died.
IS is thought to have attracted hundreds of European recruits in its campaign to set up a "caliphate" in broad swathes of Syria and Iraq.
Imam of Pristina's Grand Mosque, Shefqet Krasniqi is one of Kosovo's leading clerics
Kosovo police did not name those arrested, publishing only their initials, but said the operation had been carried out following threats and due to the importance of national security.
Many of those held were from Pristina, Prizren or the flashpoint town of Mitrovica.
Islamist leader Fuad Raqimi was detained after a raid on his flat, reports said.
US envoy Tracey Jacobson, in a tweet, praised Kosovo's "pro-active response against fighters and terrorism".
Last month, 40 people were arrested as police searched dozens of sites across Kosovo, including makeshift mosques thought to have been used as recruitment centres.
In common with other European governments, Kosovo is tightening up its laws to tackle the rise in jihadists travelling to the Middle East.
Germany announced on Friday that it would seek to prosecute anyone who tried to recruit for IS or spread the group's propaganda.
French MPs on Tuesday backed a new anti-terror bill that would enable the passports of potential jihadists to be confiscated.
Six people were detained in the Lyon area of France on Wednesday, including a 13-year-old girl, on suspicion of playing a part in sending young girls to Syria.
Interpol has appealed for information on Austrian teenagers Sabina Selimovic (above) and Samra Kesinovic
Several European countries are facing the phenomenon of teenage girls travelling to Syria.
One of two Austrian girls who had gone to Syria was reportedly killed this week.
Samra Kesinovic, 16, and Sabina Selimovic, 15, both of Bosnian origin, disappeared from their homes in Vienna last April, leaving a letter to their parents saying they wanted to "fight for Islam".
It is unclear which of the two girls had died.
Police in the southern Austrian city of Graz picked up another two girls last week who were set to leave for Syria.
IS is sometimes known as Isis or Isil.
Police in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) resumed operations against alleged Islamic extremists following arrests of 43 people last month suspected of being involved in terrorist-related activities.
Kosovo detained five Islamic extremists on September 4th, including Shefqet Krasniqi, the imam of the Grand Mosque in Pristina.
The police released the suspects after questioning, but said the investigation will continue.
Police searched 10 locations and confiscated evidence, said Syle Hoxhaj, acting chief prosecutor of Kosovo.
"Investigations are ongoing against all of the suspects and we expect to gain sufficient evidence to submit charges," Hoxhaj told SETimes.
Hoxhaj said the prosecutor's office is investigating an additional 17 people suspected of financing, recruiting and inciting terrorist activities and conspiring to organise a terror cell.
He also said the existing criminal code provides sufficient legal basis to arrest and charge such threatening groups dealing with organised crime and terrorism.
Earlier this month, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) police undertook a large operation code-named Damascus against radical Islamic groups, arresting 16 and holding another 15 people for questioning.
Moreover, the State Investigation and Protection Agency executed a court order and searched 17 locations used by the suspects and seized large quantities of various weapons.
Among the arrested was Bilal Bosnic, self-proclaimed leader of the BiH's Wahhabis, and Hamdo Fojnica, father of one of the attackers of the US Embassy in Sarajevo in 2011.
Experts said the police actions in Kosovo and BiH were undertaken after the security agencies' assessment that it was time to act, and especially focus on extremist organisers and financiers.
"It is always easier to work preventively to the problem than to cure its consequences," Vlado Azinovic, a professor at the Political Sciences Faculty in Sarajevo, told SETimes.
Azinovic said Operation Damascus is part of a broader international campaign aimed at the terrorism threat by organisations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as was the case in Kosovo.
"The important thing is the police and prosecutors act on evidence and the arrests will have an epilogue in court," Azinovic said.
The Kosovo Islamic Community (KIC) expressed support for the latest police action.
"KIC supports Kosovo institutions against any kind of extremism or narrow interpretation of religious principles, while at the same time we remain committed in promoting tolerance and inter-religious understanding," Ahmet Sadriu, KIC spokesperson, told SETimes.
So, Bosnia's police, and even Kosovo's police are executing raids on targets, and I'm yet to find anything reporting the Macedonian police doing anything similar.
In typical Macedonian fashion, we'll leave the situation until it becomes out of hand and uncontrollable, before attempting to fix it.
Radical Islam in Macedonia is something that can be neutralized, it is within the scope of authorities, whether they will be pro-active or not remains to be seen.Comment
-
I agree Volokin. They should act fast before it has to get dirty.Comment
-
Maybe they want the situation to get out of control so they can paint the Albanians as Muslim extremists, thus leveraging some international support against them? Granted that's incredibly stupid, and dangerous, but hey we are Macedonians, we specialize in stupidity.
On the flip side, I think Albanians nationalism is the main threat to Macedonians territorial integrity, and the more you displace Islam, nationalism fills the void.
Right now none of our options look good.
Originally posted by Volokin View Posthttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29239534
So, Bosnia's police, and even Kosovo's police are executing raids on targets, and I'm yet to find anything reporting the Macedonian police doing anything similar.
In typical Macedonian fashion, we'll leave the situation until it becomes out of hand and uncontrollable, before attempting to fix it.
Radical Islam in Macedonia is something that can be neutralized, it is within the scope of authorities, whether they will be pro-active or not remains to be seen.Comment
Comment