The Rise of Radical Islam in Macedonia

[Volokin]

I do wonder when an Albanian Muslim political party will emerge in Macedonia.

As seen by the protests early last year, the DUI is clearly out of touch and out of favor with the Albanian community, secular and religious.

There is a number of Albanians Muslims which I'm sure will want be represented politically in the near future. Which given the re-invigoration of Islam in the Balkans since the fall of communism, could get a few votes for the more politically Islamic inclined. Nothing to radically change the scheme of things, given the widespread secular, irreligious Albanian mindset among the youth and elderly alike, but enough for a potentially dangerous voice, a voice which it's leadership has encouraged followers to join up the fight in the Middle-East.


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Just on the note of Albanians and religion, whilst driving through the largely Catholic north of Albania recently, I felt there was truly nothing different from the "Muslim" parts. Visually, the towns were the same, and the people seemed no different. I probably went through 5/6 fairly large towns and could only spot 1 mosque and two churches from the car (not exaggerating), and this was driving for a few hours. The interesting thing is that in the Albanian Republic, the rough line when it comes to both religion and dialect (Gheg and Tosk) is the Shkumbin River, just south of Tirana. But, the Albanians of Macedonia and Kosovo speak Gheg Albanian and are largely Muslim. I would of thought that the difference in language would also mean the difference in religion, but I'm sure the history is a lot more complex than that.

Putting away all the tensions, the Albanian national history is a pretty interesting topic, religiously in particular.

[Philosopher]

Its no suprise that Turkey along with Saudi Arabia and Quatar are the main sponsers of new mosques and sunni fundamentalists in Macedonia.

These are the facts, and they are seldom brought out. I would only add that these activities are not limited to Macedonia, but throughout much of the Balkans.

[Big Bad Sven]

Sightly off topic but its concerning the dark path turkey has taken.

In the 90's they were good to macedonia, mainly because they had a secular nationalist government.

Today they are led by islamic fundamentalists who support ISIS financially and even allow ISIS terrorists to cross the border into Turkey so thy can get healed/treated and go back to fight in syria/iraq.

Its no suprise that Turkey along with Saudi Arabia and Quatar are the main sponsers of new mosques and sunni fundamentalists in Macedonia.

Turkey is a joke of a country now. I wish Macedonia could stand up to these islamic facist gangs but it would get no support from other 'orthodox brothers' the muslim hypocrites will cry racism and the spineless EU would put pressure towards macedonia.

What a joke of a situation.

[George S.]

i did mention about funding .What action is macedonia taking to stop the o/s funding of mosques and radical activity funding.Australia is doing a lot and arresting terrorists in other ways doing everything possible to stop terrorism.So it seems the spread of macedonia's albanisation is linked to radicalism,fundalism.So worst form is spread where we are hated by radicals in macedonia.

[Philosopher]

The Macedonian authorities are doing very little to stop the rise of radical Islamism.They should stop from funds coming in to Macedonia.

Here is a theory. Certain individuals in the Macedonian government are being paid off and bought by oil rich Middle Eastern kingdoms and certain Western democracies to allow this threat to continue to rise and escalate in Macedonia.

Or maybe it is just incompetence.

Or maybe a little of both.

[George S.]

The Macedonian authorities are doing very little to stop the rise of radical Islamism.They should stop from funds coming in to Macedonia.

[VMRO]

I agree to an extent but at the same time I am almost certain that if the Government gets visibly involved there will be more harm than good. I could be wrong, but past experience says I won't. Look at Iraq, the USA tried to bring peace by force, and now you have a terrorist organization 10x stronger than Al Qaeda ever was. I am of the opinion that these type of things need to work themselves out organically, or else you end up with a mutant. Albanians in Macedonia need to reject these radicals and make sure that their calls for violence fall on deaf ears. Otherwise it will just be the big bad Slavs trying to keep them from Allah. The fact is that there will always be another one, even if you get every last one, there will be someone else, that is how it is everywhere. That is why the resistance to such elements needs to be organically grown within the community.

I do agree that it is getting dangerous though. We need the government to work directly with moderate mosques, and find out what can be done more covertly rather than just arresting people. Why not a citizens arrest?

They do not have to hit them right away, all the have to do is gather intelligence and have enough proof that it will be virtually impossible to refute.
Once they have all the Intel, they can swoop in a massive raid and nab them all including weapons… this will also include senior clerics and anyone else who might be involved (Including Politicians).

Something the Macedonian parliament should do is to create anti-terror legislation. Macedonia has anti-terror units, but what is the point of having these units without the law backing you and punishing the perpetrators.

Last thing we need is more headlines like this in the media:
Macedonia 'staged fake terror plot to woo US

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/macedonia/1462562/Macedonia-staged-fake-terror-plot-to-woo-US.html

[Gocka]

I agree to an extent but at the same time I am almost certain that if the Government gets visibly involved there will be more harm than good. I could be wrong, but past experience says I won't. Look at Iraq, the USA tried to bring peace by force, and now you have a terrorist organization 10x stronger than Al Qaeda ever was. I am of the opinion that these type of things need to work themselves out organically, or else you end up with a mutant. Albanians in Macedonia need to reject these radicals and make sure that their calls for violence fall on deaf ears. Otherwise it will just be the big bad Slavs trying to keep them from Allah. The fact is that there will always be another one, even if you get every last one, there will be someone else, that is how it is everywhere. That is why the resistance to such elements needs to be organically grown within the community.

I do agree that it is getting dangerous though. We need the government to work directly with moderate mosques, and find out what can be done more covertly rather than just arresting people. Why not a citizens arrest?

I don't agree.

In Macedonia there is not a infinite amount of radical clerics, like one's going to immediately pop up because the other was shut down. If the police can identify the targets and bring them to justice, the mosque's can be cleared of the element, hopefully permanently. This has to be stopped at the source, and it can be achieved. There is only a select few, a dangerous few nonetheless but with the power to influence many. It is a localized problem though, we're not talking like every mosque in the land is preaching to it's followers to travel to Iraq. We have to find the targets and shut them down. I don't believe the problem will get much worse per say, but the element which is currently here has the power to cause much damage. If the authorities sit and wait, the problem will stay, which will only lead to more Macedonian citizens leaving to fight.

I agree this has to be treated with caution, but look, at the end of the day, the Albanians will always feel like that are being mistreated and will protest, regardless of whether it vital to national security. I'd rather the radical Islamic element destroyed and then have a few Albanian protests in Tetovo and Skopje, rather than it staying and being dangerous. Right?

[VMRO]

Honestly, if the Government keeps denying and turning a blind eye to what is happening in their backyard will only bring more of them.

It will be a green light for terrorist groups to use Macedonia as a breeding ground as authorities are too relaxed in their efforts to curb this problem

Tetovo, Gostivar, Skopje and Kumanovo are the hotspots.

[Volokin]

I don't agree.

In Macedonia there is not a infinite amount of radical clerics, like one's going to immediately pop up because the other was shut down. If the police can identify the targets and bring them to justice, the mosque's can be cleared of the element, hopefully permanently. This has to be stopped at the source, and it can be achieved. There is only a select few, a dangerous few nonetheless but with the power to influence many. It is a localized problem though, we're not talking like every mosque in the land is preaching to it's followers to travel to Iraq. We have to find the targets and shut them down. I don't believe the problem will get much worse per say, but the element which is currently here has the power to cause much damage. If the authorities sit and wait, the problem will stay, which will only lead to more Macedonian citizens leaving to fight.

I agree this has to be treated with caution, but look, at the end of the day, the Albanians will always feel like that are being mistreated and will protest, regardless of whether it vital to national security. I'd rather the radical Islamic element destroyed and then have a few Albanian protests in Tetovo and Skopje, rather than it staying and being dangerous. Right?

[Gocka]

There is an obvious reason why the Macedonian government doesn't act on what are most likely extremist linked mosques in Macedonia.

I firmly believe if Macedonians tried to root out extremist elements in mosques by force that it would backfire and we would only make the situation worse.

We are Orthodox Christians, which Albanians already dislike, on top of that we already have Albanians with their victim complex always thinking we are oppressing them. I would be money that if a mosque were raided by Macedonian police, and even if it could be proven that radical elements were in that mosque, I guarantee the next day 10 new ones would spring up. All it would do is create a new recruitment point.

What we really need to do is covertly help moderate Muslim clerics root out these extremists internally. In the end if they have few to no followers, their impact is negligent. At the end of the day the least thing you want to do in this situation is embolden them and give them one more reason to turn to violence. Which isn't hard when you already are of the opinion that you are being oppressed.

Its different in Kosovo, its Albanian on Albanian, so that inherent distrust is not there like in Macedonia.

Remember the Monstrum raids in Skopje and the subsequent uproar? We were a 100% justified, the people who were indicted were murderers, and somehow we were still the bad guy to them. That blew over for the most part, but this has the potential to fester for decades and build up until it is totally unmanageable.

We all know its dangerous, but sometimes tongs are needed not a hammer.

[Volokin]

UTRINSKI VESNIK
The daily brings a story about Tutunsus-Mosque, a small mosque in the ethnic Albanian dominated municipality of Cair in Skopje where the local population speculates radical Islamists linked with the recruitment of fighters for Syria are gathering. This is one of the two Skopje mosques that the Islamic Religious Community openly admits it has no control over. Seven out of some 12 Macedonian Albanians who have died in the fights in Syria and Iraq live in the vicinity of this mosque, the daily says citing media reports.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-press-review-september-23-2014

[Volokin]

INTERNATIONAL
Kosovo tries to stem flow of ISIL recruits
Locals say the country's high unemployment rate contributes to the group's appeal

Lavdrim Muhaxheri of Kosovo addresses a crowd in Syria during the filming of an ISIL video.

FERIZAJ, Kosovo — The night before 23-year-old Blerim Heta disappeared from his home in the small farming village of Varosh, he left a letter for his mother under his pillow. He was leaving Kosovo for Syria and would not be coming back.

“I ask you to forgive me, I choose this path alone, no one imposed it on me,” he wrote on the last night of Ramadan in August 2013. “I know that you won’t be happy about this, but you can only find happiness with Allah!”

Seven months later, Heta called his mother and told her he would soon be meeting God.

The following day, March 25, 2014, Heta blew himself up in an attack in Baghdad that killed dozens of Iraqis, local news organizations reported. Heta had become a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, the Al-Qaeda splinter group that has seized control of much of northern Iraq and eastern Syria. It is believed Heta was the first suicide bomber from the Balkans.

“Our village never had problems,” said Hajrush Beqaj, a local mullah and close friend of the Heta family. “I would have never thought that this boy would have done such a thing.”

A year after Heta’s disappearance, his clothes are still draped over a chair in his bedroom, the way he left them. A photo of him as a boy remains in a frame with cracked glass, and a poster in Arabic with the 99 names of Allah hangs on the wall. Nothing has been touched.

About 100 to 200 young Kosovars like Heta, mainly ethnic Albanians, are now believed to be fighting with ISIL in Iraq and Syria. These men are among the estimated 15,000 foreigners who have gone to fight for the group in recent months.

According to the Kosovo police, 16 fighters from Kosovo have already been killed in Syria and Iraq.

“Two years ago, it was a pretty big number of [fighters from Kosovo], and I could explain that many of them in the beginning thought that they are going to help fight the dictatorship of Bashar Al Assad’s regime,” said Bajram Rexhepi, interior minister of Kosovo. “But after a couple of months, we saw that in Syria, nobody knows who fights against whom and unfortunately many of them take part in different kinds of terrorist organizations.”

Many here see youth unemployment, which is around 70 percent, as one of the major factors motivating young Kosovars to fight abroad.

“There is a spiritual struggle: You don’t have a job, you don’t have anything, the only social gathering is the mosque and that’s where it starts,” said Abit Hoxha, a security researcher at the Kosovo Center for Security Studies, in Pristina, the capital. “If we continue neglecting the path of this country that is not getting enough attention here — not getting jobs, not getting an economic perspective or educational opportunities — I think the numbers will grow.”

Never in a million years did she think that he would do that.

Shefqet Krasniqi of the Grand Mosque in Pristina is escorted by a Kosovo police officer as he leaves the court on September 17, 2014. He was among 15 people arrested that day for allegedly recruiting people to join ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

As the war in Syria escalated and swept through neighboring Iraq, the Kosovo government made it a priority to stem the recruitment of fighters from this nation of 1.8 million people, 95 percent of whom are Muslim.

Rexhepi said the Kosovo Assembly is likely to soon pass a law prohibiting Kosovo citizens from joining armed conflicts abroad. Like other nations that are now seeing a rise in fighters, Kosovo is also ramping up efforts to intercept citizens preparing to fight abroad for ISIL and other groups such as Al-Nusra Front and Al-Qaeda. On Aug. 11, after months of investigation, the Kosovo police arrested 43 suspected ISIL members. Another 15 people were arrested on Sept. 17.

Since gaining independence from Serbia in February 2008, Kosovo has also received assistance from international organizations and cooperated with the FBI and with Interpol to gather intelligence on fighters and recruiters in Kosovo.

Yet men continue to heed the call for recruits. Photos and Hollywood-style videos showing ISIL fighters from around the world urging their countrymen to join them in Syria abound on social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

“Social media is the perfect tool to spread terror, and it’s really terror,” said Hoxha, referring to videos showing ISIL fighters shooting and beheading people. In many of these videos, the fighters do not hide their faces.

Perhaps Kosovo’s most notorious fighter is Lavdrim Muhaxheri, who often appears in ISIL propaganda videos. Originally from the small town of Kaçanik, about 10 miles from the Macedonian border, he worked with NATO in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2012, according to Kosovo media reports. Now he is on Interpol’s wanted-persons list.

Late last year, Muhaxheri released a video in Albanian from a northern Syrian city near the Turkish border, calling for men to come fight for ISIL. In another video, he is shown ripping up his Kosovo passport.

News of Muhaxheri's actions has brought shame to the community.

“Before, our parents were proud of us to go to the mosque, but now they want to stop us,” said Afrim Lika, 32, who works at a kebab shop behind Kaçanik’s main mosque and has known Muhaxheri since they both were boys. “He’s dead to me.”

Lika worries that more youth from Kaçanik will join ISIL. He recently told his teenage cousin to stop going to the mosque to avoid being brainwashed by those drawn to the group.

Some young fighters even try to bring their wives and children.

In one case, Pranvera Abazi-Zena, a mother from Pristina, received a text message three days after her husband, Arben Zena, told her he was taking their son, 8-year-old Erion, on a weekend camping trip in the mountains in western Kosovo. The message said that he had instead taken their son to Syria and that he would be in touch with her once he received a better signal. That was in July, and she hasn’t heard from him since then.

“We know that he joined [ISIL],” said Suad Sadulahi, Abazi-Zena’s cousin, because of photos of Erion that have been circulating on the Internet showing him surrounded with ISIL flags and fighters. (Arben Zena does not appear in any of the photos.) “Never in a million years did she think that he would do that,” Sadulahi said of Arben’s decision to go to Syria with their son.

We say that terrorism doesn’t belong to Islam. Islam calls for peace; it doesn’t call for war. War is something ugly.

On a recent Friday, the main mosque in the southern Kosovo city of Ferizaj, the Big Mosque of Mulla Veseli, was filled to capacity with worshippers spilling onto colorful mats in the courtyard. The mosque can accommodate up to 1,500 people during Friday prayers. After the service, a diverse group of men streamed out of the mosque — from clean-shaven teenagers clad in baggy jeans and T-shirts to elderly men wearing the Plis, the traditional white hats worn by Albanian men throughout the Balkans.

One young Kosovar, Avni Bytyci, a Fulbright scholar who recently graduated from Syracuse University, said he is surprised by the growing numbers of youth who are going to Syria and Iraq.

“We never thought this would happen to our society,” he said after attending the sermon. “Albanians support the opposition in Syria but not through terrorist means.”

Adem Hoxha, the imam here since the 1980s, has addressed the issue in his sermons.

“We say that terrorism doesn’t belong to Islam. Islam calls for peace; it doesn’t call for war. War is something ugly,” said Hoxha from his office inside the mosque. “That’s a bad image for the whole Islam in general and that’s a bad image for Kosovo too.”

Another imam from a mosque in southern Kosovo who agreed to talk on the condition of anonymity said he has pleaded with members of his mosque, including his own sons, not to go overseas to fight. He said he knows some of the young men who have left Kosovo to fight in Syria.

“I feel very sad, as if they were my kids,” he said. Iraq and Syria are holy lands, “blessed lands,” and the fighters think if they will go there and die, they will become heroes.

Many Kosovars say they worry that some hardline imams in the country are playing a role in influencing young people to fight in Iraq and Syria. At least 12 imams are among the suspected ISIL members arrested this month. In an interview, Rexhepi, the interior minister, said the young fighters are not only manipulated by social media, but also by “different mosques, some clerics.”

But the imam in southern Kosovo strongly denied this. He said there are no imams in the country who call for recruits, because of the country’s recent past.

“We are a tired nation, recently got out of war,” said the imam. “We don’t have enough sons and daughters to fight in Syria and Iraq.”

Heta’s relatives say they still know little about why he was drawn to ISIL.

The family spent the last two decades in Germany and Kosovo and lived a comfortable life. By the time he reached his early 20s, Heta had become very religious and regularly attended sermons in Ferizaj and Macedonia that were aligned with imams his parents described as extremists. (The imam of one mosque Heta attended was among those arrested earlier this month, according to his sister, Arjeta Heta-Reqica). Blerim Heta gradually became more withdrawn and isolated from his family.

“My opinion is that he was lonely here, then he joined the religion and the mosque,” said his uncle, Habib Ismajli.

After Heta left for Syria, he often communicated with his family via Skype, telling them that he was studying Islam and Arabic so he could teach others in Kosovo. However, three months before the suicide attack, he confided in Heta-Reqica that he was a fighter for ISIL and approved of the killing of nonbelievers.

The sister didn’t tell other members of the family, not wanting to shock them, but she said she pleaded with him to return. Heta continued to stay in regular touch with her and other family members — but he always ignored their appeals to come home.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/9/23/kosovo-tries-to-stemflowofisilfighters.html

This is alarming, if it is happening across the border, then you can assume it's happening in Macedonia.

If parents are actually pleading with their children to stop going to the mosque because they know that the leadership is brainwashing the youth with their radical thought, you can see that there is a real problem.

How you go about stopping the spread of such teachings from the mosque itself, I do not know.

[The LION will ROAR]

Don't bother we have enough Muslim Terrorists here ...

ISIL: We will attack Macedonia!

http://falanga.com.au/isil-kje-ja-napadneme-makedonija

ИСИЛ: Ќе ја нападнеме Македонија!
Објавено во: Македонија Автор: Фаланга Датум: 23 Септември, 2014

Покрај нашата, на списокот се и другите земји од регионот, како Хрватска, Словенија, Србија и Босна и Херцеговина..

Меѓу 58 земји-сојузници на САД на кои ИСИЛ им се заканува дека ќе ги нападне се наоѓа и Македонија.

Покрај нашата, на списокот се и другите земји од регионот, како Хрватска, Словенија, Србија и Босна и Херцеговина.


- Ако можете да убиете неверник, Американец или Европеец, како на пример валкан Французин, Австралиец или Канаѓанец, вклучително и државјани на земји кои

влегоа во коалиција против „Исламската држава“, тогаш потпрете се на Алах и убијте – рече во интернет-пораката портпаролот на „Исламска држава“, Абу Мухамед ал Аднани.

[VMRO]

From Gostivar to Syria along with the Whole Family



A man from Gostivar with initials B.F. has been one of the many Albanians from Macedonia who are currently fighting on the battlefields in Syria, and who has been residing there since 2013 along with his family, released the portal "Almakos", Dnevnik daily reads.

The news states that he was economically well off, with a developed business in Gostivar. As part of the news a photo of the man drinking tea with Lavdrim Muhajer, the leader of the Albanian jihadists in Syria and Iraq was published. The text below the photographs cites that the "Lion" Lavdrim is alive.

The Kurdish TV broke the news that Muhajer, the leader of the Albanian jihadists in ISIS, was killed after which the Arab media released photos of a person shot in the face claiming to be Muhajer. Whether the announcement about the resident from Gostivar is true is yet to be confirmed, as the pictures taken cannot confirm the time when taken.