Is Kosovo Going Islamist?
Years ago, one of the arguments I made in favor of Bill Clinton’s intervention in Kosovo was that, if the U.S. hadn’t acted, Islamist groups would have stepped forward to aid the insurgency and Kosovo would have become a breeding ground for jihadist terrorism. It turns out that danger was only temporarily averted by U.S. intervention.
In the New York Times , correspondent Carlotta Gall has an eye-opening dispatch from Pristina detailing how extensive support for terrorism has become in modern Kosovo. “Over the last two years,” she wrote, “the police have identified 314 Kosovars — including two suicide bombers, 44 women and 28 children — who have gone abroad to join the Islamic State, the highest number per capita in Europe.”
What accounts for this surge of extremism? Gall points the finger of blame at America’s allies in the Persian Gulf region, particularly Saudi Arabia. She wrote: “They were radicalized and recruited, Kosovo investigators say, by a corps of extremist clerics and secretive associations funded by Saudi Arabia and other conservative Arab Gulf states using an obscure, labyrinthine network of donations from charities, private individuals, and government ministries… Kosovo now has over 800 mosques, 240 of them built since the war and blamed for helping indoctrinate a new generation in Wahhabism.”
The good news is that Kosovo is still largely pro-American (it is home to Bill Clinton Boulevard!) and still has a moderate Muslim government that is intent on fighting extremism. “After two years of investigations,” Gall notes, “the police have charged 67 people, arrested 14 imams and shut down 19 Muslim organizations for acting against the Constitution, inciting hatred and recruiting for terrorism.”
I still believe the situation would have been far worse if the U.S. had stood aside and allowed a civil war to rage in Kosovo indefinitely. We’ve seen in Syria what that leads to. Nevertheless, what the Saudis and other Gulf Arabs are doing in Kosovo — and far beyond — is deeply disturbing.
Saudi Arabia, in particular, has spent decades and countless billions of dollars spreading its fundamentalist version of Islam to every corner of the world. Its petrodollars have allowed fundamentalist preachers to edge out more moderate local Islamic clerics from Africa to America. In the process, Saudi-funded mosques and madrassas have served as a breeding ground for countless terrorists — including some who have ultimately wound up targeting the Kingdom itself.
Since 2001, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states have done more to crack down on outright financing of terrorist groups. Their citizens continue to donate funds to the likes of al-Qaeda and ISIS but in smaller amounts than before and without the de facto state sanction that such activities once enjoyed. But in spite of importuning from the U.S. and allies such as Germany, Saudi Arabia has not, as far as I can tell, made as much progress in decreasing its support for mosques and madrassas abroad preaching doctrines of hatred. This is part of the de facto deal the House of Saud has reached with its own clerical establishment: The Wahhabi clerics support the Saudi royal family and overlook its sins and hypocrisies and in return the royals support fundamentalism at home and abroad.
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I still believe that Iran is a greater national security threat to the U.S., because it is a revolutionary state explicitly committed to a “Death to America” doctrine, whereas Saudi Arabia is fundamentally a pro-American, status quo power. But the U.S. cannot afford to overlook Saudi support for Wahhabism around the world because it radicalizes so many Muslims who become terrorists.
I know I'm not up on things... But what are madrassas?
what are madrassas?
Great question Dowsey.
Madrasa ( Arabic : مدرسة , madrasah , pl. مدارس , madāris , Turkish : Medrese ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution , whether secular or religious (of any religion). The word is variously transliterated madrasah, madarasaa, medresa, madrassa, madraza, medrese, etc.
~WIKI~
So, it could be any place of higher learning, up to and including a "Sunday School" kind of thing... Thank you, so very much!
It's a shame that Saudi Arabia is helping them recruit for terrorism! Disappoints me, but I'm not surprised...
Clintons intervention and bombing civilians is what creates terrorists. Until we realize the damage we do things will not get better. They hate us for bombing them not for eating hot dogs.
Clintons intervention saved tens of thousands of lives. Serbia was intent on creating ''Greater Serbia'' once again. If anything, what he did was stop more and more terrorism in that area and spreading out from there, Dean.
The Kosovo situation is very complex. We have to go back to the 13th century with the Serb's and Turks fought the battle of ''Plains of Kosovo'', and then into the Yugoslavia war of the 1990's when the Serbs (Christians) used ethnic cleansing against both the Bosnia's and Kosovo. Next door you have Albania which is Muslim and both Macedonia and Montenegro both with Muslim populations.
After the slaughter by the Serbs of the Bosnia's which were very secular Muslims, and the genocide turned many of them into terrorists. Kosovo is walking a tightrope in this situation but as stated are still very pro American.
The term ''Balkan Blood Feud'' is very fittings for this area.
There are many things that are a factor. Three different religions. Christian, Muslim and Eastern Orthodox (Christians). Numerous languages and alphabets, and age old hatred.
One other thing, which is very important to the Serbs, is that Kosovo is the center of the Serb identity. I fully expect the area to explode again. It's just a matter of time.
Doesn't it seem to explode with regularity? I seem to remember that Winston Churchill was all in a roil about Bosnia in WWI. Or do I have that wrong? We have quite a few Bosnian refugees here in Louisville. But it is difficult to talk with them, unless they have been speaking English for awhile. Somehow, they seem to use every tooth, every muscle in their head, when they speak... But their restaurants have great food! By and large, they are very nice people!