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Raid on Wahhabi 'Camp' Raises Tensions in Sandzak

22 03 2007  Most locals welcome police swoop on group seen as troublemakers.

By Amela Bajrovic in Novi Pazar (Balkan Insight, 22 March 2007)

The recent arrest of four Islamist Wahhabis from the Sandzak region on suspicion of plotting terrorist acts exposes tensions within Serbia's southwest Muslim community, raising fears of more sectarian violence.

In a statement this week, Serbian police said the members of the Wahhabi group had set up a training camp in the mountains near the regional capital, Novi Pazar, an area inhabited mainly by Muslims.
 
Police said they had arrested four men in the raid and seized a quantity of weapons, explosives, food rations and other equipment in a makeshift tent camp and in a cave. The police findings could not be independently verified. Police also said several other suspects remain at large.
 
The four men have been charged with plotting against the country's security and constitutional order. If convicted they may face one to five years in prison.
 
This latest incident comes after years of simmering conflict between the majority of local Sunni Muslims represented by the Islamic Community and the new followers of the Wahhabi movement. The Islamic Community's clergy and faithful have repeatedly complained of harassment by the increasing number of the Wahhabi followers, whom they say want to impose their belief as the only true one.
 
Shortly after the arrests, Serbia's interior minister, Dragan Jocic, described the men as enemies of the official Islamic Community and said the police action demonstrated the government's determination to crush all forms of violence and terrorism.
 
The justice minister, Zoran Stojkovic, sought to defuse potential religious tensions, saying the men were not apprehended "because they belong to a religious group but because… they were involved in alleged terrorist activities".
 
Over the last two years, Sandzak Wahhabis have been involved in several incidents, including occasional brawls and fiery arguments in local mosques provoked by their attempts to impose strict new practices on mainstream believers. At the same time, Wahhabis have often encountered problems with the local population because of their long beards and short trousers.
 
Last April, Wahhabi followers disrupted a concert in Novi Pazar's main square by a band from Belgrade. They were also involved in an affray at a mosque last November that ended in a shoot-out, though Wahhabis were not responsible for the gunfire. See http://www.birn.eu.com/en/62/10/1844/
 
Izet Fijuljanin was later charged with firing shots at a group of Wahhabis, wounding three, and with illegal weapon possession. At his trial, which started earlier this week in  Novi Pazar, Fijuljanin plead self-defence, claiming that a group of Wahhabis attacked him with wooden planks, Belgrade’s Radio B92 reported.
 
In February 2006, Sandzak Wahhabis also staged a protest over publication by Western press of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.
 
The Saudi-based movement claims to restore a pure and original form of Islam. This puts it at odds with the traditional Sunni version of the faith practiced in Sandzak, and with Sandzak's Mufti. The Wahhabi movement is active in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo.
 
The origins of the movement date back to the 18th century, when Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, who came from what is now central Saudi Arabia, began traveling around Iran, Syria and India, propagating a reform movement based on a much stricter observance of the Koran.
 
His followers attacked moral failings such as excessive luxury, poor administration of justice and the use of wine and tobacco. They prescribe a strict dress code, comprising loose, baggy, ankle-length trousers for men and full veils for women. Men and women must not touch in public and must observe different procedures in the mosques.
 
None of this matches traditional Muslim practices in the Balkans, where communities have followed moderate Sunni traditions for generations.
 
Serbia`s interior minister Dragan Jocic said that "The police consider the harassment of Serbia's Islamic Community an act of aggression against Serbia and all its citizens."
 
Rasim Ljajic, a local politician and leader of the Sandzak Democratic Party, SDP, supported the arrests.
 
He said the Wahhabis had been plotting terrorist acts against the Sandzak Islamic Community rather than against government institutions.
 
"The authorities now ought to investigate the matter, especially the discovery of weapons," Ljajic told Balkan Insight. "They need to track down the origins of the weapons and how they made their way to Sandzak."
 
Officials of the local Islamic Community in the Muslim-majority region, also said the Wahhabis were trying to stir up trouble within the community.
 
Sandzak Mufti Muamer Zukorlic said the Wahhabis had long been threatening to attack the local Sunni Muslim community.
 
"First they tried to impose their own prayer rituals on us and now they want to destabilise the entire region," the Mufti said. "A more timely action [by the authorities and the Islamic Community] could have prevented this from escalating to what is happening now," he added.
 
Mufti Muhamed Jusufspahic, a member of the ruling Islamic authority in Serbia, the Riyaset, said the arrests had shocked him. "The discovery of the camp is a slap in the face of the [Islamic] Community," he said "Muslims must learn from this so such things never happen again."
 
Abdulah Numan, a Belgrade-based Islamic scholar, sought to dissipate concerns over the most recent incident.
 
In an interview with Belgrade's B92 TV, he said: "The Wahhabis do not have many followers in Serbia and abroad … as their beliefs are not real because they propagate 2,000-year old teachings".
 
He added that Wahhabis "prefer tense regions," as they could most easily recruit supporters in those areas.
 
"It's very important to create a culture that does not fuel dissent among young people who could become Wahhabis because they do not know pure and true Islam," he concluded.
 
Most Novi Pazar Muslims described the situation as worrying. "Like any other religion, Islam condemns any form of violence," Almer Plojovic, a taxi driver, said.
 
"The possibility that weapons were found in the camp shows their interpretation of Islam has gone awry," he added. "I am relieved the authorities finally did something, because the threat of a conflict here between the Wahhabis and the true followers of Islam was looming large."
 
Benjamin Bihorac, a salesman, said Wahhabis were giving local Muslims a bad name. "They are aggressive towards all other Muslims who don't share their beliefs," he said. "They [the state] should pass a law to keep them at bay and prevent them from giving a bad name to other Muslims here, who don't hate their neighbours."
 
Novi Pazar's Wahhabis rarely talk to outsiders and Balkan Insight`s attempts to interview more of their followers were fruitless. However, Edin Bejtovic, an economist who recently adopted Wahhabism, denied that the movement was trying to force unwelcome novelties on the community. "We stand accused of inventing new Islamic trends but we are in fact going back to grassroots," Bejtovic told Balkan Insight in early December 2006 .
 
Wahhabis first appeared in Novi Pazar about ten years ago. No one knows how many there are now, but the number is thought to be rising.
 
Their ideas have filtered into the region through clergy who have returned from studies in Islamic countries and through students coming back from Bosnia-Herzegovina.
 
A report published last April by the International Crisis Group, ICG, said the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s had helped stir the movement into life. It claimed there were about a thousand followers of the movement in Sandzak.
 
Amela Bajrovic is a BIRN trainee and journalist with Novi Pazar Sto Plus radio.
Balkan Insight is BIRN’s online publication.