Trouble brewing as radicals rise up in
Serbia's Muslim-populated south
The Associated Press - April 3, 2007 Tuesday 5:20 PM GMT
By DUSAN STOJANOVIC, Associated Press Writer
NOVI PAZAR Serbia - The discovery of a mountain cave packed with plastic
explosives, masks and machine guns and the recent arrests of men devoted to
radical Islam have fueled fears that extremists are trying to carve out a
stronghold in this remote corner of Europe.
Police in southern Serbia's Sandzak region last month arrested six local Muslims
and accused them of belonging to a fundamentalist Wahhabi sect an austere brand
of Sunni Islam promoted by extremists, including the Taliban, Osama bin Laden
and his al-Qaida fighters.
Recently leaked Western intelligence reports allege that the tense, impoverished
area, along with Muslim-dominated regions in neighboring Bosnia, are rich ground
for recruiting so-called "white al-Qaida" Muslims with Western features who
could easily blend into European or U.S. cities and carry out attacks.
Al-Qaida and other radical Islamic groups, the reports warn, may be trying to
increase their influence in the Muslim-populated regions in the southern Europe
to penetrate deeper into the continent.
The presence of radical Muslims in Sandzak, the poorest region of Serbia, is
linked to the advent of mujahedeen foreign fighters who joined Bosnian Muslims
in their battle against the Serbs in Bosnia's 1992-95 independence war.
Sandzak's Muslims like to be called Bosniaks because they believe they
ethnically belong to Bosnia, not Serbia.
A March 16 police raid on what authorities said was a mountain terrorist camp
just south of Novi Pazar unveiled a large cache of weapons, ammunition, hand
grenades, plastic explosives and face masks. Authorities captured four of the
suspected Wahhabi Muslims in the raid, and two others four days later.
TV footage of the cave broadcast in Serbia also showed a black flag with a Quran
inscription in Arabic, and propaganda material that investigators said praised
bin Laden and al-Qaida.
"The lethal mix of inter-Muslim and interethnic tensions, poverty and organized
crime definitely has a potential for trouble," a Western diplomat, who asked not
to be named in order not to interfere with the police investigation, told The
Associated Press.
"The 'white al-Qaida' certainly can find fertile ground in the region," he said.
Police claimed that up to 30 radical Muslims trained at the mountain camp, and
that militants they referred to as "Wahhabi terrorists" planned unspecified
actions at home and abroad.
Police in Kosovo said they were searching for one of the suspects, whom they
identified as Ismail Prentic a man they warned "should be considered armed and
dangerous."
Local politicians said the group initially may have been plotting to attack
moderate Muslims whom its members have denounced as infidels.
"There are numerous indications that something nasty was being prepared in
Sandzak," said Dragan Simeunovic, an analyst.
Last autumn, young men with long beards, white skull caps and ankle-short pants
clashed with security in Novi Pazar's downtown Arap mosque. At least two people
were injured in an ensuing firefight.
Muamer Zukorlic, Novi Pazar's mufti, describes the attackers as Wahhabi
"extremists who want to express their domination" over local moderate Muslims.
"In some mosques, they collected prayer beads and hurled them into a nearby
river," Zukorlic said. "They often shout in the mosques, interrupt prayers and
provoke believers."
As the ultraconservatives increasingly make their presence known in Novi Pazar,
the scene is more Saudi than Serbian.
Chants of muezzins echo from minarets across the town of 100,000, which is
nearly 90 percent Muslim. Beggars crowd around yellow-brick buildings, and
vendors at makeshift markets peddle everything from framed Quran verses to
counterfeit designer blue jeans, watches and perfumes. Many women are clad head
to toe in black.
Among fundamentalists like Edin Bejtovic, an unofficial spokesman for the
conservative Muslim community, the mood is staunchly anti-American and in
support of the radical Islamic insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"According to the Americans, every average Muslim is a potential terrorist,"
said Bejtovic, who denied claims in Serbian media that his group is financed by
Saudi Arabia-based radicals and that it was plotting attacks.
But he warned: "It can all become true if the Americans don't stop their
destruction of Muslim nations and Islam."
There are fears that religious tensions in Sandzak, a center for organized drug
trafficking and human smuggling, could further destabilize the already volatile
southern Balkans.
A recent report by the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law
Enforcement Affairs identified Sandzak as "the center point" on a Balkan drug
smuggling route that leads from Afghanistan via Turkey to Western Europe.
"The ability of organized crime groups to exploit the porous borders and weak
infrastructure threatens political stability and economic development" of
Serbia, the report said.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press
Posted for Fair Use only.