SERBIAN SPY AGENCY WARNS OF DANGER OF NEW EXTREMIST ISLAMIC ORGANIZATION
BBC Monitoring International Reports - November 12, 2007 Monday

Text of report by Serbian newspaper Politika on 9 November

[Report by Dusan Teleskovic: "Is There a Salafi Threat"]

The Security Information Service (BIA) has registered the appearance of a new extremist Islamic organization on the territory of Serbia. The extremists in question are Salafis, radical Muslims who, according to the BIA, are stationed in southern Serbia, mainly among the Albanian population in the towns of Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac. In its report, the BIA has designated this radical group as a potential threat to our country's security. The report was presented to the members of the Serbian Assembly's Security Committee yesterday.

Salafism as a special threat to Serbia's security is becoming even more important after this week's anti-terrorist operation conducted by the Italian authorities throughout Europe when 37 members of this movement were apprehended. According to police, the arrested men were members of a militant group called the "Salafist Jihad," which recruited volunteers and helped train suicide bombers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Police said it had seized poisons, detonators, and guerilla warfare handbooks.

Right now it is not certain whether the Salafis from southern Serbia had any stronger links with similar Salafi movements that train suicide bombers, but as we could hear in well informed circles, our security services are working intensively on establishing any mutual connection.

Even though back in 2005 the Voice of America announced that the majority of radical Islamists that were carrying out terrorist attacks in European countries were Salafis, Oliver Potezina, Islamics scholar and former diplomat, explained in a statement to Politika that we should not speak prematurely about whether the Salafis in southern Serbia were a threat to our country or not.

"It is not necessary to exaggerate the role of the Salafis, but they should not be underestimated either," Potezica said, adding that they had camps in Greece, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Albania, and in other countries in the region.

Potezica explained that Salafis were in fact advocates of returning to original Islam. They claim that their beliefs were the original and pure Islam practiced by the first three generations of Muslims. They emphasize that they are pursuing Islamic monotheism (Tovhid). They say that they, therefore, are not a sect or a branch but that they are simply true and real Muslims.

"The Salafis belong exclusively to the Sunni branch of Islam and are actually a Sunni reaction to the spread of Sufi and Shi'i teachings, which to the Salafis are heresy of the first rank. Today Salafi is synonymous with Wahhabi, both in Saudi Arabia and in other countries. Incidentally, the word Wahhabi is used rarely in Saudi Arabia nowadays and is usually avoided, for many reasons," Potezica explained.

He claims that the Salafis of the world are usually divided over the issue of whether it is permissible to use force to convert pariahs and unbelievers to Islam or to bring the followers of other Islamic teachings back to the original Islam.

There is no clear definition of these cases, so the attitude towards religious violence - and today towards terrorism - is a reason for many divisions among the Wahhabis, in other words, Salafis themselves, but also among Muslims in general. Some of them believe that Jihad is allowed against any foreign, non-Muslim invasion, but not against those governments that claim to be Islamic," Potezica explained.

Just how much are the Salafis of southern Serbia prepared for violence? We will know soon enough, probably after deeper probes are made into our security services.

Source: Politika, Belgrade, in Serbian 9 Nov 07
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