WAHHABISM TAKES ROOT IN BOSNIA - MUSLIM EXPERT
BBC Monitoring International Reports - November 21, 2005

Text of report by Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA

Zenica, 20 November: Bosnian Muslims are mostly followers of moderate Islam, but ten years after the signing of the Dayton peace agreement, the radical version of the faith brought to Bosnia by Islamic fighters has taken root in the country.

"Followers of Wahhabism are changing Islam in our country and I believe that some local imams are not opposing them strongly enough," Esad Hecimovic [leading expert on Bosnian Wahhabi movement], a journalist from Zenica, said.

It was around this central Bosnian town with a Muslim majority population that the El-Mujaheed unit, serving with the Bosnia-Hercegovina [Muslim-led] Army, operated during the war.

Hundreds of its members, known as holy warriors or mojahedin and arriving from Islamic countries, also converted Bosnian Muslims to Wahhabism, a hardline version of the religion that originated in 18th century Saudi Arabia.

"Since the war, the number of radicals has increased but they represent a frustrated minority due to their lack of power. However, they are very active and try to impose themselves," said Hecimovic.

In the past few years, most Islamic humanitarian organizations preaching Wahhabism have gradually moved from Zenica to the capital Sarajevo, he added.

Most believers outside Sarajevo mosques are dressed in Western clothes, but Wahhabis are noticeable due to their short trousers and long beards, while some women wear the full chador, a scene which was hard to imagine in Bosnia before the war.

On stalls in front of a mosque, the "bearded" sell different religious items, prayer beads and the Koran, but also video cassettes featuring the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev during his war against Russian "infidels".

One can also buy Saff, a bi-monthly publication founded by former members of the El-Mujaheed unit, which notably addresses Wahhabites. An editorial in its most recent issue criticizes "American racism".

There have been reports of Wahhabites raiding Sarajevo mosques and insulting believers, accusing them of not being good Muslims.

Although after the war all foreign fighters were due to leave the country, an unspecified number of them remained and obtained Bosnian citizenship, mostly by marrying local women.

At the faculty of Islamic studies in Sarajevo, Professor Ahmed Alibasic rejects "concerns voiced by the press" and insists "Wahhabism is not a problem in Bosnia."

While acknowledging their influence on local Islam through Arab humanitarian organizations, Alibasic assures that Bosnia's Islamic Community, the leading religious Muslim body, "completely controls the situation". [Passage omitted]

Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1316 gmt 21 Nov 05

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