INTELLIGENCE SOURCES WARN OF EXTREMIST ISLAMIST GROUP PRESENCE IN MACEDONIA
BBC Monitoring International Reports - December 25, 2007 Tuesday

Text of report by Macedonian newspaper Vecer on 22 December

[Report by Aleksandar Srbinovski: "White Mujahedins - Danger for Europe"]

Following the terrorist attacks on Pentagon and the World Trade Centre in New York and the tragic events in Moscow, Madrid, Beslan, and London, behind which were members of the terrorist organization Al-Qa'idah, the Western states' and NATO intelligence services have disclosed certain data on the terrorist network in the Balkans. Specifically, several dozens of Wahhabis-Mujahedins, who are believed to be controlled by the Al-Qa'idah, are studying and training in Macedonia, but the targets of their attacks are still unknown, Western European intelligence officers say. Macedonian intelligence officers, as well as the most renowned world terrorism analysts, have confirmed this, too. The Wahhabi Islamic teaching is regarded as the most radical.

The Islamic fundamentalists, although small in numbers, have been constantly present in Macedonia, ever since it acquired independence in 1991, a recent reportage entitled "The Gaps of Balkan Islam" of the prominent newspaper The Christian Science Monitor from Boston, the United States, stresses.

Interior Ministry officially refuse to comment on this on the pretext of this being related to unofficial intelligence reports.

Since mid-August 2003, that is, for four years now, the Islamic fundamentalists have drastically increased their activities in the Balkans. Most of these fundamentalist are reportedly located in Bosnia, then in Sandzak, and in the so-called territories populated by Albanians, that is, Albania, Kosovo, northern Montenegro, western Macedonia, and north-western Greece - Epirus. Al-Qa'idah believes that "the white devils" are rather suitable for operations in western Europe and the United States, because they are fair-haired, that is, they can easily mingle with the Europeans.

The developed Albanian criminal network is expanding from Europe to North America, from where it is financing the OVK [Kosovo Liberation Army - UCK in Albanian] in Kosovo and the ANA [Albanian National Army - AKSh in Albanian] in Macedonia, primarily with dollars obtained through drug trafficking. Usamah Bin-Ladin and his terrorist network are behind all this. In Macedonia the first clash with Al-Qa'idah was registered by the security forces during the 2001 armed crisis, intelligence sources claim. The Al-Qa'idah members were a part of the 113th Brigade of the former ONA [National Liberation Army, NLA - UCK in Albanian] and the current ANA called "Ismet Jashari." A Mujahedin platoon consisting of 25-30 people was reportedly formed under the command of Sabedin Selmani.

Field reports indicate that an extremist Islamist organization Tarikat, Wahhabis, and Red Rose members are currently operating on the Macedonian territory.

The Wahhabis who have been registered in the country by the intelligence officers are currently working on attracting the youth and making it accept the ideas, customs, behaviour, and apparel of radical Islam. Then they recruit those who depart to the centres of religious, but also military training in some neighbouring states and in the Middle East. There is sufficient evidence to say that a group of people is preparing and training for something.

The project of expanding the Wahhabi Islam in the Balkans - and thus in Macedonia, as well - consists of dispatching missionaries, providing literature, engaging the electronic media, organizing courses, granting scholarships for the Arab universities, and primarily establishing local (most often youth or humanitarian) organizations.

They are building their own infrastructure in the Balkans with mosques that differ from the traditional Ottoman mosques with their exaggerated monumentality, absence of any decorations, ornaments, and even minarets, from where they plot and preach the sect's ideology most probably with the aim of establishing their own religious community one day.

National military-political analysts say that such interpretation of Islam is in favour of the Albanian separatists from the ANA's ranks, bearing in mind their appeal for jihad.

Source: Vecer, Skopje, in Macedonian 22 Dec 07, p10
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