"Mufti" Tërnava has copied his master's thesis

by Express Staff
Express [Prishtina, Kosova]
September 5, 2013

http://www.islamicpluralism.org/2284/muft-ternava-has-copied-the-master-thesis

A transnational network of scholars, the Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP), headquartered in Washington, claims to have discovered that "Mufti" Naim Tërnava has stolen others' intellectual property.

In the CIP website, which includes many lecturers, writers, journalists, Sufi scholars, etc., it is said that the master's thesis by the main imam of the Islamic Community of Kosova (BIK) includes "several passages… that are identical to passages" in an earlier doctoral dissertation by an Islamic scholar, Zija Abdullah, "without proper citation of Dr. Abdullah's work," Koha Ditore wrote today.

"Tërnava includes material as if he were its author, with footnotes referring to earlier authorities cited by Dr. Abdullah [but without their acknowledgement as quotations or of the work of Dr. Abdullah]," says the statement of CIP.

"Based on a full analysis and balanced judgment, the Center for Islamic Pluralism declares that these findings show definitively that Naim Tërnava has committed the serious offense of academic plagiarism," CIP stated further.

According to CIP, the current head of BIK, Naim Tërnava copied his master's thesis from the dissertation of an Islamic preacher, Zija Abdullah, entitled The Effect of Muslim Aqida in Guiding Behavior, [which was] approved in 1997-1998, at Zaytuna University in Tunis.

News from CIP about the copying of a good part of the thesis published by Tërnava [comes] when the latter's second mandate at the top of the BIK has expired, and after the current "mufti" [sic] of Kosova has shown an appetite for a new candidacy for this post. Indeed, for this purpose it is assumed that last month the [BIK] constitution was amended and the chairman of the Assembly of the religious institution, Xhabir Hamiti, was replaced. Hamiti had previously made ​​public his intention to present his candidacy as the new "mufti" [sic] of Kosova.

Related Topics:  Albanian Muslims, Balkan Muslims, European Muslims, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Muslim Brotherhood, Wahhabism receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free center for islamic pluralism mailing list