WahhabiWatch 2007

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Contents: 

CIP WahhabiWatch #30: Saudi Internet Threat Following October 22 Protest at Saudi Embassy in Washington, October 31, 2007

CIP WahhabiWatch #29: Macedonian Sufis Endorse Executive Director Schwartz's Weekly Standard Article, May 20, 2007

CIP WahhabiWatch #28: Executive Director Schwartz on Aggression Against Sufis in Macedonia, Family Security Matters, April 25, 2007

CIP WahhabiWatch #27: “They are wolf-dogs, they will attack our children” – Bosnian Villagers in Clash With Wahhabis, March 4, 2007

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CIP WahhabiWatch #30: Saudi Internet Threat Following October 22 Protest at Saudi Embassy in Washington, October 31, 2007

Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP) Saudi monitors report that the extremist website Al-Sahat (The Battlefields) posted a criticism on October 31 of the demonstration held by al-Baqee.org at the Royal Saudi Embassy in Washington on October 22.  The post noted that the event concentrated on opposition to "Wahhabi Fascism."   Comments on the blog included a call for beheading of Ali Al-Ahmed, the Washington-based Saudi opposition figure, for his participation in the anti-Wahhabi rally. 

CIP strenuously protests the threat against Al-Ahmed and calls on the Saudi authorities to prevent dissemination of such incitement on the net. 

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CIP WahhabiWatch #29: Macedonian Sufis Endorse Executive Director Schwartz's Weekly Standard Article, May 20, 2007

The Bektashi Sufi Community of Macedonia has endorsed the article by Center for Islamic Pluralism Executive Director Stephen Schwartz, "The Balkan Front," published in The Weekly Standard, issue of May 14, 2007.  Dealing with Wahhabi aggression against Sufis, the article has been circulated in Macedonia as an urgent document.  The article is accessible on CIP websites.                                                       

KOMUNITETI BEKTASHIAN I MAQEDONISË
SELIA E SHENJTË - TEQEJA “HARABATI BABA”
www.bektashi.net
 

                                     

Dear _____________________

 

The attached article from The Weekly Standard, published in Washington, is sent for your urgent attention.  The Weekly Standard is the leading political magazine in the U,S. and is read each week by all leading political figures of both the Republican and Democratic parties, including President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.  Its topic is of the highest importance for Tetova and other Macedonians, as well as Muslims and non-Muslims throughout the Balkan region.

Respectfully,

The head of the Bektashi Community 

See copy of original English document. Albanian version. Macedonian version.

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WahhabiWatch #28: Executive Director Schwartz on Aggression Against Sufis in Macedonia, Family Security Matters, April 25, 2007

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/global.php?id=921551 

People On Our Side #2: Baba Edmond Brahimaj, A Balkan Sufi
Stephen Schwartz
Author: Stephen Schwartz
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: April 25, 2007

People On Our Side #2: 

Baba Edmond Brahimaj, A Balkan Sufi 

By Stephen Schwartz 

Dateline: Tetovo, Macedonia

The RAND Corporation’s Center for Middle East Public Policy recently issued a report we may hope will become a standard reference on the desks of Western policy-makers for years to come. Titled Building Moderate Muslim Networks, and composed by a team led by Dr. Angel Rabasa, the document maps out a strategy for the democratic nations to identify and enlist, as allies in the defense of civilization, adherents to a peaceful vision of Islam as a normal religion. 

Western non-Muslims often ask, with apparent justification, why moderate Muslims appear silent in the face of terrorism and other atrocious expressions of radical Islamic ideology.   But a fair examination of the global Muslim community would, I believe, lead more justly to criticism of the mainstream media (MSM) for failing to adequately report on anti-extremist Muslims.   Many moderate, anti-radical, and most certainly anti-terrorist figures speak out in the Muslim world. But the MSM has failed to locate them or enable them to be heard worldwide. Is the fault, then, with the moderate Muslims, or with the MSM? 

The RAND report points out appropriate moderate Muslim partners for the democratic nations, including, as leading elements, Muslim institutions and organizations in the Balkans and in Indonesia. At the geographical extremes of the Muslim world, moderate traditions have remained strong, even if they encounter suppression in the Arab core.  

Sunni Muslims in the U.S. and UK suffer under the oppressive domination of a Saudi-financed and Pakistani-recruited fundamentalist leadership, but many ordinary believers detest radical Islam and want to be rid of the bullying and manipulation of groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). Yet the struggle to break through the monopoly exercised by these demagogues, already complicated by media ignorance, indifference, or deliberate hostility, is made more difficult by U.S. and UK government collaboration with Islamist groups. 

Every time naïve or disingenuous representatives of the U.S. and UK authorities publicly treat Islamists as legitimate partners in the war against terrorism, these governments, we should hope unwittingly, tighten the hold of extreme ideology on the Anglo-American Sunni communities. In the latest such example, early in April, U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, Democrat of California, called a hearing under the rubric of the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment.    

The proceeding, held in Torrance, Calif., welcomed Sireen Sawaf, a female representative of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC), an organization recklessly defending radical Islam, alongside David Gersten, Director of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Program in the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Mr. Gersten made a serious error by appearing on the same platform with an MPAC representative. Mr. Gersten has, unfortunately, previously distinguished himself by his enthusiasm for an ongoing U.S. and British endorsement of Hamza Yusuf Hanson, the former screeching preacher of America-hating Islamist extremism, who has sought to reinvent himself as a spiritual Sufi.   I have dealt with Hanson’s outrageous case in many columns for FSM and other venues. 

Hamza Yusuf Hanson has taken on the Sufi cloak to cover his past as a fundamentalist rabble-rouser. In contrast with such publicity-seeking and superficial “spirituality,” Baba Edmond Brahimaj, leader of the Bektashi Sufis in the mountains of Western Macedonia, is a real Sufi, deeply cultivated and dedicated to teaching peace, interfaith respect, and an understanding of the common interests of all believers around the world. 

Baba Mondi, as he is known, presides over a Bektashi Sufi complex in Tetovo, Western Macedonia. The large compound, including numerous buildings for meditation, collective meals, and other purposes, is called the Harabati Teqe. The Harabati Teqe is so familiar a landmark that is the official symbol of the city of Tetovo. Its name appears in the RAND report, where it is described as a major Muslim institution, “now under siege by Wahhabis.” 

Wahhabis in Macedonia are vagrant and pathetic mercenaries recruited by the terror-financiers of al-Qaida, based on plentiful distribution of Saudi oil cash and pretexts derived from the dogma preached in the Saudi kingdom, where Wahhabism, the most extreme and violent form of Sunni Islam, remains the state religion. 

These disreputable elements have an agenda: to spread the Wahhabi-incited Sunni terror, now shaking Iraq, throughout the Muslim world. In addition to hating Shia Muslims, the Wahhabis also bear a genocidal enmity against Sufis. In 2002, after a brief ethnic conflict in Macedonia, the Wahhabis saw a weak link and chose to test it: armed with Kalashnikovs and pistols, they seized one of the buildings in the Harabati Teqe from the Sufis who administered it.  

The Sufis appealed to the Macedonian government, to opposition politicians, to foreign diplomats, and to others for help, without avail. The Macedonian authorities argued that since property titles had not been clarified in the aftermath of Yugoslav Communism, the controversy could not be quickly resolved. In the intervening period, the Wahhabi occupiers, still backed up with guns, have seized more structures at the Harabati location.   They took over one building and turned it into a so-called mosque, from which they blast out a muddy-sounding recording of the Muslim call to prayer, delivered by a man who seems not even to know the correct order of the recitation, in a failing, croaking voice. They occupied another of the central monuments, which had large glass windows, and covered them with black paper on the argument that women would pray there and did not want to be observed.   They also began cutting down trees on the property, a violation of the Sufi practice of respect for growing things. 

I met Baba Mondi in Tetovo last month, and he made clear to me not only that the Bektashi Sufis want to drive the terrorist infiltrators out of their properties, but that he and his brothers and sisters are committed to a progressive vision of Islam, in which women have equal rights with men, secular government is recognized as the foundation of a just political order, and popular education is a supreme priority.   Bektashi leaders have repeatedly offered to help the U.S. and other governments in tracking down terror propagandists, recruiters, and funders.  

During the same Balkan tour, I was pleased to hear words that further reflect the commitment of the Bektashi Sufis to mutual respect between faiths and ethnicities. Eight years ago, I appealed to the head of the Bektashis in Kosovo, my friend and mentor Baba Mumin Lama, to sit down with representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church in an interfaith dialogue. Baba Mumin told me then that it was too soon after the Kosovo war, in which he and other Albanians were pitted against Serbs. Last month, Baba Mumin told me quietly that the right moment had finally arrived for such colloquies to be held, and that he had attended a large inter-religious gathering with the main Serb Orthodox clerics in the territory. There, he noted, he had urged that all present remember first that they were people of religion, and that all believers should put peace before politics. 

Moderate Muslims like Baba Mondi and Baba Mumin need our help, just as we need theirs – especially when, as in Tetovo, they are faced with armed aggression.

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CIP WahhabiWatch #27: “They are wolf-dogs, they will attack our children” – Bosnian Villagers in Clash With Wahhabis, March 4, 2007

“They are wolf-dogs, they will attack our children” – Bosnian villager injured “in clash with Wahhabis”

Text of report by Bosnian state network BHTV1 on 4 March 2007

News anchors Lejla Zvizdić and Damir Simić: “Around 100 residents of Barčići village near Kalesija [in the vicinity of Tuzla, a major city – CIP] clashed this morning with some 15 Wahhabis.  One Barčići resident was injured in the incident. A prompt police intervention prevented larger clashes. Villagers have announced that they will no longer tolerate the behavior of the Wahhabis at the local mekteb [Islamic school for children].”

BHTV1 Reporter Samir Kahrović: “Around 15 Wahhabis this morning tried to connect the local mekteb in Barčići village to the electricity grid, after it was recently disconnected on request of the Kalesija Islamic Community. As the villagers tried to prevent this, one of the Wahhabis hit hadžija Šaban Barčić with ladders. This provoked around 100 villagers to take out of the mekteb the stove, generator and the books used by the Wahhabis. The police prevented an all-out clash between the Wahhabis and the villagers.”

Šaban Barčić, on camera:  “I burst out crying. I am an elderly man, my heart is weak and cannot stand much.”

Reporter:  “Barčići villagers have announced that they will no longer allow the Wahhabis to use the local mekteb. They are obviously afraid and do not trust the colleagues of their neighbour Jusuf Barčić [student in Saudi Arabia, prominent Bosnian Wahhabi from Barčići, notorious for incidents he caused because of his radical view of Islam].”

Fikreta Mijkić, villager: “We have no choice but fight for what is ours. We built [the mekteb], and not they, the newcomers.”

Šemsa Barčić, villager: “They should shave their beards and use deodorant instead of coming here like dogs. For me, they are wolf-dogs, they will attack our children. I have female children and do not dare to send them [to the mekteb] at all. They are capable of anything.  I do not trust them.”

Reporter: “The Kalesija Islamic Community says that the Barčići mekteb was for a long time usurped by the Wahhabis, underlining that this prevented the use of the mekteb for its main purpose – the religious education of the [local Muslim] children.”

Mustafa Turić of Kalesija Islamic Community:  “Our proposal will be to close down and seal the building temporarily.”

Reporter: “Jusuf Barčić’s Wahhabis are preparing a response to this announcement of the Kalesija Islamic Community, which requires serious analysis and taking of a serious position by the Islamic Community of Bosnia-Hercegovina.”

[Wahhabi] Jusuf Barčić: “We have the right to use the religious facility for the purpose that it is intended for. If the Islamic Community persists in preventing Muslims from using the religious facility for rituals, we will be forced to ignore such a community, in a way, separate from them and start operating outside that structure.”

Reporter:  “Barčić has added that in that case the Islamic Community will bear all the consequences of such a decision of the Wahhabis, without specifying what he implied by this.” 

Edited by CIP from BBC Monitoring European, March 4, 2007
 

Further comment by CIP: 

Jusuf Barčić is described in the Bosnian-language volume Vehabizam/selefizam, by Hasan Ali Sekkaf, edited by Jasmin Merdan and Adnan Mešanović, Sarajevo, Srebreno Pero, 2005, as “among the first generation [of Bosnian Muslims] to study at the Islamic University in Medina, Saudi Arabia… well-known for provocations in mosques and elsewhere.”

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