Jihad is gaining ground in Bosnia
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Radical Muslim imams and nationalist politicians from all camps are
threatening Sarajevo's multicultural legacy. With the help of Arab
benefactors, the deeply devout are acquiring new recruits. In the
"Jerusalem of the Balkans," Islamists are on the rise.
The obliteration of Israel is heralded in a torrent of words. "Zionist
terrorists," the imam thunders from the glass-enclosed pulpit at the
end of the mosque. "Animals in human form" have transformed the Gaza
Strip into a "concentration camp," and this marks "the beginning of
the end" for the Jewish pseudo-state.
Over 4,000 faithful are listening to the religious service in the King
Fahd Mosque, named after the late Saudi Arabian monarch King Fahd Bin
Abd al-Asis Al Saud. The women sit separately, screened off in the
left wing of the building. It is the day of the Khutbah, the great
Friday sermon, and the city where the imam has predicted Israel's
demise lies some 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) northwest of Gaza.
It is a city in the heart of Europe: Sarajevo.
"Tea or coffee?" Shortly after stepping down from the pulpit, Nezim
Halilovic -- the imam and fiery speaker of the King Fahd Mosque --
reveals himself to be the perfect Bosnian host. He has fruits, nuts
and sweetened gelatin served in his quarters behind the house of
worship. A chastely-dressed wife and four children add themselves to
the picture. It's a scene of domestic tranquility that stands in stark
contrast to the railing sermon of the controversial Koran scholar.
Familiar Allegations
Sarajevo's King Fahd Mosque was built with millions of Saudi dollars
as the largest house of worship for Muslims in the Balkans. The mosque
has a reputation as a magnet for Muslim fundamentalists in Bosnia-
Herzegovina, and the imam is said to be the patron of the Wahhabites,
although they call themselves Salafites, after an ultra-conservative
movement in Sunni Islam.
Halilovic is familiar with the allegations and the usual accompanying
thought patterns: Wahhabite equals al-Qaida, which equals a worldwide
terror network. He says he has nothing to do with that, but he "cannot
forbid a Muslim from worshiping in my mosque according to his own
rites." He explains the general air of suspicion surrounding the King
Fahd Mosque as follows: "The West is annoyed that many Muslims are
returning to their faith, instead of sneaking by the mosque to the
bar, as they used to do, to drink alcohol and eat pork."
Many Bosnians have despised "the West" since 1992, when the United
Nations arms embargo seriously impeded the military resistance of the
Muslims in their war against the Serb aggressors. It wasn't until four
years later, and after 100,000 people had died, that the international
community -- at the urging and under the leadership of the US --
finally put an end to the slaughter. Over 80 percent of the dead
civilians in the Bosnian War were Muslims.
This traumatic experience left a deep mark on the traditionally
cosmopolitan Muslim Bosnians -- and opened the door to the Islamists.
Years later, the religious fundamentalists have declared the attacks
by Christian Serbs and Croats a "crusade" by infidels -- and painted
themselves as the steadfast protectors of Muslim Bosnians.
Imam Halilovic served during the war as commander of the Fourth Muslim
Brigade. A photo shows him standing next to a 155 milimeter howitzer,
dressed in black combat fatigues, a flowing beard and a scarf wrapped
around his head. He witnessed the arrival of the first religious
warriors from countries in the Middle East and northern Africa. These
fighters brought ideological seeds that have now found fertile ground
-- the beliefs of the Salafites, Islamic fundamentalists who orient
themselves according to the alleged unique, pure origin of their
religion and reject all newer Islamic traditions.
Another Explosive Situation
Sarajevo is at the crossroads of the West and the Orient, in the heart
of Europe -- a place where Islam meets the Catholic and Orthodox
churches, and a place that shares the historical legacies of the
Ottoman Empire and the Austria-Hungary of the Habsburgs. If Europe
were to lose Sarajevo's Muslims as mediators between these worlds, it
would have to contend with yet another explosive situation.
Bosnia's capital city still remains a bustling town with well-stocked
bars, concerts and garish advertisements for sexy lingerie. Men with
billowing trousers and full beards and women with full-body veils are
still a relatively rare sight on the streets. The last reports of
sharia militias intervening against public kissing in parks on the
outskirts of town date back two years ago.
According to a survey conducted in 2006, however, over 3 percent of
all Muslim Bosnians -- over 60,000 men and women -- profess the
Wahhabi creed, and an additional 10 percent say that they sympathize
with the devout defenders of morals. But since the radicals and their
Arab benefactors have been subject to heightened surveillance in the
wake of 9/11, they tend to keep a low profile.
In the evenings, though, individuals and small groups quickly exit the
shell-pocked apartment buildings surrounding the King Fahd Mosque. At
this time of day, there is a much smaller crowd of worshipers than at
noon during the big Friday prayers, and the fifth column of the
prophet can almost feel as if it has the mosque to itself.
They pray differently, with spread legs and in tight rows, "so the
devil cannot pass." They refuse to allow fellow worshipers to say the
ritual peace greeting "salam" at the end, they don't say a word, they
don't want to be part of the Jamaat, the community, and they leave the
mosque together as a group before the others.
Locked the Doors
The older generation of Muslims in Sarajevo's mosques now has to
listen to lectures from bearded missionaries on what is "halal" and
"haram" -- lawful and forbidden -- as if they and their ancestors had
been living according to a misconception for over half a millennium.
To protest this, the imam of the time-honored Emperor's Mosque has
temporarily locked the doors of his house of worship -- for the first
time in its nearly 450-year history.
This clash of civilizations also takes place in less prominent places,
like the Internet forums of the Bosnian Web site Studio Din. Here the
heirs of the officially godless, socialist Yugoslavia can learn about
the Salafi doctrine. They ask questions that have to do with everyday
life -- listening to music, smoking, earning money -- but also
questions dealing with clothing and moral rules.
The answers from the preachers on the Web are unequivocal: "Music is
forbidden in Islam, listening to instruments is a sin." "Smoking is
forbidden in Islam." "Whoever works as a cleaning lady at a bank that
charges its customers interest is an accessory to a sin. It's no
different than having cleaning ladies in bars and brothels."
In October, 2008, the Baden-Württemberg state branch of the Office for
the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence
agency, conducted a study on the Studio Din Web site, which is also
regularly visited by Bosnians living in exile. Entries in the forum --
which include discussions on jihad, the holy war, as a direct way of
reaching Allah -- indicate time and again visitors from the Wahhabi
King Fahd Mosque in Sarajevo, Imam Halilovic's flock.
Could a radical, potentially violent parallel society be emerging in
the Muslim dominated region of the war-torn republic of Bosnia-
Herzegovina, eight months after the signing of the Stabilization and
Association Agreement with the European Union?
Explosive Belts
There are indications of this. Resid Hafizovic, a professor at the
Islamic University, was the first to speak of a "potentially deadly
virus" in Bosnian society. The head of the Bosnian federal police has
recently admitted that there is a growing threat of "terrorism with an
Islamistic character" and has cited indications that suicide bombers
have begun to equip themselves with explosive belts.
"They have everything to blow themselves up. Whether they do it
depends on the orders from their leaders," says Esad Hecimovic, author
of a standard work on the mujahedeen in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Last
March, officials of the special anti-terror unit arrested five men,
including four Salafites in Sarajevo.
The Bosnian leader of the group, a former fighter in the Al-Mujahedeen
Brigade, reportedly has sponsors in Germany and Austria who helped him
acquire explosives. In connection with the arrests, police conducted
raids in remote mountain areas and seized caches of arms and military
equipment that were used for combat training exercises.
After discovering that some of the masterminds behind 9/11, such as
Khalid Scheikh Mohammed, had been active in Bosnia, international
pressure increased on the government in Sarajevo in 2002. Foundations
were closed and police searched the Sarajevo office of the Saudi High
Commissioner for Aid to Bosnia, which had until then enjoyed the
protection of the United States.
Al-Qaida veteran Ali Hamad from Bahrain and Syrian-born Abu Hamza are
currently in custody on the outskirts of Sarajevo and awaiting
deportation. Intelligence sources say that Hamza secretly channeled
money between Arab sponsors and Bosnian Salafites. The amount of €500
-- an average monthly salary -- is reportedly rewarded for every woman
who decides to wear a full-body veil.
The Islamists are slowly but surely permeating the firm ground upon
which Sarajevo's society stands. They are influencing men like the
quiet, bearded cab driver who waits for customers day after day at the
bridge where the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg throne,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated in June, 1914. On the
evening of Sept. 24, 2008, the cabbie suddenly appeared at the front
of a protest, right in the midst of those who shouted "Allahu akbar!"
at the police line in front the Art Academy of Fine Arts and attacked
visitors to Bosnia's first gay and lesbian festival.
Wahhabites scuffled alongside common hooligans. Eight people were
injured and all subsequent events were canceled. Srdjan Dizdarevic,
chairman of the Bosnian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights -- an
independent, nonprofit organization for the protection, promotion and
monitoring of human rights in Bosnia-Herzegovina -- spoke afterwards
of a defeat for civil society, of "fascist rhetoric" leading up to the
incident, and called it reminiscent of the "pogroms that happened in
the times of Adolf Hitler."
'We Are only Interested in Opening Ourselves as an Islamic Society'
The fact of the matter is that politicians from all parties are
playing the background music to a radicalization that threatens not
just the secular character of Bosnia, but also the unity of this
country comprised of Muslims, Serbs and Croats. This includes some
local politicians who have demanded that school classes be strictly
divided according to religious confessions -- and in December, 2008
obtained, in several places, the first ban affecting state-run daycare
centers in Sarajevo. The ban concerned the Christian Santa Claus who,
until then, even Muslim children had revered as "Little Father Frost."
But it is primarily the heads of government and political parties who
stand in the way of reconciliation between the former wartime enemies.
Nikola Spiric, the Serb Prime Minister of the weak Bosnian state, says
there is a real danger that the country will split apart for good. He
says he is powerless as long as his country is administered like a
protectorate by the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia-
Herzegovina, the organization created in 1995 to oversee the Dayton
Peace Agreement. "My hands and feet are tied, I'm a mascot, the
address that international organizations can send their mail to."
Haris Silajdzic, the Muslim representative of the presidency of Bosnia-
Herzegovina, sits a few buildings down the street, in the presidential
palace. He played a very active role as foreign minister and prime
minister during the war but now, after years of power struggles, the
one-time beau is starting to show signs of exhaustion. Nevertheless,
he is still widely regarded as one of the most artful advocates of
Muslim interests in this multi-ethnic state.
Silajdzic says he sees no indication of an Islamization of Sarajevo or
Bosnia. In his opinion, it is more important to talk of ensuring that
the Muslims receive justice after the "genocide" of the 1990s. While
half the Cabinet waits for him in front of the door, Silajdzic calmly
places a Marlboro in his cigarette holder and says that, as a
"committed European," he hopes that the West will realize what is at
stake in this country: "Bosnia is a small country, but a great
symbol."
The reopened Hotel Europa -- an archetypical institution for this city
which was once praised as the "Jerusalem of the Balkans" -- stands at
Sarajevo's center of gravity, right at the border between the Ottoman
and the Habsburgian quarters of the old city. Under crystal
chandeliers, waiters here serve Turkish mocha from copper coffee pots,
and an elderly gentleman sitting in the corner passionately tries to
draw parallels between the intellectual history of Europe -- from Kant
to Hegel -- and the nature of Bosnian Islam.
'Dates Don't Grow in our Country'
Mustafa Spahic is a professor at the traditional Gazi Husrev Beg Koran
School, the oldest in the country. Back in the former Yugoslavia, he
spent five years in prison for Islamic activities -- together with
Alija Izetbegovic, who later became the president of Bosnia-
Herzegovina. Sarajevo, Europe's stronghold of Islamic spiritual life,
is not about to allow itself to become a branch for Saudi Arabian
fanatics, says Spahic.
He underscores this conviction with a parable: "Whoever wants to cut
down a plum tree here, because you can use the fruit to make plum
brandy, and plant a date palm in its place, because the prophet ate
them, we say to him: Dates don't grow in our country." Spahic says
that Bosnia's grand mufti, Mustafa Ceric, fails to take a clear
position: "He is not fulfilling his duties. He travels to Germany and
collects one award after another instead of dealing with the radicals
here."
Ceric, the spiritual leader of all Bosnian Muslims, received Germany's
prestigious Theodor Heuss Award in 2007 in recognition of his
contribution to strengthening democracy. Nowhere is he more
appreciated than in Germany, and nowhere is he more severely attacked
than among scholarly circles back in his home country. There are
reasons for this disparity, say Ceric's critics: The Germans are
hoping that the grand mufti would train and export liberal imams to
help them gain the upper hand with their own problems with Islamists.
"It Is Your Fault" is written under a photo collage that shows the
grand mufti with an exaggerated, flowing beard -- as the head of the
"Wahhabites." The controversial allegation appeared on the front page
of the magazine Dani, and in a bout of self-irony Ceric decided to
hang it as an exhibit in a corner of his own reception room -- right
across from a framed copy of the Tolerance Edict of Sultan Mehmed II,
from the year 1463.
Ceric -- or "homo duplex," the man with two faces, as he is derisively
called in Sarajevo -- is wearing his outraged expression this morning.
He is tired of having to comment on things that he would rather not
even call by their names: Wahhabism, Salafism, terrorism. "Before we
start," he says "do we actually even know what we're talking about?"
One-Time bin Laden Mentor
The grand mufti's nervousness is understandable. After all, the
support of the West for him, a key Muslim nationalistic figure in
Bosnia, undermines an objective that was explicitly laid out in the
Dayton Peace Agreement under the leadership of the West, namely the
continued existence of a multi-ethnic -- not an Islamic-dominated --
state in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Ceric has never left any doubts about his deep roots in the liberal
Bosnian Islamic tradition. But the fact that he does not shy away from
maintaining close contacts with the Salafit camp, including one-time
Osama bin Laden mentor Sheikh Salman al-Auda from Saudi Arabia, has
drawn criticism. "Totally unfounded," says Ceric: "We are only
interested in opening ourselves as an Islamic society."
Sure enough, he recently even allowed a woman and her film crew to
enter the King Fahd Mosque. The huge, Saudi monumental style building
made of gray-brown sprinkled marble looks like a UFO -- complete with
antennas shaped like minarets -- stranded among high-rise apartment
buildings on the edge of Sarajevo.
Director Jasmila Zbanic, who was honored with a Golden Bear at the
2006 Berlin International Film Festival for her film "Grbavica: Land
of My Dreams," was allowed to film scenes for her new film in the King
Fahd Mosque. "On the Way" is a love story that revolves around someone
who, after his life spins out of control, seeks new direction in
Salafism.
The man whose true life story serves as a model for this role is
Nermin Karacic, a front-line soldier during the war who became an
Islamist. Karacic opened doors and eyes to allow director Zbanic to
enter the highly insulated world of the Salafites, decipher codes and
meet people.
'I Still Feel Like a Salafit'
"In a certain sense this is my film," says Karacic, "I was of course
one of them." Today, his hair has grown again down to his neck and he
wears cargo pants and an outdoor jacket. But to prove his
transformation he pulls a driver's license out of his pocket -- a
document with a passport photo that is only a few years old. The man
in the picture has the same piercing eyes, but the hair on his head
has been cropped short and his beard reaches down to his chest.
Karacic was an influential leader in the Bosnian Salafites. He was the
head of al-Furkan, a radical organization that was supplied by the
Saudis, as he says, with "suitcases of cash" -- under the patient eyes
of the Americans. They didn't sound the alarm until Sept. 11, 2001.
According to the US Treasury Department, due to repeated "observations
of the US Embassy and United Nations buildings in Sarajevo " and
"connections to al-Qaida," al-Furkan was declared part of the global
terror network and banned by the Bosnian authorities.
"I swear by God that I knew nothing of al-Qaida," Karacic says. He
hasn't been convicted of any crime.
When the new film is released, with all its re-created scenes from his
life, the training camp of the Salafites, which he headed, and the
King Fahd Mosque, where the Imam now preaches the obliteration of
Israel, will he be proud that he has left this life behind him?
The slender man suddenly hesitates, gazes across the river bank to the
positions where he once sat as a sniper in the fight against the
Serbs, and says: "It's not really as if I spit on everything that
existed back then." Without the help of the mujahedeen, Karacic says,
he would have seen "no light at the end of the tunnel" during the war.
And when it comes to matters of faith, says Karacic, he still feels a
close tie with those brothers in arms from abroad: "I still feel like
a Salafit."