[Kryfamid]

Radical Islam Uses Balkan Poor To Wield Influence : NPR


A decade after wars redesigned the political map of the Balkans, there is mounting concern over the growing influence of radical Islam in the region.

From Bosnia to Kosovo, large amounts of money have poured in from Saudi Arabia, Persian Gulf states and missionaries of Wahhabi Islam, targeting young populations mired in poverty, unemployment and corruption.

In the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, the huge King Fahd mosque soars over a working class district.

It was built after the Bosnian war with Saudi funds at a cost of $30 million.

It is 8,800 square feet of shiny white marble — a Middle Eastern style that clashes with the more modest stone structures left by Ottoman architects.

Numerous Saudi-inspired charities settled in Bosnia, and helped build 150 mosques for an ultra-conservative strain of Islam
Shocker, a religion targets the poor and uneducated to gain new followers.

It looks like Christianity doesn't have a stranglehold on this...

But there is good news:

But after the Sept. 11 attacks, Sarajevo authorities cracked down and 14 charities were shut down.

Western intelligence sources say, step by step, the Bosnian Islamic community — which has always practiced a more moderate form of religion — retook control of the mosques.

In Bosnia, the influence of politicized, foreign Islam is waning, says Ahmed Alibasic, a professor at Sarajevo's Faculty of Islamic Studies.

"People are going back and saying, OK, probably we need to go back and check on our mystical tradition. That's personal piety and so on," Alibasic adds.

Today, in Sarajevo's old Bascarsija quarter, the prayer call echoes over cafes and restaurants where beer and wine flow freely, and where only a few women are veiled.
But of course, one shift to the left and the whole thing may go down...

[blogwado]

It's a problem in Macedonia too. They're trying to figure out how to crack down without riling up the rest of the Albanian population, and Albania. Fine line to walk.

[Kryfamid]

Yeah, religion brings out that type of feeling in people that isn't fun to deal with.