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Kosovo Albanian Muslims have been more forthright in airing their
irritabilities on this issue. After all, they do not need the money. The
Kosovars have a large emigration that supports their various recon–
structive activities, and, in addition, the Kosovo Albanians are far more
enterprising than the Bosnians . This is also an incentive for the Koso–
vars to express greater independence from those in the international
community who seek to use a kind of "aid blackmail" to get the Alba–
nians to do what they want. For example, Albanians are inclined to
rebuild their homes themselves, rather than, as is the Bosnian habit,
wait for the UN or Europe or the U.S. to do it for them.
In one of the more surprising recent developments in Kosovo, the
fundamentalists came under verbal fire from the Kosovapress news
agency, universally considered to be the media arm of the Kosovo Lib–
eration Army. Kosovapress declared:
For more than a century civilized countries have separated religion
from the state. [However], we now see attempts not only in Kosovo
bur everywhere Albanians live to introduce religion into public
schools. . ..Supplemental courses for children have been set up by
foreign Islamic organizations who hide behind assistance pro–
grams. Some radio stations...now offer nightly broadcasts in Ara–
bic, which nobody understands and which lead many to ask, are
we in an Arab country?
It
is time for Albanian mosques to be sep–
arated from Arab connections and for Islam to be developed on the
basis of Albanian culture and customs.
Dr. Rexhep Boja, president of the mainstream Islamic Community of
Kosovo, expressed himself similarly, stating boldly that Albanian Mus–
lims had followed their faith for more than five hundred years and did
not need anybody to teach them how to be Muslims or how to decorate
their mosques.
Nevertheless, the Wahhabis are making much greater inroads in
Kosovo than in Bosnia-Hercegovina-notwithstanding Albanian tetchi–
ness and the fashion addiction of Kosovar Albanian women, which
makes
hijab
a rare sight indeed. Here, too, it has to do with elemental
requirements. The Bosnians lack financial resources but they do not
want for books or trained imams. The Kosovar Albanians do not need
money but they have a thirst for books and a shortage of clerics. Many
of the latter now go to the Saudis for training.
But the locals are not the only people concerned about the infiltration
of Wahhabis in the Balkans. In Albania, as well as Bosnia-Hercegovina
