Kosovo: 'Islam-lite' Kosovars determined to stay secular

Kosovo: 'Islam-lite' Kosovars determined to stay secular

Via the Irish Times:

“We are nominal Muslims,” says Dren, a researcher at a Pristina- based NGO. “We don’t go to the mosque much; we drink alcohol and eat pork. That’s just the Kosovar way.”

However many within Kosovo’s secular-minded majority are uneasy over what appears to be a drift towards more conservative interpretations of Islam in some parts of the country.

“You see more women wearing hijab and more men wearing beards,” says Brikena Hoxha of the Kosovo Stability Initiative, a Pristina-based think tank. “This is new for us.”

The emergence of an increasingly vocal minority of devout Muslims has unsettled those who would prefer that the majority faith in Kosovo – which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008 – remains “Islam-lite” as one Pristina resident puts it.

(source)

Gothenburg: Christian-Muslim couple from Kosovo hiding from immigration police

Gothenburg: Christian-Muslim couple from Kosovo hiding from immigration police

Via SR:

A couple from Kosovo are living in hiding in Gothenburg, and say they are willing to do so for the rest of their lives in order to stay in Sweden. Their asylum request has been rejected. According to the Immigration Service, there are close to 5,000 people in Sweden who were refused asylum but cannot be found to be deported.

The woman is pregnant and says it is diffiuclt, every day they think of the fact that their child will have no future.

Germany: Kosovan jailed for life for killing U.S. airmen

Germany: Kosovan jailed for life for killing U.S. airmen

A Kosovo-Albanian man who killed two U.S. airmen and wounded two others in a gun attack at Frankfurt airport last March was sentenced to life in prison by German court on Friday. (source)

Kosovo: 21,000 Serbs apply for Russian citizenship, say they fear genocide

Kosovo: 21,000 Serbs apply for Russian citizenship, say they fear genocide

"Russia, help"

Kosovo: Shooting adds to ethnic tensions

Kosovo: Shooting adds to ethnic tensions

Via AKI:

One person has been killed and two wounded during a clash between ethic Serbs and Albanians in northern Kosovo. The incident can raise ethnic animosities that turned violent earlier this year.

A Serb died of gunshot wounds during fighting that broke out at around 8 pm Wednesday in the city of Mitrovica. Two Serbs were injured, one of them a policeman, are reported to be in serious condition.

(source)

Kosovo: Muslims sue imam for hateful remarks about Mother Teresa

Kosovo: Muslims sue imam for hateful remarks about Mother Teresa

Via the Weekly Standard:

On July 21, the most respected Kosovo daily, Koha Ditore (Daily Times), reported that two lawyers, a writer, and an ordinary citizen of Pristina, capital of the territory, had commenced civil legal measures against Shefqet Krasniqi, imam of the city’s Grand Mosque, for his hateful remarks about Mother Teresa, made in a sermon two years ago.

(...)

The most interesting aspect of the controversy, however, was the identity of the four plaintiffs seeking legal redress against the Muslim cleric

(source)

Kosovo: Muslims protest for new mosque

Kosovo: Muslims protest for new mosque

Kosovo: Serb nuns learn language of Albanian Muslims

Kosovo: Serb nuns learn language of Albanian Muslims

Via AFP:

A Serb Orthodox monastery in religiously polarised Kosovo is breaking stereotypes by making its nuns learn Albanian so they can talk to Muslim villagers who come to pray at a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Muslims from all over Kosovo flock to the Sokolica monastery because they believe its 14th-century sculpture of the Virgin with Christ can cure deaf-mute children and help childless couples fall pregnant.

"When they ask how to pray, we tell them to pray in their own language and in the way they are taught to. We let them praise their Allah as we do our God," the 67-year-old head of the monastery, Mati Makarija, told AFP.

(source)

Kosovo: Female police chief elected as new president

Kosovo: Female police chief elected as new president

Kosovo: CoE endorses organ trafficking report

Kosovo: CoE endorses organ trafficking report

Via Deutsche Welle:

Kosovo's leadership found itself under pressure on Tuesday after the Council of Europe formally endorsed a report accusing senior members of the tiny Balkan nation's government of complicity in organ trafficking

The 27-page report, compiled last year by the body's special rapporteur, Dick Marty, implicated incumbent Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and other former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in charges that also included drug trafficking during and after the Kosovo War in the late 1990s.

Kosovo: Temporary marriages a key to entering EU

Kosovo: Temporary marriages a key to entering EU

Via the Sofia Echo:

Each time she goes to sleep, Valbona (35), from Peja, western Kosovo, looks at her wedding photograph taken 13 years ago. Beside her, she sees her smiling husband.

Today, that moment is just a memory. Two years ago, her husband remarried a German woman. Not only did Valbona, mother of their four children aged four to 11, know of his plan, she approved it.

This is because Valbona is not really divorced in the eyes of her family or the wider community.

Kosovo: PM implicated in organ trafficking, criminal underworld

Kosovo: PM implicated in organ trafficking, criminal underworld

(Wikipedia)

Balkans: The influence of Sufi Islam

Balkans: The influence of Sufi Islam

Via EU Observer:

When Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, newspapers carried headlines such as "The birth of the first Islamic state in Europe" and "Muslim fundamentalist mafia obtain a state in Kosovo".

In fact, Islam did not play a role in the Albanian march to independence, either in Kosovo or in Albania when it became independent from the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Contrary to some claims, Islam was not involved in the Kosovar pursuit of liberty because the branch of the religion in Kosovo, as in most of the Balkan region, belongs historically to the tolerant, mystical branch called Sufism. Sufism is still the main form of Islam practised in many parts of the Balkans, especially in Kosovo and Macedonia.

The majority of Albanians in Kosovo and Macedonia are Muslim, but a sizeable number of practising believers belong to Sufi brotherhoods. This is a contemplative brand of Islam based on collectives in which the members, called dervishes, practice mystical exercises through which they reach a communal trance.

(source)

Kosovo: 81% of Albanians for unification with Albania

Kosovo: 81% of Albanians for unification with Albania

Via AKI:

An an overwhelming majority of Kosovo Albanians - 81 percent - favour unification with neighbouring Albania, according to an international survey published on Thursday.

A total of 48.8 per cent of Albanians in Kosovo and 41.8 in Macedonia believe unification could take place soon.

In Albania, support for unification has fallen to 62.8 pe cent from 68 percent last year.

The survey findings came less than three years after Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia.

(more)

Kosovo: Violent clashes between Albanians, Serbs

Kosovo: Violent clashes between Albanians, Serbs

Radio Srbija reports seven people were injured, some by firearms.

Via RFE/RL:

Ethnic Serbs and Albanians clashed in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo.

Trouble started when youth from the mainly ethnic Albanian south of the city celebrated Turkey's victory over Serbia at the World Basketball Championship.

Chanting "Turkey, Turkey," the youth tried to cross a bridge into the mainly ethnic Serbian northern part of the city. That sparked stone throwing and local and European Union police had to intervene to keep the two sides apart.

(more)

UN Court: Kosovo independence legal

UN Court: Kosovo independence legal


Via BBC:

Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 did not break international law, top UN judges have ruled in a non-binding decision.


The International Court of Justice rejected Serbian claims that the move had violated its territorial integrity.


Kosovo officials said all doubt about its status had now been removed, but Serbia's president insisted Belgrade would never recognise the secession.

Kosovo: Muslims protest school headscarf ban

Kosovo: Muslims protest school headscarf ban


About five thousand people have protested in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, against a government decision to ban religious symbols including Muslim headscarves in public schools.


Many demonstrators came from all over the country. About 90 percent of Kosovo’s population are Muslims, but most have western values. The former Serbian province adopted a secular Constitution after declaring independence two years ago.

Kosovo: Man seized, linked to North Carolina terror plot

Kosovo: Man seized, linked to North Carolina terror plot



A Kosovar man was arrested overseas and faces charges of participation in a terror plot involving several suspects from North Carolina, federal authorities said Thursday.


Bajram Asllani, 29, a resident of Mitrovica, Kosovo, is charged with providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure people abroad, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

Kosovo: Clashes between Albanians and Serbs

Kosovo: Clashes between Albanians and Serbs

Kosovo police on Sunday used tear gas to separate groups of Albanians and Serbs during protests in the divided northern town of Mitrovica against Serb-sponsored municipal elections.

Bosnia: Bosnian Mufti visits Kosovo, angers Serbs

Bosnia: Bosnian Mufti visits Kosovo, angers Serbs


Bosnian Muslims' spiritual leader Reiss-ul-Ulema Mustafa Ceric, on Wednesday began a three-day visit to Kosovo, angering local Serb leaders who described his visit as a “provocation”. It is Ceric's first visit to Kosovo since it declared independence last year - a move backed by most Bosnian Muslims.


Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said Ceric’s visit to Kosovo was “inappropriate”, because Bosnia has not officially recognised Kosovo.


Dodik accused Ceric of being “an important ideologue of Islamic policy, who interferes not only in internal matters of Bosnia-Herzegovina, but the entire region”.


Ceric’s visit was officially billed as a visit to the “Islamic community of the Republic of Kosovo”.


(..)


Kosovo ethnic Albanians are overwhelmingly Muslim. Besides a tiny Serb minority, there is also a small Muslim community of Slavic origin who call themselves Bosniacs.


Ceric drew sharp criticism during his recent visit to the southwestern Serbian region of Sandzak, where Muslims form the largest group.


“Nothing could separate Muslims in Serbia from those in Bosnia," he said.


(more)

Source: AKI (English)