The flag of the Albanian nation.

Wahhabi radicalism is among the major threats to European integration of the Balkan countries where the majority is Muslim. This is the opinion of Stephen Schwartz, Executive Director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, who nevertheless predicts order along with risk for Europe. In an interview for Impakt Schwartz explains case by case the problem of Wahhabism in the Balkans, linking the success of its penetration with a policy of the Slav states. This thesis has been discussed in Albanian historiography beginning in 1878. In addition, he expresses concern about Turkish influence, with a foreign policy subordinate to the interests of religion, and which aims currently to establish itself as a dominant force in a region that is still challenged regarding full adherence to Europe.

Mr. Schwartz you are, as we all know, familiar with Balkan issues, which at most are ethnic problems and conflicts. Recently we are witnessing an increase in religious tension between various groups, in a region whose main political aim is European integration. So, is religion and extremism really threatening the European route for the Balkans?

Radical Islamic infiltration is one of three threats to the European integration of the Albanian lands, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Hercegovina. The first and worst is the perpetuation of Western European control over Kosova and Bosnia-Hercegovina. I have referred to bodies like the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosova (EULEX) as the "international humanitarian imperialist mafia." The second is continued Serbian imperialist aggression as seen in northern Kosova and south Serbia. The third is the penetration of the Islamic communities of Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Kosova by radicals.

Former Bosnian chief Islamic cleric Mustafa Cerić to the left of the late Mu'ammar Al-Qadhdhafi. The current chief cleric of Kosova, the pro-Wahhabi Naim Tërnava, stands between and behind them.

Which are according to you the focal points of these activities and do you think the Balkan people are again divided by religious boundaries?

The focal points of these activities, as mentioned above, are mainly within the Muslim communities, notwithstanding problems between the Albanian Orthodox Christians and Greece. That is, the main frictions involve influence of the Wahhabi sect and Muslim Brotherhood on the official Islamic Communities of Macedonia, Serbia, and Kosova. Albania itself has been free of any significant intrusion of this kind.

Husein efendija Kavazović, reis ul-ulema of the Republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina.

The Islamic Community of Bosnia-Hercegovina has a new reis ul-ulema (chief cleric), Husein efendija Kavazović, who has indicated his desire to distance the clerical apparatus from the affiliations pursued by his predecessor Mustafa Cerić, so we can perceive a probable victory over the extremists in that country's Islamic leadership. But Bosnian Muslims are passive and the local "village" clerics there, although they did not radicalize, also did not significantly resist the previous dominance of extremists at the top of the Community.

The Islamic Community of Macedonia is under the total control of the Wahhabis and Muslim Brotherhood. The Islamic Communities of Serbia (there are two rival factions) are similarly radicalized. I have been shocked by the turn to fundamentalism of Muslims in Pazari i Ri, which was formerly a center of moderate and Sufi Islam. I believe the Macedonian and Serbian governments facilitate the entry of radical Islam into their countries, regardless of their official anti-Islamic rhetoric, because they want to divide the Albanian Muslims from one another and the Albanian Muslims from the Albanian Christians, while also projecting the image of Muslims as terrorists.

Pazari i Ri (Novipazar), Sanxhak, 2008 -- Photograph by Lumen Roma, Via Wikimedia Commons.

A serious battle is now going on in Kosova to decide the direction of the Islamic Community, which has been under radical control, but only at the topmost level, for 10 years. In contrast with Bosnia-Hercegovina, however, local clerics in Kosova have mounted a firm defense of traditional Albanian Islam against the aggressive tactics of the radicals in their supposed leadership. All honor to the Kosovar Muslim clerics for that courageous stand! They are worthy sons of Isa Boletini!

Isa Boletini arrives in Vlora, Albania, with his troop of Kosovar patriots, for the Declaration of Independence,1912. Photograph by Kel Marubi.

Do you think that the European crisis, or the long process of integration, affected the Balkans in terms of credibility and by annihilating the democratic perspective?

I would first say that it is amusing to me that Olli Rehn, the former European Commissioner for Enlargement and now the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, had so much to do with the situation in Kosova, where he accomplished nothing positive, and now presides over the fiscal disintegration of the Euro zone. Disgracefully, the EU admitted Romania and Bulgaria, which are mafia states, before considering Croatia, a country that had stabilized and reformed efficiently and admirably, but is now an EU member. The EU has also granted candidate status to Serbia, a mafia-fascist state. EU discrimination against Albania, Kosova, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and even Macedonia is scandalous. But the accession of new "southern" countries, especially those with an Ottoman heritage and Muslim majorities or large minorities, is definitely in question given the financial breakdown of the Euro zone.

The flag of the Republic of Croatia.

It is a very well known historic thesis, that at least for Albanians, Islam resulted in a kind of shield preserving the national identity, and it was liberal Islam that permitted the Albanians to split from the Ottoman Empire. Do you think this is a correct thesis and if it is, does it represent an alternative, or rather a new borderline between West and East?

I prefer the terms "moderate, traditional, conservative, conventional, and spiritual Islam" to "liberal Islam." Extremist Islam is neither ancient, nor traditional, nor conservative. It is modern (Wahhabism appeared only 250 years ago), anti-traditional (as seen by Wahhabi hostility to Sufism), and radical. In my view, Albanian Islam – except in Macedonia and Serbian Sanxhak – is the best example of Islam in the world. I hope the West will wake up and recognize this, and will not succumb to propaganda against moderate Balkan Muslims and, in general, Albanians of all faiths.

Photograph of a Christian Orthodox icon, the original of which did not survive religious repression by the Communist regime in Albania. The image, by a disciple of the great 16th c. CE icon painter Onufri, depicts Orthodox Christian motifs with two Muslim minarets in the background. From the Onufri Museum in Berat, Albania, 2012.

According to the last census, in Albania the number of Christian Orthodox and the Bektashi Sufi followers saw the lowest rates ever. For some this was a political stance rather than a reliable statistic. Do you know something about this and can you tell whether this new religious "map" perhaps is related to foreign interests?

I was in Albania during the 100^th anniversary of independence and read the new census figures on religion. I think the statistics on Albanian Orthodox Christians have been distorted by the effects of Greek intrigues, and that the figures on Bektashism failed to reflect that many people are Bektashi by family tradition rather than by active participation. I do not think the drop in Bektashi membership reflects any foreign influence, but I consider it unfortunate.

Kus Baba Bektashi teqe in Vlora, 2005. Kus Baba is the "patron saint" of Vlora. Photograph (c) Ervin Ruci, Via Wikimedia Commons.

To continue this topic: Do you think that there is a religious dimension in the foreign policy of Turkey in the Balkans? If so, what is its aim?

I believe the "light Islamist" government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has a "neo-Ottoman" policy of imperialist revival in the Balkans. Its aim is to establish Turkey as the chief economic power in the Muslim Balkans and to influence Balkan Muslims in a radical direction. I consider it very dangerous and believe it should be opposed.

Mr. Schwartz, you have written a study entitled "Islam and Communism in the 20th Century: An Historical Survey." Do you think that Communism really imposed substantial changes in Balkan societies, or maybe that the Ottoman legacy is far stronger?

The example of Kosova is especially relevant to this question. Kosovars always saw Communism as a cover for Serbian nationalism. Although they expressed appreciation for Tito, who granted them recognition as a constituent nationality – though not a separate Yugoslav republic – in 1974, they did not succumb to the moral degradation of Communism. But I believe the effects of Communism in Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Macedonia, especially in the area of economic enterprise and public morality, were disastrous.

Llazër Fundo, 1899-1944. Poet, founder of the Albanian Communist movement, and anti-Stalinist, brutally murdered by order of Enver Hoxha.

Albania seems to be recovering economically better than Bosnia-Hercegovina or Macedonia. I don't think the Ottoman legacy had so devastating effect on Bosnia-Hercegovina, which had a thriving bourgeois class after its occupation by the Habsburgs, or on Albania, where the agricultural economy was strong after independence. Obviously, the destruction wrought by the Ottomans on Macedonia at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries has been a factor from which Macedonia has, in reality, never recovered.

Bajrakli Mosque, 16th c. CE, Belgrade, Serbia – Photograph 2005 Via Wikimedia Commons.

As for Serbia, it is what is has been from the beginning: the black hole of Europe. It was so as a pagan state, a Christian state, an Ottoman possession, the ruler of monarchist Yugoslavia, as a Communist republic dominant in Tito's Yugoslavia, under Milošević, and remains so today. Serbia appears a unique case in European and even world history. I have pondered this for many years but as yet have no explanation for it aside from Serbia's isolation from the sea and from maritime commerce, which it hoped to resolve by schemes for "Greater Serbia" at the expense of the Albanians and Croatians. Even Macedonia is more civilized, in its way, than Serbia.

Last May you delivered a speech: "The Rise of Islamism: Its Impact on Religious Minorities," the main topic of which was the need of self protection of Sufis. In this context, can you explain the threat of Islamism to Sufis and how this kind of conflict is seen in Macedonia at the Harabati Baba Bektashi teqe?

Radical Wahhabis bear a homicidal hatred for Sufis. The tragedy of the Harabati Baba teqe in Tetova, and its seizure by Wahhabis, is a complex matter that requires extensive analysis, but I believe it is unarguable that the Macedonian Christian politicians encouraged this illegal usurpation, to undermine Bektashism as a pillar of Albanian identity. After all, let us consider the role of the Bektashis in the 19^th century educational protests, the alphabet reform, the struggle of the Kosova Liberation Army, and many other aspects of the Albanian national movement.

Damage from an arson attack on the Harabati Baba teqe, a Bektashi Sufi religious complex in Tetova, Macedonia, 2010 – Photograph by the Bektashi Community of the Republic of Macedonia.

Who attacks the Bektashis attacks Albanian identity. It is noticeable, however, that the radicals in the official Islamic Community of Macedonia have left other Sufis in the country alone. Extreme Wahhabism is a threat to Sufis everywhere, although King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has caused the Wahhabi clerics to moderate their long campaign against Sufis inside the kingdom. I believe, by the way, that Saudi King Abdullah is a sincere reformer.

What do you think about the latest developments in the Middle East and do you believe that the Arab Spring already has imposed the creation of an Islamic corridor in the Balkans?

The Ka'bah and the Grand Mosque during the annual Muslim hajj, Mecca.

When the now-wilted "Arab Spring" began I argued that it was not what it appeared to be. It was not an upsurge of civil society leading to democracy, but a consequence of the effects of the world economic crisis on the international economy, which snapped at its weakest links, in North Africa, Syria, and Yemen. It had nothing in common with the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and, interestingly, was never compared with that phenomenon, which represented a genuine impulse toward reform and democratization, though it has been fully successful only in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Croatia.

The flag of the Republic of Slovenia.

I further said that to understand the "Arab Spring" one needed to know little about Arabs or Islam but a lot about revolutions and democracy. There is an iron historical rule: the development of civil society must precede a revolution and the establishment of democracy. One cannot simply overthrow the existing government and then create a civil society and democracy. That is why Egypt fell into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has now been overthrown in a second, equally meaningless "revolution." That is also why Libya and Yemen descended into chaos and Syria into a dreadful bloodbath.

The theory that democracy can be "planted" in any country merely by the fall of the existing regime and elections is deeply flawed. First, the country must have a vigorous civil society. It is a matter of irony that Kosova has a stronger civil society than Egypt or Syria. Egypt would have benefited by another Mehmet Ali Pasha, an Albanian from Kavalla who is considered the great, reforming father of modern Egypt.

Mehmet Ali Pasha, 1769-1840 CE. Portrait by Auguste Couder -- Image Via Wikimedia Commons.

I do not think the "Arab Spring" had any significant effect in the Balkans, or that an "Islamic corridor" exists or can exist. To be honest, in my observation Balkan Slav Muslims and Albanian Muslims do not have much affection for one another.

Does [Western] Europe perceive the Albanians and Bosnians as undesirable Europeans?

Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial and Cemetery for the Victims of the 1995 Genocide in Bosnia-Hercegovina -- Photograph 2008 Via Wikimedia Commons.

Western Europe is deeply infected by anti-Muslim bias and especially anti-Albanian propaganda. One merely needs to look at the "Taken" movies with Liam Neeson to see convincing examples of this. This bias is less virulent in the Bosnian case, but the attitude of the British and French politicians, as well as the Dutch troops at Srebrenica, was that Europe could not tolerate a Muslim-majority country. That Albania is a Muslim-majority country and moderate in its attitudes was considered irrelevant. But in the Albanian case bias against Muslims is secondary to bias against Albanians, stirred by the Serbs, Greeks, and to some degree the Italians.