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Wahhabi Tensions Rising in Macedonia

(Christian Science Monitor) Christopher Deliso - "When my cousin entered university in Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabis offered him 200 euros a month and an apartment if he would spread their customs back in Macedonia," says Blerim, a young ethnic Albanian and Muslim. "He accepted, and my uncle is quite concerned." Tensions are being felt throughout Macedonia's growing Muslim community ahead of its elections later this month for a new national leader. Tapping into young Muslims' disdain for the older generation, which many see as corrupt, bureaucratic, and uneducated, fundamentalists - pejoratively referred to as Wahhabis - are turning some in the younger generation toward more conservative interpretations of Islam. "We, and our foreign colleagues also, don't consider Macedonia a terrorist target," says one Macedonian intelligence officer. "We are more worried about being used as a logistics or recruitment base for attacks in the West. We are monitoring some of these Wahhabis closely."
2006-02-17 00:00:00
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