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Monday, July 28, 2008

The Gulf state friends of bin Laden use their alliance with a gullible government to spread extremism and hate. It's not just happening in America and Britain, it's also happening in Macedonia.

Michael Totten describes The Bin Ladens of the Balkans, Part II

I met Shpetim Mahmudi at a covered outdoor cafe on a cold day in late spring in the ethnic Albanian region of Macedonia. Black clouds hung low over the city of Tetovo. Fat rain drops pelted the sidewalk and the awning over my head as I shivered in my light black leather jacket. "Let's go inside," he said, "where it's warmer and drier." We found a table and ordered coffee. He leaned in close to whisper when the waiter stepped out of earshot. "We are really in trouble here," he said. "We are really in trouble with the Wahhabis."

After the Kosovo War ended in 1999, well-heeled Gulf Arabs with Saudi money moved in to rebuild mosques destroyed by Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslav army and paramilitary forces. They're still there trying to impose a stern Wahhabi interpretation of Islam on indigenous Europeans, and they're having an awfully difficult time getting much traction. Almost everyone in Kosovo despises these people. They are known as the Binladensa, the people of Osama bin Laden.

Things are different in next-door Macedonia. I had driven two hours from Kosovo's capital Prishtina through beautifully sculpted mountains and forest to Tetovo near the Kosovo and Albanian borders.

What I saw there was startling...

More..

12 Comments

Fascinating information!

Most people, even if they've heard of Macedonia and Kosovo couldn't locate them on a map!

I'd read about the Macedonian conflict, and I knew the place was somewhere near Greece, since many of my Greek neighbors were talking about it, but this post explains a lot about the various factions and their motivations. We hear a lot about extremist influence in Kosovo (even though there's not a whole lot of it) and we hear very little about it in Macedonia.

dont blame wahabi,s.

Wahabi are very cool people i have many wahabi friends.

i am shocked to see this post. i not found much truth in it.

wahhabi islamofascism will be the death of mecca/makka and the kabba.

INSHALLAH!

It seems that we've gotten a few recent visits from fans of Wahhabism. While I haven't read any recent news about Macedonia, I've just been reading about the Saudi/Wahhabi conflict with the rebels in Yemen. Do any of our pro-Wahhabi folks have anything to say about that?

why you are Wahabi enemy?

Because Wahhabis, their money and their philosophy are responsible for the horrific deaths suffered by thousands of Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. The people of New York were living under a cloud of smoke, generated by the burnt bodies of their loved ones, for weeks. How the hell do you expect us to react?

Since Wahhabism and the terrorist economy it supports is responsible for the deaths of millions worldwide, I'd expect that most people are your enemy. It will be the reason why your culture is eventually destroyed.

It's called blowback, baby. Get used to it.

asif asks why civilized people oppose wahabbism.

Because wahabbism is racist, fascist, supremecist, imperialist, anti-Jew, anti-Christian, anti-Hindu, anti-Bahai, anti-fellow muslim, regressive, misogynistic...

Asif, please tell your imam, sheik, taliban, that if the US or India or Israel suffer a nuke attack, mecca/makka and the kabba will pay a terrible price.

The "hajj" will end, permanently AND the "12th imam" will be like "The Great Pumpkin" - a no show.

I will donate to explain what happens in the yemen saudi border.
although i am not a wahhabi.

the iranian government built a hospitl in sana called the cresent years ago (not because of the iranian man burden)..iranian experts posd as doctores went there and money was tunneld to the houthies.iranians try to capitalize on the houthies problem. by the way this is iranian politics.it looks like pragmatic but its gangs in reality.

so the houthies, although they ae not purely shiites, developed a relation with iran,and know they try to create a problem and destabilize saudi because they lay on the saudi border.they killed a saudi officer and got a mountian inside saudia that saudia allowed yemen forces to use.

in the past the saudi border was loose and poor yemenies passed the border to make a living,with some smuggeld weapons and drugs ofcourse. but know with this situation of the houthies saudia will defend its self from the houthies.
and prince khalid bin sultan declared anything that passes the saudi border will be destroyed

the houthies got the message from saudia: Thou shalt melt. but not the melting pot way in other ways.

already a wall is underconsruction between the two borders by saudi money, and with the iraqi border also. may it be called anything racist or whatever name,it is more needed than ever.

arabs were waiting for obama to act agianst iran but as the saying goes: we waited for the volcano to erupt and smoke came insttead.

eddie.....we will preforme pilligramge in mecca you preforme it around the statue of liberty,until the ........ if its found or anything is left from it.

already a wall is underconsruction between the two borders by saudi money, and with the iraqi border also. may it be called anything racist or whatever name,it is more needed than ever.

arabs were waiting for obama to act agianst iran but as the saying goes: we waited for the volcano to erupt and smoke came insttead.


Thanks for the explanation, Arabian. While Iran may be supporting some elements in Yemen, it's a very indirect form of support.

However, the fact that the Yemeni government has been working with, and has hired al Qaeda militiamen to fight in their war shows a very clear alliance. The majority of al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan have left the area to fight in Yemen.

The Saudi/Al Qaeda war against the Houthi rebels in Yemen presents us with yet another reason not to attack Iran. If we bomb Iran, we will be empowering al Qaeda, and helping al Qaeda take over Yemen, a poor but very strategically important nation.

If we fought Iran to protect Saudi interests, America would, in many ways, be fighting side by side with al Qaeda. While our State department would be very happy to support that kind of thing, it wouldn't be popular with the average American.

In any case, our government has supplied the Saudis with significant military training and a wide range of powerful weaponry. So, how are a bunch of rebels managing to kick the Saudis (and the oh-so-scary al Qaeda) around? The KSA shouldn't need any help fighting this war.

Arabian, just wondering - I always thought that the majority of Saudis were Wahhabi. Would you say that King Abdullah or Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is Wahhabi?

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