Fissures in Balkan Islam

For Muslims in this small Balkan country, the Ottoman Empire's Islamic legacy still endures. However, some say Arab rivals are seeking to undermine it.

"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 who didn't want to give his last name for security reasons. "He accepted, and my uncle is quite concerned."

The tensions in Blerim's family are being felt throughout Macedonia's growing Muslim community ahead of its elections later this month for a new national leader, or reis. 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.

"Some of our students in the Arabic world do consider [the Arab] version of Islam as more authentic," concedes Muhamed Zeqiri, a young Albanian journalist and graduate of Macedonia's Kondovo madrassah. "However, the extremists can't establish a foothold here - Muslims here are pro-Western, and prefer the moderate Ottoman tradition."

Ferid Muhic, a widely respected philosophy professor, agrees, saying "the Wahhabi lifestyle is just too ascetic for most people's tastes."

Yet, since Macedonia's independence in 1991, the fundamentalists have established a small but persistent presence. With their long black beards and wives veiled head-to-toe in black, they are conspicuous in this fairly liberal society. Their secrecy and self-isolation have also raised suspicions of outside funding.

"They don't have jobs, yet somehow they survive, " says Vebija Fejzulovski, a TV director in the southwestern village of Labunishta. "And their families live well here while [the men] are off for months in Pakistan or Afghanistan."

In a country with numerous social ills, most choose to let the fundamentalists be, perhaps for good reason. When another young Albanian journalist, who did not want to be named, started investigating their funding, he was warned to "think about your family first."

Professor Muhic says many fundamentalists are "just kids going through a phase," but they nevertheless have raised concerns internationally. In December 2004, French terrorism expert Claude Moniquet of the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center claimed that up to 100 fundamentalists "who are dangerous and linked to terrorist organizations" were operating in Macedonia. Other Macedonian and European security officials surveyed since agree that a small group of local Muslims, exposed to fundamentalism in Muslim states or by Arab proselytizers, are quietly promoting extremist goals.

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