The Kumanovo shooting perpetrated by an Albanian armed
group on May 9th and the recent FYROM political crisis have brought
to surface an extremely serious problem that could progressively deteriorate
the stability of the western Balkans and that is the infiltration of religious
and ethno-nationalist extremist groups for subversive purposes.
A mechanism that does not just rely on the
infiltration of violent armed groups through some of the porous borders of
Bosnia and Kosovo, but also on the presence of various NGO’s and charities with
activities that go far beyond the humanitarian objectives that they claim to
have.
A CIA report on charities from the late 90’s is clear
on the issue:
“Islamic activists dominate the leadership of the
largest charities, and prominent members of some smaller organizations have
been identified as extremists. The main objectives of these organizations
include proselytizing, helping the needy, and defending Muslim communities from
enemies. Where Muslims are engaged in armed conflict, some Islamic
organizations provide military aid as part of a "humanitarian"
package”.
A scenario that is obviously not new to the area as
several charities from the Gulf area have infiltrated the Balkans through the
years, taking roots in Bosnia,
Albania
and Kosovo during wartime. Many of them have been banned for links to terrorist
groups such as al-Qaeda, Hamas and Gamaa al-Islamiyya.
According to investigations, some of them were
directly involved in terror attacks in the Balkans; an interesting case is the
one that links the Sudan-based Third World Relief (TWRA) agency to an attack
conducted against a police station in Rijeka,
Croatia, in
1995.
As illustrated by the International Assessment and Strategy Center:
“The charity, which has served as a template for
radical Islamist operations around the world, was founded in 1987 by a Sudanese
named Fatih el Hassanein and he served as chairman. His brother, Sukorno Ali
Hassanein, served as treasurer. Most of other officers were also Sudanese.
TWRA in essence acted as the funding mechanism to
buy hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of weapons for the Bosnian Muslims,
who were under siege by the Serbs. This attack galvanized the Islamic world,
and several thousand Arab fighters from Afghanistan
and elsewhere rushed to Bosnia,
along with other volunteers in what was viewed by Islamic groups of almost
every stripe as a defensive jihad, fully condoned by the Koran”.
[1] [2]
On October 20th 1995 a Fiat 131 Mirafiori
with 70kg of TNT was driven into the wall of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar police
headquarter in Rjieka. Twenty-seven employees in the police station and two
bystanders on the street were injured, although the only person killed was the
attacker, later identified as Hassan al-Sharif Mahmud Saad, an employee of the
TWRA.
The attack was conducted in retaliation for the arrest
by Croatian police of Talaat Fouad Qasim, a senior Gamaa al-Islamiyya member.
According to investigators, the attack was overseen by Anwar Shabaan, former
leader of the mujahideen in Zenica and former imam at the Centro Culturale
Islamico of Milan;
Shabaan was killed in December 1995 by Croatian HVO.
Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation (AHIF) is another
notorious charity, with headquarters in Saudi Arabia, that helped fund and
support the “El-Mujahid” battalion in Zenica. The Zagreb office had often been raided by
Croatian security for smuggling activities. In June 2004, the founder and
former leader of AHIF, Aqeel Abdulaziz Aqeel al-Aqeel, was listed on an
INTERPOL-United Nations Security Council Special Notice for being associated
with Al-Qaeda.
In Kosovo a well-known charity that has been active
since the 1998-99 war is “Rahma” (Mercy), operating from the UK and linked
to the Deobandi ideology. Rahma has supported Albanian radical preacher
“Xhemaji Duka, who was expelled from Kosovo in 2010. The charity had
established a Wahhabi madrassa next to a mosque in the city of Skenderaj (coordinated by
Duka), where children (often orphans) were indoctrinated. [3]
[4]
The activity of NGO’s and charities with double
agendas is a serious problem that does not only involve the Balkans, but all
these areas that are sensitive to Islamist propaganda. It is not a case that
the Egyptian government recently ordered the dissolution of fifty NGO’s in five
Egyptian cities for being affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. [5]
In the Northern-Caucasus, the closure by Russian
authorities of all those foreign charities that were involved in political
activities (and with links to extremist groups) brought positive results to the
war on terrorism and the neutralization of Wahhabi infiltrations in the area.
The activities of charities and NGO’s with double
agendas are essential for violent radical groups as they provide them with
substantial flows of income that are necessary in order to carry out their
activities that in many cases target weak and unstable countries with a high
percentage of unemployment and where it is easy to recruit volunteers.
[2] For a complete accounting of the
jihadist role in Bosnia,
including TWRA, see: Evan F. Kohlmann, Al Qaida’s Jihad in Europe: The
Afghan-Bosnian Network,Berg, New York,
2004.
[4] Magni, Ciccotti, “Kosovo: un paese al bivio”, (Milano: Franco
Angeli, 2013)
Giovanni Giacalone is an Italian
researcher and analyst in Islamic radicalism, lives in Milan where he studies
political Islam in Europe with a close look at issues linked to integration,
radicalism and relations between the various European Institutions and the
Islamic organizations present in Europe. He is an Associazione Italiana
Sociologia member, associate research fellow at ISPI "Osservatorio
Terrorismo" and an analyst for the Italian Team for Security,Terroristic
Issues and Managing Emergencies. He wrote this artcile for RIMSE.