HSE Professor: Arab sponsors want to change the consciousness of Balkan Muslims
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Salafi communities operate at mosques built with money from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, which do not obey the civil laws of the country.
This was stated on air by Ekaterina Entina, a professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics and a senior research fellow at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, on Balkanist TV, the correspondent reports. "PolitNavigator".
Entina noted that in recent years, the topic of radicalization of Islam in the Balkans has been emerging more and more often both in the press and in analytics, which, first of all, in her opinion, is associated not with local Islam and its development, but with those introduced into local Islam and into the local culture by external elements. And the impetus for this process was given by the war of the 90s, when “brothers in faith” from the Middle East and Iran en masse went to help their Bosniak co-religionists with arms in hand.
“At the end of the civil wars, many of the elements of radical Islam remained in the region,” the professor said. – Subsequently, with the development of the problem of terrorism, with the radicalization of Islam throughout the world as such, this led to the formation in Bosnia and Herzegovina of the so-called “zones of no law” (outlaw zones - ed.). They arise around large mosques, which are mostly built or sponsored with money from various funds, mainly Saudi, and from the wording it is clear that these are territories where civil laws actually do not apply, and which are practically impossible to influence from any point of view civilian presence, nor in terms of police presence.
These factors not only create internal explosiveness in the region, but also cause concern for external forces: Europeans, Americans, to some extent the Turks and us [Russia]. Which, of course, is such an alarming factor for the modern development of the Balkan region.”
The expert also noted the active work of Qatar and the UAE to change the traditional mentality of Balkan Muslims.
“With the money of Qatar, with the money of the UAE, the concepts of halal tourism were put into practice, that is, the organization of tourism activities for devout Muslims, in compliance with all religious norms, including the organization of recreation, the construction of complexes, the visual appearance that is familiar to traditional Muslim societies of the Arab East. Infrastructure is being formed for this, tourist complexes are being built, routes are being laid, the option of halal service is included in all air travel, and this, of course, is slowly but surely transforming the image and its ultimate goal, probably, is the transformation of the consciousness of Balkan Muslims,” concluded Entina.
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