Wahhabis in Montenegro are armed - military analyst
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - November 12, 2006 Sunday

Excerpt from report by D.Z. and M.V.R. entitled "Some groups in Rozaje look like Wahhabis", published by Montenegrin newspaper Dan on 11 November

The Wahhabis could turn out to be a big threat to the state of Montenegro and to the Islamic religious community because they grew into a very serious extremist movement, military analyst Milovan Drecun believes. He says that recent incidents in Novi Pazar [town in southern Serbia], where Wahhabis attacked several persons in a mosque, are just an initial stage of their idea about a violent creation of the so-called Islamic state of Sandzak [region straddling the Serbia-Montenegro border with a considerable Muslim population] that would include parts of Serbia and Montenegro.

[Passage omitted: Drecun comments on various aspects of the Wahhabi movement in general]

He says that the Wahhabism is some kind of logistical base and the advance guard of Al-Qa'idah.

"One thing is particularly worrying - the fact that the Wahhabis in Montenegro are well-armed, that they are forming their own combat groups and that they are linked to Wahhabis and mujahidin in Kosovo, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Macedonia," Drecun points out.

According to Rasim Ljajic, chairman of the Sandzak Democratic Party [SDP], activities of the Wahhabi Islamic organizations are a threat to the Islamic community more than to the state. He says that one should neither overestimate nor underestimate the role played by various religious movements, or their number.

"A good atmosphere for religious extremist organizations to work in has been created lately, and state bodies are doing nothing about this," Ljajic says.

Sandzak mufti Muamer Zukorlic comments on the most recent events in Novi Pazar and points out that even before them the Islamic community has been pointing out just how dangerous fanaticism, radicalism and extremism are, because they beget evil.

"By begetting evil they are particularly harming the very religion on whose behalf they say they are acting. They can believe anything they want, they can dress and look anyway they want, but they have no right to impose their concept of religion and rituals upon other believers," Zukorlic says.

Ernad effendi Ramovic, main imam in Rozaje [town in northern Montenegro], has recently told Dan that the Islamic community completely rejects the Wahhabism and has a very low opinion about the Wahhabis and the movement.

[Passage omitted: Ramovic's statement already covered on 12 October 2006 in the Imam urges Montenegrin Muslims to fight Wahhabi influence item]

Source: Dan, Podgorica, in Serbian 11 Nov 06 p7

Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation
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