MUSLIM POLITICIAN SAYS BOSNIAN AL-QA'IDAH CAN
"DESTABILIZE EUROPE"
BBC Monitoring International Reports - December 14, 2007 Friday
Text of report by Bosnian edition of Croatian daily Vecernji list, on 11
December
[Interview with Dzevad Galijasevic, Bosniak politician and author, by Vera Soldo;
place and date not given: "White Al-Qa'idah in Bosnia-Hercegovina Poses Threat
to Europe" - first paragraph is Vecernji List introduction]
Dzevad Galijasevic - a controversial politician, chairman of the New Democratic
Party in Bosnia and Hercegovina, and former mayor of the Maglaj Municipality -
recently presented in Belgrade his new book, Era of Terrorism in Bosnia and
Hercegovina. This is the final book in a trilogy of sorts that talks about the
arrival of mujahidin in Bosnia-Hercegovina, exposes the organizations that
support them, and details illegal as well as legal activities they are involved
in. Galijasevic holds the view that Alija Izetbegovic's Islamic Declaration laid
the cornerstone for the mujahidin to come to wartime and postwar Bosnia and
Hercegovina.
[Soldo] Why do you think that the Islamic Declaration is the "main culprit" for
these completely new developments in Bosnia-Hercegovina?
[Galijasevic] No one in the B-H public has seriously studied Alija Izetbegovic's
Islamic Declaration, which was the first and the most important step that
Bosnian Muslims took to move away from Oriental decadence and embrace active
Islamism. This means belief and struggle: in addition to "iman" [Islamic faith],
you must take part in perpetual jihad. I shed light on the Islamic Declaration
from four different angles. Is the Islamic Declaration truly Islamic? Is it a
document created on the basis of historical experience? Is it a civilizational
document originating from the European cultural community? Finally, how is it
perceived by non-Muslims in Bosnia-Hercegovina? Thus, the Islamic Declaration is
an autochthonic, anti-Muslim, anti-historical, anti-civilizational, and
anti-civic document. It laid the cornerstone for things that aggressively came
here on the wings of war - the arrival of holy warriors, who are in fact
ordinary bearded murderers who crept out of some feudal darkness of other
societies.
[Soldo] You published in your book a list of all mujahidin who were granted B-H
citizenship?
[Galijasevic] The book describes the way in which they arrive and through what
organizations, as well as the legal and illegal activities they are involved in.
They make war more brutal than it is. I published the names of all 1,250
mujahidin who were granted B-H citizenship. I identified their political
protectors such as Haris Silajdzic, Hasan Cengic, Alija Izetbegovic, and Bakir
Izetbegovic, as well as their protectors in the police such as Semsudin
Mehmedovic, who is currently the deputy chairman of the committee overseeing
SIPA [State Investigation and Protection Agency] and police reform expert. He
married the mujahidin to girls from Bosnia and Hercegovina. As proof of this I
published six marriage certificates issued in Tesanj, where the first mujahidin
community was formed in the village of Jablanica. Their fictitious marriages
were concluded by the then chief of police, which was the way to get B-H
citizenships and break the law.
[Soldo] What role did major world powers play in this?
[Galijasevic] The book talks about established terrorist organizations and their
operatives in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Izetbegovic's government was blackmailed by US
Government and it ultimately had to give up Abu Mali's services.
[Soldo] It is your view that the mujahidin take the biggest credit for Al-Qa'idah's
development in Bosnia-Hercegovina?
[Galijasevic] Never before in Islam did we have decapitation and taking pictures
with severed heads, which symbolizes severance of all links with Christianity -
a definitive showdown with Christianity for the next 500 years. "What Suleiman
the Magnificent did to our last king, Stjepan Tomasevic, each Bosnian mujahidin
must do the same." This is their message. In war this idea was created on the
basis of "local folklore"; over the past four to five years it has become Al-Qa'idah's
practice.
[Soldo] Who are Al-Qa'idah followers in Bosnia-Hercegovina and what is their
motive?
[Galijasevic] Throughout the world, Bosnia-Hercegovina included, there are Al-Qa'idah
cells. In Bosnia-Hercegovina you have indigenous local population, mostly in
backward rural areas, a part of which - perhaps around 10 per cent - has
embraced Wahhabi principles, that is Islamic activism. Their leaders are in
Sarajevo, in King Fahd's Mosque, in the government, in the B-H Presidency, and
so on.
[Soldo] On the other hand, the international community does not attach a high
level of importance to this?
[Galijasevic] The international community is not involved in these issues
because it understands that Bosnia-Hercegovina is not a target of terrorist
activities. This is the reason why these mediocre bureaucrats in international
bodies do not want to notify their bosses of the growing network that is no
longer in a phase of operational execution of actions. Operational execution of
actions ended with the murders of Croats in central Bosnia, the murder of Slavko
Ivanovic in Maglaj, four explosive devices in Maglaj, and the murder of Jozo
Leutar. In Bosnia-Hercegovina today Al-Qa'idah is in a strategic planning phase.
This means that, among such potentials - and it is likely that there are 100,000
such believers - you can find five people who are sufficiently socially
vulnerable, primitive, and insane to hang bombs on their belts and bring in
explosives "wherever necessary." All such initiatives come from there.
[Soldo] What do you mean?
[Galijasevic] This means that Bosnia-Hercegovina ostensibly wants to expel Abu
Hamza and his men, but then it is punished by Ali Hamad's testimony in Sarajevo
in the Hague tribunal's trial of General Rasim Delic. This is retribution by
this part of Al-Qa'idah, which is exacting revenge on Bosnian authorities for
the failure to protect more vigorously their stay in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
[Soldo] Does this form of Al-Qa'idah pose a credible threat to Bosnia-Hercegovina?
[Galijasevic] It is clear that the system as set up right now is strong enough
to destabilize Europe. It is also clear that they are waiting for EU accession;
thus, this white, European physiognomy and anthropology - the so-called "white
Al-Qa'idah - can in fact be the most fatal for Europe, while Bosnia-Hercegovina
is an insignificant target for Al-Qa'idah.
[Soldo] What do Bosniak intellectuals say?
[Galijasevic] Bosniak intellectual elite are at quite a distance from the
battleground where this battle is fought - in mosques, rural settlements,
villages, and among the insufficiently educated population. A bad education
policy for the people is the biggest problem, because it turns out that Al-Qa'idah
was created in socially conflicting and uneducated areas of the Arab world,
where strong dictatorships were present. In a city you can get a Ph.D., but in
Zeljezno Polje you are not even able to finish secondary school. They resolve
social problems with this kind of participation. Thus, Bosnian intellectuals are
in fact unable to lead the fight against this evil.
[Soldo] Is there a solution?
[Galijasevic] We often behave with regard to this issue like Serbs, who say,
"Let us not talk about Karadzic and there is no problem." Likewise, we say, "Let
us not talk about Al-Qa'idah." However, every once in a while "some bombs" go
off, and then some media try to persuade the public that this was the work of a
madman. Does anyone need to convince us that he is crazy? Of course he is crazy.
These precisely are the people Al-Qa'idah is recruiting and looking for. Do you
think that Muamer Topalovic, the murderer of an entire Catholic family in
Kostajnica, is normal? Of course he is mad, but he was charged with and
convicted of brutal murder, not terrorism, which was the act he in fact
committed.
[Soldo] The Bosniak right wing often accuses you of betraying your own Bosniak
people. What do you think?
[Galijasevic] With this book I do not want to denounce my people. In this book I
present my views on the religious teaching of the Muslim people that I belong
to, because I want to defend my faith and my people from these bearded thugs and
politicians who brought this concept on the wings of personal interests. Our
politicians and religious dignitaries took money from the Arab world; when you
do that, you also assume "obligations on my behalf." These obligations include
allowing the worst evil to develop here. My family and I were also at the
receiving end of very blunt threats and attacks, but what I am saying is the
actual truth. Izetbegovic's project succeeded and I understand him. That is why
I wrote about him and tried to make him understood to non-Muslims in the way
that I as a Muslim understand him.
[Box] Arabs, Bosniaks' Only Brothers
"Active Islamism is pushing one's own nation in the whirlpool of problems of
other Islamic countries. Galijasevic said. It is getting Bosnian Muslims
interested in events in the Arab world, in the Iranian revolution, in the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It is bringing Bosnia closer to Palestine. It is
turning Muslims' true historical brothers, Serbs and Croats, into eternal and
irreconcilable enemies, and turning Arabs into the only and actual brothers who
look, behave, and talk differently and have a completely different view of the
family, the state, and themselves," Galijasevic said.
Source: Vecernji list (Bosnia-Hercegovina
edition), Zagreb, in Croatian 11 Dec 07
Posted for Fair Use only.