Novi Pazar: Islam meets extreme Islam
The police have detained one person in connection to yesterday’s incident in a Novi Pazar mosque.
Saturday, 04.11.2006.
10:05
Novi Pazar: Islam meets extreme Islam
MUP issued a statement saying that Fijuljanin drove himself in front of the mosque a little after 4 p.m. yesterday, when a group of Wahabis was already gathered there.Three of the Wahabis, Gicić and the two Smailovićs, separated from the group and started battering Fijuljanin’s car with wooden poles. He then got out of the vehicle and fired several shots in the direction of the three assailants.
The police also say that earlier the same day, around 2 p.m., another incident occurred in the same mosque, when the Wahabis verbally and physically attacked an imam during the religious ritual there. One of the worshippers, Habib Fijuljanin, fired two shots to the mosque’s ceiling in reaction to the attack. He was also charged with possession of illegal weapons.
The mosque is as of last night closed due to the conflict that involved the use of firearms. The Islamic community issued a statement saying that the mosque will remain closed until further notice. The statement said that around 2 p.m. yesterday, “the Wahabies physically assaulted worshippers in order to force them to accept their manner of performing Islamic rituals”.
Rasim Ljajić, leader of the Sandžak Democratic Party, says the Wahabis represent a danger to other Muslims rather than to the state.
He added the role and the number of various religious sects should neither be overestimated nor underestimated.
“Lately, the conditions for all sorts of extreme religious organizations’ activities have been favorable, while the state remains inactive”, Ljajić commented.
Wahabies are members of an Islamic sect generally considered extremist. They are identified by wearing shortened trousers and long beards. In April, a dozen of them interrupted a concert in Novi Pazar. Experts have so far dubbed their presence in the Balkans as “marginal”.
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