-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.shianews.com/hi/europe/news_id/0000332.php
}}}>Begin
Published on: Wednesday, 26 Ramadhan 1422 (12 December 2001)
Saudi Wahhabi Aid Workers Bulldoze Balkan Monuments
Kosovo
By Jolyon Naegele of the RFE/RL
Provided by Mukhtar Ali
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Construction workers in Kosovo bulldozed the 18th century facade of a
library and a 16th century Koran school that Serbian forces damaged
during fighting last year. The construction workers were not Serbs,
but employees of a Saudi Arabian reconstruction agency, and were
armed with official permits rather than Kalashnikovs. As RFE/RL
correspondent Jolyon Naegele reports, this was not the first time war-
damaged Islamic monuments in the Balkans have been destroyed in the
name of fraternal Islamic assistance.
Prague, 4 August 2000 (RFE/RL) -- The Saudi bulldozing of some of the most
historically valuable architectural monuments in the western Kosovo market town of
Djakovica is merely the latest in a series of iconoclastic acti
vities in the Balkans undertaken in the name of reconstruction assistance by Arab aid
organizations. War-damaged historic buildings are not repaired, but rather demolished
to make way for what the Arab donors consider to
be more proper Islamic structures.
The destruction is a further blow to Kosovo's architectural heritage, following the
destruction by Serbian forces and civilians in 1998 and 1999 of over 200 mosques and
other Islamic structures -- about one-third of the t
otal number in the province.
Harvard University Fine Arts librarian Andras Riedlmayer, the co-author of a survey of
Kosovo's war-damaged architectural sites, is outraged by the Saudi demolition program.
Demolished graves in Kosovo by Saudi Wahabis
"Unfortunately, a Saudi aid agency got permits from the local reconstruction agency
and from the local institute for the preservation of monuments to work on the
restoration, so to speak, of the Hadum mosque complex in th
e center of the historic district."
Riedlmayer says the Saudis began on Monday last week by trying to knock down all the
Ottoman-era gravestones in the cemetery of the Hadum mosque.
"The Saudis were interested in removing them because they consider gravestones to be
idolatrous. They are followers of Wahhabism, which is an extremist interpretation of
Islam at odds with the practice of most of the Musl
im world."
The Wahhabis are a purist movement founded in the 18th century by Muhammad ibn Abd
al-Wahhab (1703-1791). He converted the Saud tribe, which now rules Saudi Arabia. The
Wahhabis are the largest and most powerful sect in S
audi Arabia.
Riedlmayer says the Saudis are obsessed with having all ancient tombstones,
mausoleums, and Sufi shrines located near mosques eliminated, since -- unlike most
Muslims in the world today -- the Wahhabis believe these to be
"un-Islamic" and idolatrous. He said "the Wahhabis, with their wealth and fanaticism,
are a menace to heritage, in some ways more dangerous than the [Serb paramilitary]
Chetniks, since about the latter, at least, no one
harbors any illusions regarding their uncharitable intentions."
The Saudi Joint Relief Committee for the People of Kosovo and Chechnya, established by
royal decree, has built mosques, schools, clinics, and shelters for displaced persons.
It has also supplied the province with several
hundred tons of medicine, food, blankets, tents, and clothing during the last 13
months.
But spreading the message of Wahhabi Islam appears to be another aim of the committee.
The new mosques are white, boxy structures devoid of detail -- a far cry from the
centuries- old Ottoman-style mosques that characteri
ze the urban and village landscape in much of the Balkans.
Riedlmayer says NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers declined to intervene in Djakovica after
the Saudis showed their authorized papers.
"Eventually the Department of Culture in UNMIK (the UN administration) was notified.
They spoke with the Saudis on Thursday and tried to get them to desist. However, on
Friday, the Saudis sent in a bulldozer [and] knocked
down the buildings around the Hadum mosque including the library built in 1733 and
ancient gravestones in the graveyard."
The Hadum mosque itself, which survived last year's fighting largely intact -- despite
fire damage to its porch and grenade damage to its minaret -- remains endangered. If
the past is prologue, the frescoes could soon be
whitewashed by Wahhabi purists.
Attempts by RFE/RL to contact the UNMIK-Joint Interim Administration's Department of
Culture, the Kosovo Institute for the Protection of Monuments, or the Saudi Joint
Relief Committee in Kosovo, were unsuccessful.
However, Alvaro Higueras, of the UNMIK Culture Department, confirmed in a telephone
call to Riedlmayer late last night (Aug. 3) that the Saudis had razed the library and
Koran school.
Higueras says the Saudis planned to build a reinforced concrete Islamic center on the
cleared site. But the UNMIK official says the Saudis applied for permission for a
restoration project, not for new construction. Higuer
as says an order has now been issued to stop construction indefinitely. He says the
Saudis will have to "undo the damage" and restore the Ottoman-era buildings using
traditional materials and techniques.
Riedlmayer has documented cases in which the Saudi and other Arab aid agencies have
destroyed other historic Islamic buildings elsewhere in Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
and Bulgaria.
A mosque demolished by Saudi Wahabis in Kosovo
Last October, while Riedlmayer was in Kosovo conducting a survey of war-damaged
architectural heritage, he witnessed the destruction of Muslim cemeteries in Vucitrn
(Vushtrri). He says an Islamic aid agency from the Unite
d Arab Emirates had pressured local Albanian residents to sledgehammer the graves of
their ancestors, completely clearing two historic graveyards next to the Gazi Ali Beg
and Karamanli mosques of more than 100 gravestones
dating back to the 15th century. Only the grave marker of Gazi Ali Beg himself
remained, as the locals refused to allow that one to be smashed.
Riedlmayer says the UAE aid agency promised to rebuild the damaged mosques "twice as
big and twice as Islamic," but only if the gravestones were removed. He says the
agency, the largest aid organization in the town, also
made an implicit threat to withhold humanitarian aid if the donors' request was
ignored.
Riedlmayer notes that during and immediately after the war in Bosnia (1992-95), a
Saudi aid agency took charge of the restoration of the Gazi Husrev Beg mosque (Begova
dzamija) as well as other historic mosques in Sarajev
o and in many other towns and villages.
At the Beg mosque, the Saudis ordered the Ottoman tilework and painted wall
decorations stripped off and discarded and had the whole building redone, as
Riedlmayer puts it "in gleaming hospital white, even the minaret sla
thered in white plaster." He says that in scores of villages, the Saudis had
war-damaged but restorable historic Ottoman-style Bosnian mosques demolished and
redone Saudi-style. All of the colorful Balkan-Muslim interior
decor was eliminated, and separate entrances were added to segregate women.
To drive home the significance of the Saudi destruction in the Balkans, Riedlmayer
says, "Imagine, if you will, some terrible catastrophe affecting the historic churches
of Rome and Tuscany, and then having [U.S. evangeli
st] Oral Roberts or Mormon missionaries coming in, taking charge, and insisting that
they be redone in 'proper Christian style.'"
Janat ul Baqi, Madina, before the destruction by Ibne Saud's Wahabi
regime in 1920
Graves of members of the family of Prophet Muhammad in Jannat ul
Baqi, Madina, after the Wahabis demolished all shrines
End<{{{
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
