Mysterious Mosques and Schools
by Yana Buhrer Tavanier
27 January 2005
The Saudi foundation Al Waqf-Al Islami has built several mosques in
Bulgaria, but the Islamic community is tight-lipped about its links with
the elusive organization, which has been linked to Al Qaeda.
Editor's note: Bulgaria's Muslims--most of whom are members of the
country's Turkish minority--are traditionally a moderate lot. But in
recent years, more radical forms of Islam have arrived in Bulgaria and
elsewhere in the Balkans, often with Saudi financing.
So, how radicalized is Bulgaria's Muslim community and what is this
Saudi money being used for?
This investigation, conducted in August 2004 by Yana Buhrer Tavanier,
who is an editor with the Bulgarian weekly Kapital and a TOL
contributor, has not found any evidence of terrorist activity--but it
has uncovered a shadowy network that finances mosques and schools that
promote the radical teachings of Wahhabi Islam and similar tendencies,
and a network that has links to the chief mufti's office.
The first of our two articles looks at several mosques that were built
with Saudi money, though Bulgaria's Muslim leaders continue to deny this
fact. A second article deals with the network of Islamic schools in the
country.
The arrival of Wahhabism has split the Muslim community and fuelled the
ongoing power struggle for the position of chief mufti. The incumbent,
Fikri Sali, has been accused of taking money from dubious Middle Eastern
sources--an accusation confirmed by our investigation.
One organization came up wherever we looked for radical Islam in
Bulgaria: Al Waqf-Al Islami, a foundation that promotes Wahhabism in
Europe.
The charity has built several mosques in Bulgaria--described in the
first of two installments TOL is running--and organized and financed a
trip by Chief Mufti Fikri Sali to Saudi Arabia in July last year. While
no Al Waqf involvement in terrorist activities has ever been proven, its
Dutch branch--which invited Sali to Saudi Arabia--has come under
suspicion after it was revealed that six of the 9/11 hijackers had
attended a seminar it organized. (Al Waqf is among several organizations
that are being sued by families of 9/11 victims.)
The Dutch intelligence service has recently compiled a report detailing
the activities of Al Waqf's Dutch branch, based in the town of
Eindhoven. The report described the Al Waqf mosques there as a
recruiting ground for a "holy war," or jihad. Could something similar be
happening in Bulgaria?
In our trip around Razgrad, in north-eastern Bulgaria, we found four
mosques that had been built or financed by Al Waqf-Al Islami in 1993 and
1994, when the foundation was legally registered in Bulgaria. (Fikri
Sali was also the chief mufti at that time.) The registration was
revoked in the summer of 1994, and in 1999 its representative Abdulrahim
Taha was expelled from the country.
But our report also indicates that Al Waqf never pulled out of Bulgaria.
In fact, its activities seem to be expanding.
In 2002, a new Al Waqf foundation registered in Sofia without any
reference to its Islamic character or religious activities, which would
make the registration invalid. The manager of the present Al Waqf is a
41-year-old Syrian, Muafak al Asaad, who co-owns a Bulgarian company
with Abdulrahim Taha, the former representative of the previous Al Waqf
that had been expelled from Bulgaria.
Muafak is also an assistant to the wealthy Saudi businessman who is
behind the mosques and schools run with Al Waqf money in Bulgaria.
Kapital got his name from Ljutfi Imam in Todorovo, who had a notebook
with all the expenditures for the construction of the mosque which
contained the name Abdul Aziz.
Sheikh Abdullah Abdul Aziz Soreya visits Bulgaria almost every summer,
according to police information, and stays in the resort of Pavel Banya
for several months.
The residents of Surnitza are categorical that the Islamic school there
belongs to Muafak. The school's director, Said Mutlu, says the Syrian
only owns the building and lets it to the chief mufti's office but has
no say in the curriculum or the funding.
Most residents of Surnitza don't think so. "You can find Muafak in his
school" was the most frequent answer our reporters heard in Surnitza
when asking for his whereabouts.
This sort of covert involvement is in evidence, on a grander scale, in
the visit by the chief mufti and several people from the leadership of
the MRF--Bulgaria's main ethnic Turkish party--to Saudi Arabia in July
2004.
The trip became embroiled in scandal after media reports that the
delegation had been invited by Al Waqf, an accusation that was
vehemently denied by the participants. The regional mufti of Razgrad,
Mehmed Alya, called it "fiction" and also denied any involvement of Al
Waqf in the construction of the mosques we visited. He was undeterred by
the fact that residents of the villages remember that he personally
brought "the Arab" to the sites.
***Kapital*** contacted Al Waqf in Eindhoven to shed light on the issue.
Al Waqf confirmed that the invitation was genuine and was indeed sent by
them.
Muafak al Asaad was listed on the invitation as coordinator of the
visit. And a representative of the foundation who introduced himself as
Abu Tarik even said that while in Saudi Arabia, he had an opportunity to
meet Muafak.
This investigation, which develops on work that first appeared in
different form in ***Kapital***, has not uncovered any terrorist sleeper
cells, murky financiers and arms dealers, or fifth columnists in the
midst of Bulgaria's Muslim community. Overall, the community may not
even be more radical than it has traditionally been. But the obfuscation
and evasiveness, ranging from the negligent to the deceptive, of the
country's chief mufti and various religious officials does raise serious
concerns about the degree to which organized Islam in Bulgaria may be in
thrall to radical tendencies and Saudi money.
Part I: Mysterious Mosques and Schools
The Saudi foundation Al Waqf-Al Islami has built several mosques in
Bulgaria, but the Islamic community is tight-lipped about its links with
the elusive organization, which has been linked to Al Qaeda.
The residents of Bisertzi are no terrorists. They are friendly and eager
to help. They give you apples from their gardens and answer all your
questions without questioning your motives. They are innocent, almost
naive.
The residents of Bisertzi are good people and devout Muslims.
Though you have never met Omer Imam, he's happy to see you. He's in his
eighties, a haggard man overflowing with sincerity. Amazingly agile for
his age, the imam rides on his bicycle to the mosque in Bisertzi,
dismounts, and fusses over showing you everything.
The mosque is brand new--gleaming white on the outside, green and
spacious on the inside. Omer Imam displays childish joy at finding an
eager audience for its story. He is ready to take you to every
inscription and to explain its significance. Then he sits Turkish-style
on the mottled prayer rug, invitingly pats the ground beside him, and
expresses his long-winded gratitude to the Arab whose name he doesn't
remember.
THE FIRST PLAQUE AT BISERTZI
At the entrance to the Bisertzi mosque there are two plaques--one in
Turkish, the other in Arabic. The texts are different. The second plaque
is more interesting, though no one in the village knows what is says.
Your reporter, however, had an expert in Arab culture with her. Tzveti
Yanykova takes a pen and after a minute hands a sheet to me. It says:
"Ali Ibn Abi Talib Mosque
Benefactor: Yusuf Muhammad an Nafii
Implementer: Al Waqf-Al Islami Organization
Bulgaria
1415 of the Hidjra / 1994 after Christ."
Out trip was prompted by information published in April 2002 on two
websites, muslims.org and islamicpopulation.com, saying "the Saudi
Arabia-based Islam Waqf has opened a mosque in Bulgaria."
The websites indicated the mosque had been opened in a "village known as
Gurichov," but there is no such village in Bulgaria. The closest name is
Gorichevo, a village near Razgrad in the north-east, our first stop.
The mosque there is very old, however, and the people in the village
cannot recall any recently opened mosque. "It must be the neighboring
village, Bisertzi," says one of the old men sitting under an awning.
"They recently had one built. An Arab gave the money for it."
We go to Bisertzi and find two people sitting in the yard of the mosque.
They invite us to eat wild plums, and one of them, Mehmed, starts
telling us about the man who built the mosque. Mehmed doesn't know his
name. ("The name given for the benefactor on the plaque is just the name
of a person who gave money to the foundation to build a mosque," Tzveti
Yanykova explains.) But he knows the benefactor was Saudi Arabian and
that he brought the plaque himself. Mehmed also says that the Arab is
planning to come again to see how things are progressing since he's
currently in Bulgaria on vacation.
We ask Mehmed who told him this last bit of news. He replies that it was
Mehmed Alya, the regional mufti of Razgrad, the man who also brought the
Arab to the village in 1993.
Mehmed continues: "This man has built or helped build at least 10
mosques. We don't know where these are in the region of Kurdjali, but
here we have them in Brenitza, Todorovo, and Stefan Karadja." We take
notes and Mehmed says: "Now we are waiting for the man. In fact, when we
saw your car, we believed it was him."
The residents of Bisertzi say that it was the mufti, Mehmed Alya, who
identified the villages in need of mosques to the Arab, who then donated
the money to the mufti's office. Alya then allocated the funds for
construction.
BRENITZA: THE DOCUMENTARY TRAIL
In Brenitza we enjoy the same warm welcome.
Given the issues we're researching--mosques built by a foundation that
is persistently linked to Al Qaeda--one might expect imams preaching
radicalism, bearded firebrands, or mysterious Arabs recruiting people
for a global jihad. Instead, it's friendly people welcoming us.
The Brenitza mosque is, in fact, a renovated house with a minaret on
top. The walls inside are cracked, and space is limited. "We are
grateful to have a mosque at all," Rejhan says. He chairs the board of
trustees of the mosque.
Rejhan has taken the position recently and does not remember the Arab
himself. Nonetheless, he tells the story without hesitation: The
previous owner of the house was a man who decided to emigrate to Turkey.
Then people from the mufti's office brought the Arab who donated the
money; Rejhan doesn't know his name.
"But let me call Kerim, I don't want to mislead you," Rejhan says, and a
few minutes later, an elderly man appears--the former bursar of the
mosque. Kerim is categorical that the man who had supported the Brenitza
mosque is the same who built the mosques in Bisertzi and Todorovo. We
ask him whether he means the Al Waqf foundation and he heads somewhere,
returning with a folder full of documents. Kerim kneels on the ground
and, while trying to kill a cockroach, he spreads sheets of paper on the
floor.
"There it is, Al Waqf-Al Islami," he says, pointing at one of the
papers.
The donation document lists the name of the foundation along with the
name of the Razgrad mufti, Mehmed Alya.
When, later, we ask Alya about this, he denies any links between the
mosques in the region with Al Waqf. "There is nothing true in this
information," he said.
THE MOSQUES IN STEFAN KARADJA AND TODOROVO
We arrive in Stefan Karadja, a village near Dobrich, in late afternoon.
The mosque is empty and under repair. The imam, with whom we take a
stroll through the village, says that the mosque was started in 1993,
"long before my time."
We reach the house of the chairman of the board of trustees. He says
that there was a donation from Al Waqf-Al Islami but that it amounted to
only 100,000 leva (around 50,000 euro). "We tried to take more," he
says, "but Muafak, the representative of Al Waqf, refused because
[construction of] the mosque had already started." According to the
chairman, Muafak said, "We do them from floor to roof."
Who is Muafak? "The assistant of Abdul Aziz."
In Todorovo, Al Waqf's money did help build a mosque from floor to roof.
It also has a stone plaque in Arabic over the entrance, similar to the
one in Bisertzi, which reads:
"Omar Ibn Al Hattab Mosque
Benefactor: Abdullah I Nasir As Sarii
Implementer: Al Waqf-Al Islami Organization
1994"
Inside the mosque, Yusuf Sherif is teaching the Koran to nine children.
He refers us to Ljutfi Imam, who supposedly knows more about the Arab.
"Of course I know him," says the imam when we talk to him a little
later. "It was I who built it," he declares, adding that "I didn't even
buy a candy or a pack of cigarettes from the mosque money."
The imam disappears into his house and comes back with a dog-eared
notebook. He leafs through it to the pages from 1993 and 1994 and puts
his finger on a name.
"Abdul Aziz. That was the name of the Arab. In here I have put down all
the money I have received from him and all the expenditures. Actually,
he gave me the money only after I showed him an invoice. And this here
is Muafak; he was Abdul Aziz's assistant. He came [here] on a few
occasions."
AL WAQF IN BULGARIA
Muafak's full name is Muafak Ahmed al Asaad. He is a 41-year-old Syrian.
His only documented link with the Al Waqf-Al Islami foundation in
Bulgaria is a joint company he co-owns with the foundation's director,
Abdulrahim Taha.
The Al Waqf foundation was registered in Bulgaria in 1993-1994, when the
chief mufti was Fikri Sali. Among the founders was Abdullah al Huseini,
brother of the Hamad al Huseini whose name showed up on a document
discovered during a NATO raid in Bosnia detailing the "golden chain" of
Saudi businessmen funding Al Qaeda.
There are at least four mosques in Bulgaria that have been built or
supported by Al Waqf-Al Islami. All the mosques were built during the
period when Fikri Sali was chief mufti and Mehmed Alya regional mufti of
Razgrad--in 1993 and 1994. And Muafak was remembered as one of the
benefactors in two of the villages with Al Waqf-Al Islami mosques.
Late 1993 was also the time when the chief mufti's office concluded an
agreement with Al Waqf--a copy of which we obtained--for joint
educational activities. The document talks about "the opening of schools
or training centers of a new kind" and support for difficult, ill, or
socially disadvantaged children.
The foundation promised to fund these educational institutions and, in
return, received the right to control--"independently or jointly with
the chief mufti's office"--their operations and expenditure, and also
the teachers' work and the curricula.
In the summer of 1994, the Directorate on Denominations of the Council
of Ministers refused to re-register the foundation and, in 1999, its
representative Abdulrahim Taha was expelled from Bulgaria.
But Muafak remained--according to some because he was married to a
Bulgarian. His wife is from Surnitza, where he registered a second
company. His shop is just across the road from the town's religious
school.
THE SURNITZA SCHOOL
"The school in Surnitza is legal. It has a permit from the chief mufti's
office. Here we have a nine-month course on the Koran," explains its
director, Said Mehmed Mutlu, and produces documents. He is a big man
with a long beard--like all the men we see in his office. The corridors
are crammed with veiled young women who have arrived for a seminar.
We ask about Muafak al Asaad since half the village has told us that we
can find him in "his school," where he "heads the parade," "hosts
visitors," and so forth. Said Mutlu, however, denies there are any links
between Muafak and the school except for the fact that he "owns the
building" and lets it to the school.
According to the director, the Syrian has no say in the curriculum or
the funding of the school. The money came from the mufti's office. Who
funds the mufti, however, Mutlu will not venture to guess.
When we return to the street, we again ask about Muafak, and residents
again direct us to the school.
"But we were told that he doesn't go there," we say. The people in the
street laugh and think we are joking. "Well, go to his house, it's over
there--up the street and then to the left. Ask again."
We ask again, and several people point to one and the same house.
Inside, at the stairway, we are met by a woman who matches the
description of his wife. In less than five seconds, she says, "no such
person here," "never heard," and "I'm visiting here, I don't know
anything."
We try to convince her that Muafak must live here since the whole
village says so but she is implacable. We leave.
We are unable to locate Muafak. But we find the imam of one of the
mosques, a man who has been in Surnitza for five years. "They don't
invite any students from here," Mehmed says. "They are Wahhabis. During
prayer they spread their legs and hold their hands up there."
He continues, "Of course it is a dangerous movement. It creates dissent
among Muslims. They tried to influence me several times. When they saw
they wouldn't succeed, they started avoiding me."
The imam adds that it hurts him to hear that "the Surnitza residents are
terrorists."
"This should stop," he says. "There are problems with certain
individuals and they are not even residents of the town."
AL WAQF RE-EMERGES
The most interesting fact about Muafak al Asaad is that in 2002 he
became manager of a newly registered foundation Al Waqf in Sofia. We
have seen the entire package of documents for the registration. The
foundation was set up on 14 September 2001; two months later Muafak and
the Saudi Arabian national Suliman al Duayan filed a request for entry
into the Sofia City Court register. The aims of the foundation include
involvement in the "spiritual, educational, material and cultural
elevation of individuals," support for people in need as well as for
"talented and gifted young people."
An official with the Directorate on Denominations of the Council of
Ministers, Georgi Krystev, said that the registration would be illegal
if the foundation's activities were in any way religious. He says that
when Al Waqf was registered, religious foundations could function
legally only with the permission of the directorate.
The registration documents, however, don't contain anything that would
characterize Al Waqf as the religious foundation it really is. But the
facts not only suggest that the current Al Waqf is a religious
institution, they also suggest that it is a revival of the first, banned
Al Waqf.
More than 10 years after Al Waqf's initial burst of activity in
Bulgaria, with both the chief mufti and the regional mufti again the
same, the residents of Bisertzi, Brenitza, and Todorovo are expecting
"the good Arab" for the first time since he made his donation.
And "the good Arab" actually was in the country at the time of our
investigation. We found out that he had checked in at the Pavel Banya
resort in central Bulgaria.
His name is Sheik Abdullah Abdul Aziz Soreya.
According to Bulgarian police sources, he was born on 12 April 1918 and
had a carpet factory in Saudi Arabia. He came to Bulgaria for the first
time in 1993 and has since returned to Pavel Banya almost every year for
a period of one to two months.
We made attempts to contact Abdullah Abdul Aziz Soreya but were unable
to speak to him.
THE TRIP TO SAUDI ARABIA
In July 2004, chief mufti Fikri Sali and regional mufti Mehmed Alya
joined 10 other people, mainly leading members of the Movement for
Rights and Freedoms (MRF)--the main party representing Bulgaria's
Turkish minority--on a trip to Saudi Arabia. The trip became engulfed in
scandal when the media reported that the invitation had come from Al
Waqf-Al Islami; the invitees categorically rejected the allegation.
Muafak was named on the invitation sent to the chief mufti as
coordinator of the trip by the Dutch branch of Al Waqf. (We have a copy
in Arabic.)
While they were in Saudi Arabia, the mufti of Sofia, Ali Hajraddin, who
was invited but was unable to go, became the group's spokesperson. In an
interview with the weekly Politika published in July 2004, he said: "I
have no idea... what Al Waqf-Al Islami is being accused of. We used the
name as a formality, at our request, since there were only five to six
days before the trip and we would have run out of time waiting for an
invitation from the organization that maintains the two shrines [at
Mecca and Medina]."
But after his return from Saudi Arabia, Fikri Sali took a hard line and
fervently denied the existence of an Al Waqf invitation. In the meantime
Ali Hajraddin told us that his interview with Politika was a
fabrication, while the paper's journalists maintained it was genuine and
had been recorded.
In an interview with Kapital, Mehmed Alya reiterated that there was no
invitation from the foundation. In the same interview, he denied that
the mosques around Razgrad had been built with money from Al Waqf.
But the foundation itself provides rather different information.
We contacted the Dutch branch of the foundation in Eindhoven, who,
according to invitation in our possession, had issued the invitation.
They asked us to fax them the invitation we had and the following day
confirmed that "the invitation is real, we sent it." A person who
introduced himself as Abu Tarik even said that in Saudi Arabia he had
managed to meet Muafak al Asaad.
Yana Buhrer Tavanier is an editor with the weekly Kapital.
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