(At least some are now appearing to not answer to the 'calling'.)
www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/albania-muslims-shun-isil-s-world-caliphateAnalysis 08 Jul 14
Albania Muslims Shun ISIL’s World Caliphate
Alleged plans to include Albania in a newly declared global Islamic state have obtained a cool reception among Albanian Muslim leaders.
Muslims in Albania have been jolted by the publication of a map of the future Islamic Caliphate planned by militant Islamists in the Middle East, which includes Albania.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, ISIL, which holds a swathe of territory in Iraq and Syria, published the map on the Internet, showing all territories it aspires to occupy in the next five years.
According to the map, the radical Sunni militant group aims to annex North Africa, the Iberian peninsula, the Middle East, the Persian Gulf and good parts of Eastern Europe, including Albania.
It is unclear whether the map is only a crude propaganda tool or whether it reflects concrete plans on the part of the militant group.
Meanwhile, both the project and the group itself are viewed with suspicion by Muslim leaders in Albania.
A minority of believers in the country has described the idea of an Islamic state on social networks as appealing.
But most believe that an Islamic state encompassing all the areas that Muslims once occupied is a complete fantasy.
Although some ethnic Albanians have joined the ranks of the militant group, experts note that the ISIL was born out of sectarian strife between the Sunni and Shia branches of the Muslim faith.
They thus doubt it will replicate the success it has achieved in Iraq and Syria in other regions, where such divisions are not present.
“A number of believers with a low level of education have shown enthusiasm about the declaration of a caliphate, as a novelty, but the rest remain skeptical,” Justinian Topulli, head of Albanian League of Imams, assured BIRN.
“To the majority if Muslims [in Albania] it looks artificial, like a conspiracy organized by certain forces, rather than a return of the caliphate,” he added.
On June 29, the militant group formerly known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, shortened its name to “The Islamic State”, underlining global ambitions that extend well beyond the geographical area it currently controls.
The man believed to be the group’s leader, Abu Baker Al-Baghdadi, made his first public appearance last Saturday at a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
In the video, the man dressed in black said that “the mujahedeen have been rewarded with victory by God after years of jihad and have been able to achieve their aim and announce the caliphate and choose the caliph,” he said, referring to himself.
“It is a burden to accept this responsibility, to be in charge of you,” he added on the video.
The International Center for the Study of Radicalization, ISRA, a think tank based in King's College, London, believes that some 300 Albanian fighters, from Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania, have joined radical jihadist groups in Syria, including Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIL.
In March, the Albanian authorities arrested eight people, including two radical imams, suspected of recruiting Albanians to join militant groups in Syria.
Meanwhile, an Albanian from Ferizaj, in Kosovo, was reportedly behind a horrific suicide bombing in Iraq that killed at least 25 people.
Albania has a long tradition of peaceful co-existence between its different faiths.
But, perhaps because it is a majority Muslim country, ISIL has taken a distinct interest in Albania.
It has repeatedly circulated propaganda through social networks targeting Albanian speakers and promoting ethnic Albanian jihadists in its ranks.
The latest Facebook page of ISIL propaganda in Albanian appeared in February. It was taken down in June.
The page, which had up to 430 “likes”, lauded the activities of ethnic Albanian jihadists fighting in Syria and appeared to serve as an information point in Albanian for the fighters.
In a post dated May 6, a communiqué reported the truce announced by the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra with ISIL.
“On the request of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Nusra front, which is a branch of al-Qaeda, has suspended operations against ISIL,” the post informed readers, adding further details about the truce between the two militant groups.
Other posts accompanied by pictures have promoted the image of Albanian jihadists fighting with ISIL. In a message on May 4, seven heavily armed men posing in a picture were described as Albanian jihadists. “Albanian mujahedeen, may Allah protect them,” the post read.
Although jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq pose a security threat to all the European states from which they hail - Albania included - the Islamic State has not particular meaning or relevance in the Albanian context, Besnik Sinani, an Islamic studies expert based in Tirana, noted.
“ISIL has a meaning in a sectarian context, where one exists, and there it can be expected to last for a long time,” he said.
“What has made them strong was the revolt of the Sunnis against the Shia-dominated government,” he added, referring to the government installed in Iraq following the US-led invasion, which replaced the regime of Saddam Hussein.
“Even religious figures that traditionally propagated the idea of an Islamic Caliphate in the Middle East have now denounced ISIL as a fake caliphate, which does not meet the religious criteria,” he noted.
Pointing to a photograph of the former US Presidential candidate John McCain beside ISIL fighters, Sinani said there had been a kind of global flirtation with groups fighting in Syria by people who clearly did not understand their goals.
“Many Albanian imams made [the war in] Syria part of their sermons, making it part of the immediate concerns of those who listened, without understanding that it would be transformed into a problem,” he said.
“They have since distanced themselves and have called on Albanians not to go to Syria, but this came too late; it should have been done a long time before,” he added.
Topulli, from the League of Imams, meanwhile expressed another concern – about the growing demonization of conservative believers generally.
A government crackdown on would-be fighters, and the tabloid media’s sensational reporting of the arrest of alleged recruiters, has created a mood of apprehension, he said.
“The arrests have created a climate of fear and even terror among Muslim believers,” Topulli said, referring back to events in 1967, when the former Communist dictator, Enver Hoxha, banned religion altogether.
Thousands of mosques and churches were suddenly closed as part of Albania’s drive to make good its claim to be the world’s first atheist country.
Although religious practice revived after the Communist regime fell in 1991, an attitude on the part of elites and the media, painting devout Muslims as backward and uneducated, remains commonplace.
Topulli noted that in the past, claims that imams were propagating on behalf of terrorist groups had often turned out to be little more than hot air.
However, Topulli noted that the “not guilty” verdicts these men received in the courts tended to receive far less attention in the media than the original arrests had done.
“There is a tendency in the media to be unbalanced in its coverage, and this is creating a phobia among Muslim believers,” he concluded.