Olsi JAZEXHI

During the past two days Kosovo has witnessed one of the most brazen and callous attacks on freedom of speech and religion – though you would hardly think so from the lack of coverage it has received anywhere else. At first sight, Gazeta Zëri, a local newspaper headed by Arbana Xharra whom the U.S. State Department recently honoured with the ‘International Women of Courage Award’ for her contribution “on religious extremists” launched an attack against imam Irfan Salihu. Xharra’s paper attacked imam Salihu for a sermon that he most likely delivered in 2014. In the sermon, he had praised Turkey for “saving the Kosovars from Serbia” during the 14th century, while criticized many atheist (and Catholic) intellectuals who constantly attack and blame the Ottomans for all the evils found in Kosovo today. The imam queried why Kosovar intellectuals never attack Enver Hoxha, Albania’s reclusive communist-era leader, or Tito, Millosheviç, or even the notorious post-WW2 Yugoslav intelligence chief Rankoviç who perpetuated the worse crimes against Kosovars, but instead focus only on the Ottomans. Irfan argued that this is done only because the Ottomans were Muslim. “If the Ottomans were our enemies, why did our grandfathers immigrate to Turkey?”, Salihu further enquired, before censuring atheists for their attempts to Albanianize all Serbian churches in Kosovo and for their desire to depict Albanians as ‘Christian’ and their refusal to acknowledge the Muslim identity of Albanians. But the most provocative part of his sermon came when the imam argued that in 1445 Kosovo had only a one percent Albanian population and that this only increased with the coming of the Ottomans who promoted an expansion of Albanian territories.

Arbana Xharra, the awardee of U.S. State Department

Salihu’s comments were condemned by Arbana Xharra’s newspaper which went on to depict him as someone who defends the Serbian history. The attack by Zëri newspaper against the imam went viral. Avni Islami, a Kosovar who portrays himself as a ‘security expert’ proposed that Kosovo’s Prosecutor General should investigate the imam, imprison and remove him from his religious position. Dardan Islami, a colleague of Kosovo’s most notorious oligarch, Veton Surroi, called on state institutions “to urgently react and stop by law the activities of these germs.” Such vicious and illiberal commentaries did not stop there. Gazeta Zëri continued with its propaganda against the imam by reporting that Serbian media had praised him for his declaration that the Albanians were brought to Kosovo by “the Turks”. In another article it claimed the imam’s words favoured Belgrade’s agenda in the Balkans. Zëri’s attacks which have tarnished, fined and forced an increase in Islamophobia did not stop there as it took to Facebook to solicit comments made by Xhemal Ahmeti, an Albanian living in Switzerland who recently changed his Muslim name into a Catholic one (Jon Leka). Ahmeti demanded that the Islamic Community of Kosovo immediately sack imam Salihu for his sermon, threatening that they would otherwise be held responsible for his remarks. Mr Leka also demanded that authorities should take measures against the Islamic Community as well. Zëri’s choice of pundit was amusing, if it wasn’t so detrimental to the values of a free and open society that it claims to holds dear. Hate speech and visceral articles against Salihu were accompanied by many Facebook postings and online comments where the imam was insulted, vilified and depicted as “an Arab”, “a Turk” with some even calling for his assassination. While the Kosovar authorities are very quick to react and arrest any Muslim who they perceive to be engaging in hate speech, they are idle in the face of attacks on Muslims and so far no arrest has been made announced against those who called for the imam’s assassination.

Faced with a sense of overwhelming nationalist hysteria engineered by Zëri, the favourite newspaper of U.S. Embassy in Prishtina, a day later imam Irfan Salihu was suspended from his position as imam at the mosque of “Suzi Qelebiu” in Prizren, and the Islamic Community of Kosovo began an internal investigation through its Disciplinary Commission. After his suspension Arbana Xharra, whose sophistry had instigated the witch-hunt against imam Saliu congratulated the Islamic Community of Kosovo (ICK) via her Facebook account for its “decision to suspend Irfan Salihu”. She said that “this is a signal of a reforming agenda from ICK, which has been asked for too long to do something against these trends within the community.” She also thanked those ‘imams’ who jumped on the bandwagon of nationalist hate against Salihu “for their willingness to publicly distance themselves from Irfan’s kind.” Jon Leka (alias Xhemal Ahmeti) who had early made a public demand to the Islamic Community to sack the imam also took to Facebook to celebrate the ruling. When asked if he was the one responsible for his suspension Ahmeti proudly responded: “[We will remove them] one by one. Let them swear… let them continue.”

In the midst of this hysteria, one is left asking what was the crime imam Irfan Salihu actually committed? Did he insult anyone? Did he invent anything of his own volition? Is Kosovo a democratic republic where everyone, including the Muslims, have the right to express publicly their opinions? Or is it a Catholic dictatorship where Muslims have no rights to express their own points of view regarding history? Many Kosovar Muslim commentators who were shocked by this ugly episode commented that their imam had not said anything different to what the ex-provost of the University of Prishtina had declared a few months earlier: that the Albanians expanded their territories thanks to the Ottoman Empire. The CIA World Factbook also notes that:

The defeat of Serbian forces at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 led to five centuries of Ottoman rule during which large numbers of Turks and Albanians moved to Kosovo. By the end of the 19th century, Albanians replaced the Serbs as the dominant ethnic group in Kosovo.

With these historical sources in mind, many began asking why their imam was subject to such a vicious witch-hunt for merely expressing his opinion? Imam’s point of view was supported by many Kosovar and Albanian pundits, organizations and even a political party – but to no avail. He is still suspended and is depicted as an enemy by the Kosovar media. In an interview with an online portal, imam Salihu explained that he has other video-sermons where he explains that the Albanians are native in Kosovo, and that the welcome they gave to the Ottomans was the same as the one they gave to NATO forces in 1999 as the Serb army was forced to leave.

However, as many Kosovars Muslims know, their country is not as free as they are lead to believe. Over the past few years they have seen how their community, their imams and political leaders are demonized and even imprisoned when they chose to express their opinions in public. Arbana Xharra, whom the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has praised as someone who “helped us fight against the rise of a radical extremism threatening global peace and prosperity” has given her verdict through the newspaper that she directs. She has boldly declared that imam Salihu is an enemy of the Kosovar state merely because he thinks that the Ottomans were good for Kosovo and that they helped the Albanians to prosper and progress. By committing this thought crime, her media labelled him as someone who is “working for Serbia”. Thanks to the hate campaign that Arbana Xharra and company instigated against Salihu, the imam lost his job and is going to face a disciplinary committee. The punishment of imam Irfan Salihu for his praise of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire has set a precedent for all of Kosovo’s public servants and religious figures. From now on, they must all be very careful about their public views on the official historiography which is invariably driven by a contradictory and noxious cocktail of communist and Catholic myths. If they happen to believe that Kosovo is a country which does not belong to Catholic Albanians alone, but to Muslim Albanians, Turks and Serbs and/or that the Ottoman past (God forbid if they mention Yugoslavia!) was actually good for them – they are sure that they too will face a wave of hysteria by journalists certified by the U.S. Embassy in Prishtina. This is how democracy works in post-Yugoslav Kosovo. If you praise Turkey, you may lose your job.

* The opinions of the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Prizren Post.