A Simple Test of Your Knowledge of Islam

Why are Bosnian Muslims wary of Israel?  Hint: It has nothing to do with Zionism or the Jews. Jewcy contributor Stephen Schwartz reports:

Perhaps the most surprising message brought by the delegation from the Al Qasemi Academy in Baqa al Garbya, Israel, was their description of the sharia courts maintained by the state of Israel for resolution of disputes among Muslims. Sharia courts are scarce in the Balkans, and the explanation that Israel recognizes religious courts for Jews and Muslims (and, if they desire them, Christians) alongside the civil judicial apparatus, with the right of anybody to opt in or out of the alternative systems, was provocative for Bosnian Muslims.

Provocative indeed when they hear that it was cabalistic American intellectuals said to have a secret loyalty to the Jewish state who encouraged and facilitated the belated bail-out of Bosniaks during Milosevic's genocidal nightmare.

The crux of Stephen's piece is about the incipient Wahhabism now trying to choke the vibrant and cosmopolitan tradition of Islam in the Balkans:

In the clash between Wahhabism and moderate Islam in the Balkans, the most prominent battleground at present is the poor but bustling city of Tetovo, in western Macedonia. Many local people are followers of the Bektashi Sufis, a gnostic order named for Hajji Bektash Veli (1209-1271), a Turkish-language poet and friend–some say rival–of Rumi. The Bektashis, like the Shias and the Turkish and Kurdish Alevis, revere Imam Ali. They are without doubt the most active and influential Sufi movement in the Balkans, but they are despised by Wahhabis, for several reasons.

First, they represent a liberal trend among the Shias, and Wahhabis loathe Shias even more than they hate Jews and Christians. Second, the Bektashis consume alcohol. And third, men and women are equals in Bektashi rituals. Several Bektashi babas, as their teachers are known, have insisted to me that they are the "most progressive" element in global Islam, and they back that statement up with a long, proven, and fervent commitment to secular governance and popular education.

Last we heard from Stephen, he was delivering a speech in Macedonia that began: "Greetings to the Kryegjysh of the World Bektashi Community, Baba Reshat Bardhi, and to the assembled babas and believers."