Kosova Changing Reality

By Bill Weinberg, "Missing on Kosova: the sufi voice?" - WW4 Report - Brooklyn, NY, USA
Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Newly pseudo-independent Kosova, it seems, is serving as a sort of political Rorschach test, with commentators' views on its drive for self-determination shaped more by their views on other issues.

Days after left-wing Israeli dissident Uri Avnery noted Israeli reluctance to recognize Kosova lest it give some ideas to the Palestinians (and, worse yet, Israeli Arabs), comes a voice from the neocon end of the spectrum—finding that Kosovars and Israelis are natural allies.

Michael Totten writes in a March 20 piece for Commentary (also online at his website):
The State of Israel is divided on the Kosovo question: should the world’s newest country be recognized?

Some, like former Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman, worry that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia might encourage Palestinians to make the same move. The small Balkan state, however, may have more in common with Israel than with the West Bank and Gaza.

Israelis, as Amir Mizroch notes in the Jerusalem Post, have excellent relations with the Kosovars. "Israel has an interest in helping to establish a moderate, secular Muslim state friendly to Jerusalem and Washington in the heart of southeast Europe," he writes.

Indeed, Kosovo is neither an enemy state nor a jihad state. Its brand of Islam is heavily Sufi, which is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Wahhabism and Salafism that inspire Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

In other words, the Kosovars are domesticated good Muslims, who view the US as protector rather than hegemon.

[But] The reality may be more complicated—and interesting—than either side will acknowledge.

A March 13 article in the Tehran Times mentions some deep-rooted elements in the region which appear to exist outside the spectacularized jihad-vs-GWOT duality.

It notes that the Albania-based Sadi Cultural Foundation is establishing libraries and tekiyas—sufi gathering places— in Kosova and Macedonia "with the assistance of the Bektashi Order and is planning to set up more in the future."

(...)

[Picture: Kosova Map, "Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin."]