And this is our interview with Dr. Rexhep Boja former mufti of Kosovo, the present director of the University of Islamic Studies in Kosovo. Born in1946 in Kosovo he went on to complete his primary studies in his motherland but decided to move to Medina, kingdom of Saudi Arabia where he completed his general secondary studies and university studies then a masters and a PhD from the Islamic university of Medina. He would then return to Kosovo to work in Islamic dawah until he was elected in 1990 president of the Malsiha of the Islamic council of elders. He was re elected 3 times until the year 2003 and he would participate in all the stages of independence for Kosovo and then as member of the intermediary council. He was a member of the interim council for the United Nations for running Kosovo also.

Doctor, welcome.

Imam:  Welcome to you, and I take up this opportunity to congratulate all the Muslims with the month of Ramadan, this generous month and that Allah accept their fasting and there night visual prayer and there righteous deeds from everyone. I would like to thank the Aljazeera members who have given me the opportunity to be present here and meet with the viewers.

Interviewer: Thank you very much, to start off, what did the independence of Kosovo constitute for you?

Imam: Yes, the beginning of this new history in Kosovo on the occasion of independence, we have 1) a country, the newest state in the world. And 2) now we can enjoy all the rights the we were denied for many centuries, and Alhamdulillah, we have arrived in the end to what the people of Kosovo always wanted, which is independence.

Interviewer: What are the rights on which you have received?

Imam: Truly, we have one. For the citizens of Kosovo to have the right to an independent state and we are now in Kosovo where we can direct our own affairs and with our own people.

Interviewer: What is the price that you have paid to receive this independence?

Imam: The price we have paid is high, in that for the many centuries that it took us to get here we don’t have enough time to go in to all the losses we have suffered between the two World Wars, the deaths of some 150,000 victims, the extradition of more than half of Kosovo's population to Turkey and Arab countries. In the last attack 1990 -1999, there was a mass exile and a racial and religious eradication of our people.

Interviewer: By whom?

Imam: By the Serbs, in the first case and in the second case. There have been 15,000 civilian victims, mostly women, children and the elderly. Then there are the 3,000 missing people whose families are still searching, 10 yrs later, still suffering from not knowing the fate of their missing loved ones. Then there’s what happened, something, which is not reported, anywhere in the history of the Kosovo war: the attack on the honor of 20,000 women and young girls in front of their parents. Many cases that have left families scared for life, mentally and physically. Women and young girls who can’t leave there homes any more.

Interviewer: So these attacks on the honor of women did not just take place in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Imam: Yes, they occurred in Kosovo also, there are statistics from the organizations that have these stats recorded with them. And there is the loss in property, things like the burning of house, 250,000 of them.

Interviewer: 250,000?

Imam: Yes, between destruction and burning and rape, and looting. First, they looted the house and then they burned it. After, that they would empty out the factories and shops and burned the markets. And they did not spare even the livestock.

Interviewer: Is this what the Serbs did during or after 1990?

Imam: Yes, no, no all of these is just 3 months, all of these during a period of 3 months only. In the year 1999, the livestock, the cows and sheep and the removal of all government records.

Interviewer: So this was only ten years ago that this happened?

Imam: No, no, this is only 3 months into the war, all these measures were taken of racial eradication and religious eradication, with the removal of citizenship when we were expelled from Kosovo, and we were stripped of our paper work and of nationality. We were inspected and any paperwork we had was destroyed. And for those who left Kosovo, they had no document to return. What was left at home was taken by the Serbs in Serbia, even today the citizens of Kosovo still suffer from these records in the registry of birth for example, and they have to deal with the Serbs about these records, so they have to go all the way to Serbia in order to get any record of their birth and to pay a price in order to recover their documents.

Interviewer: So you mean they erased the history of the people and their nationally?

Imam: Yes, and all this is what occurred in Kosovo.

Interviewer: But after the independence, if I may ask you, you can make a comparison between the reality that you lived in as Muslims under the Serb occupation and the situation today, after independence after the EU protection which started in 1999 and ended in last Feb.

 

Imam: Yes. After the 'Kumanova agreement' in 1999 and the entrance of NATO in Kosovo and the withdrawal of the unjust and aggressor force of the Serbs from Kosovo, their began the return the populations of Kosovo from exile and thereafter the return after they were spread across the world in the neighboring countries and especially in Albania which had received and taken in the people of Kosovo like a mother takes in her child. There were more than 700, 000 refugees in Albanian and right after the agreement they returned to Kosovo and walked  foot only to find their houses had been destroyed and ruined, some rigged with explosives.  How many of them died in with these explosives, they did not wait until their land was cleaned up from these explosives and they found there nation, there houses like this, but for the love of their country they set up camps even though they did not have enough to eat.  

Interviewer: So everything was burned and destroyed?

Imam: Yes, everything was burned and destroyed, life in fact started under zero, then they confronted the misery of people who found those who lost their relatives and those who found their relatives killed and not even buried and the corpse living on the ground. And of course, there were many who went insane.

Interviewer: Became insane from the terror from what they found?

Imam: Yes, it was 2 years of sadness. A year of sadness and a year of condolences. 

Interviewer: In 1998 - 1999?

Imam: Yes, still today, families suffer from missing relatives and because of that; the people of Kosovo have began to collect themselves.

Interviewer: Forgive me; let me give the viewers an idea about the location of Kosova and some information about it. First, the map shows it is located between the mountains of Montenegro. Bordered by Albania, Macedonia and Serbia. It is land locked, its independence was proclaimed on February 17 2008. It has a population of about two million people, 90 % of which identify them as Muslim. After independence, the EU recognized it, and now more than 50 nations have done so. Amongst them, a few Muslim nations like turkey, Afghanistan and Albania. There are however, nations who oppose the independence and threaten them, like Serbia and its ally Russia. Yet not a single Arab country has recognized Kosova until now.
Imam what does that mean to you?

Imam: From our prospective, the ancient relationship, which ties us to the Arab world and Muslim world and it, is this relation of faith and religion, which is a great thing, very great thing and we ask ourselves the Muslims of Kosova, where are the Muslim countries. In truth, I don’t have an answer to tell them, it is as if the old history of communism and atheism has distanced us from this world, especially the Arab and Muslim world. There is still some remnants of communism and obstacles against any ties or relationships with the Arab and Muslim worlds.

 

Interviewer: The President of Kosovo, Fatmir Sejdiu, a professor of law at the university of Prishtina for 30 years until he was elected president. He said in an interview earlier this years held in Prishtina on 25 August, that he understands the reasons why some Arab countries are not recognizing Kosovo. The people of Kosovo are puzzled concerning the fact that no Arab country has recognized them, and from so many Muslim countries only 4 or 5 has recognized them.

Imam: There is truth in what the president said; it’s the same as what I said, and what everyone is asking. Every day after sunrise, people read the news and ask is there any news on recognition by a new country so they can rejoice.

Interviewer: Ramush Haradinaj, the former PM said in an article posted in the Washington post and copied over by the Arab al-Arab newspaper on the 23rd of September that there is no possibility of stopping the independence of Kosovo because it is an independent state by force of reality since 1999 and that Serbia and Russia are exercising their utmost will to stop this independence. Even the head minister of Serbia said he would ask the Arab league to help in fighting against this independence of Kosovo. The Arab nations are not offering anything, politically speaking.

 

Imam: In truth, we had declared our independence another time before, it was in 1992 and at that time, we were recognized by Pakistan and others but then events did not allow this to apply. Then the year came when we declared our independence, a day of blessings we called it. Kosovo's parliament declared independence with the help of the NATO alliance, western nations, and the UN. And on the 2nd day after the proclamation, recognition was started by Turkey and it did not ask for anything and took the first decisive step, 1st in recognizing the history of Kosovo and secondly by supporting the people of Kosovo. Then Afghanistan and Albania. Albania, which is the mother nation, did not ask to join with Kosovo, but wanted to see an independent Kosovo, for that reason, there is a Serbia who wants to obstruct matters. But after the recognition of 48 great nations, we hope and want other nations to support the rights of the people of Kosovo.

Interviewer: Do you not fear that the FM of Serbia Vuk Jeremic, who said he will ask the Arab nations to support Serbia on the issue of Kosovo's independence. Your FM, Skender Hyseni came to visit Jeddah on 10 September at the conference of Muslim nations and urged the Arab nations to recognize Kosovo. It seems now that the scale is that Russia and Serbia have a bigger plate than the plate of Kosovo when you weigh the scale on Arab recognition of Kosovo?

Imam: in truth there are secrets in politics, we are not people of politics, and we do not know the political repercussions. We do not know the interest of the Arab nations with Serbia.

Interviewer: But there is an invitation by the president of Kosovo in an interview in April with Shark al Qatari, in which he said that Kosovo is a rich mineral country with coal, gold iron and so forth and that 60 % of the population are youth; it was as if he was inviting the Arab world to invest in Kosovo. It is clear that others are in a hurry to invest in Kosovo.

Imam: Yes, Allah subhanawataallah has blessed Kosova in what’s in it, in its ground like zinc, and gold.

Interviewer: It is the richest country as far as coal is concerned.

Imam: Yes, it is a passage for all the countries. From a commercial standpoint, what is inside Kosovo, we ask and invite the investors to come and visit Kosovo. They will find that after recognition there have been banks opened and insurance companies, there is peace and stability and I believe there is no nation like the young nation of Kosovo that you can come to without any visa. As soon as you arrive, you are greeted and welcomed by the people. And no one asks you how long you are going to stay.

Interviewer: Without a visa?

Imam: Yes, without a visa, and you can tour all of Kosovo.

Interviewer: From your prospective, do you feel you have stability and security in Kosovo?

Imam: Yes, because the people are the ones who keep the peace of Kosovo. Because of what it has suffered in the past, they are very keen on security and peace and there is the force of NATO peacekeepers protecting the borders. 

Interviewer: But the Serb threats have its influence.

Imam: We did not attack the Serbs and we do not intend to attack Serbia because there are Albanians inside Serbia from our own race, our own people. Presheva and three cities are still suffering from at the hands of Serbs. There were always ancient places where Albanian resided in which stretch all the way to the city of Nish and we do not attack Serbia with this. However, we say to Serbia enough of your transgression to our people, this is our birthplace and we are the original people of the tribes of Indo Illyria, the very first people who settled in these lands. Indeed, the word 'Ilir' means free in Albanian.

Interviewer: There is a difficulty in characteristics, you are part of the Muslims in Europe who make up the 55 million European Muslims and the Muslims all around the world right now are being pointed at with fingers from people who claim we are terrorists. As European Muslims, how do you  interact with European society and the threats and the fears that are directed at you the conflict of persevering your Islamic identify, Albanian identify, integration into Europe and melting in the west. We will listen to your response after a short moment. With the former mufti of Kosovo, concerning the situation of the Muslims in Kosova.   (Break music)

Interviewer: Welcome again to the program without boundaries, in this episode we take up the situation of Kosovo, the newest independent state of Europe. These 2 million Muslims are part of the wider Muslim population in the Balkans. Before I let me guest respond to this conflict between preserving the identity, I should give you a brief summary about the Balkans. The total number of people is 15 million, 647,000. Albania has 2.1million, Bosnia 2 million Kosovo’s 2 million, Serbia 1 million, Bulgaria 1.1 million, Turkey's European side stands at 5.9 million, Macedonia 750,000, Greece 140,000, Croatia 56,777, Russia 25 million, and others at 400,000. 55 million Muslims in all of Europe. Sources from the supreme council of Muslims in Germany published 12 may 07; this is concerning the countries in the Balkans of the east. On the western side of Europe, the total number in Western Europe is 12 million, in France, there are 5.5 million, Germany 3.2 million, and Briton has 1.5 million, Holland 1 million, Denmark 117,000, Norway 80,000, Sweden 25,000, Italy 1 million, Spain 700,000 and Portugal 12,000. These numbers could be a little higher. Doctor, as the most recent country of Muslims, it would be difficult to declare yourself a Muslim country considering that you are in Europe. The fight for identify should you become Europeans or do you has traditions that pull you to a return to your roots, how do you resolve this difficult conflict?

 

Imam: There are in truth, Muslims in Kosovo, and our faith in Islam is no less than that of the Muslim world. And if we take into consideration that for many years we were under communist oppression and atheists' oppression…

Interviewer: Not years, but decades, long decades.

Imam: Yes, decades and the Kosovars embraced the Islamic religion before the arrival of the ottomans by way of merchants.

Interviewer: Six centuries ago?

Imam: Yes, there was commerce with the Arab states at that time. There were merchants who came and there is  history that exists of an embracing of Islam, but with the arrival of the Ottomans, there stay culminated in the majority of the Albanian peoples (that is; the people of Albania, Kosovo, Western Macedonia, Northern Greece and Southern Montenegro) fully embracing Islam.  The Kosovars, from them, our ancestors, and their ancestors reverted to Islam freely and willingly and they have held on to Islam and we are their children, we have tried to continue this and to preserve our religion and our beliefs and we shall die upon that Inshallah. Our Islam might be different from the immigrant Muslim population of Europe, we are of the original people, with our traditions and our ways we are similar to the Arab nations.

Interviewer: Is there any humanitarian organizations from the Muslim and Arab worlds that have done works in Kosovo?

Imam: Yes, many of our health institutions are from the Arab and Muslim world.

Interviewer: Our time is over, Imam; I thank you for being with us. And thanks to the viewers, we hope we gave you a clear view of the newest country in the world, a Muslim country, the country of Kosovo.

Imam: Thank you

Interviewer: Good Night, Selam Alikum.