Kosovo Imam in Trouble for Pro-Ottoman Sermon
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| Imam Irfan Salihu | Photo: YouTube |
A sacked imam faces charges of inciting ethnic hatred over a controversial sermon delivered in 2013 in defence of the Ottoman Turkish invasion, entitled “How to increase [God’s] blessings”, still available on YouTube.
Irfan Salihu, who is well-known in Kosovo for his stridently conservative views, publicised on dozens of YouTube videos, served as an imam in Prizren until last year, when the Islamic Community of Kosova, the official religious body, sacked him.
The indictment says Salihu incited national, racial, religious or ethnic hatred, discord or intolerance in a sermon that defended the medieval Ottoman conquest on the grounds that it made Albanians rulers of part of the Balkans.
“They insult that same Muslims [the Ottoman Turks] who gave them acres of land and brought them to live in Kosovo and made them rulers of the Balkans,” the indictment quotes Salihu as saying in March 2013.
Salihu’s sermon in defence of the Ottomans went largely unnoticed, but a few months later, in June 2013, another sermon, on “female fornication”, brought him national attention.
“You must stay away from women who have committed squalid acts of fornication, these harlots and whores. Every female who has engaged in a sexual act before marriage is a harlot and a whore,” Salihu told believers at Friday prayers in the “Suzi Qelebiu” mosque.
Even devout Muslims reacted with dismay to Salihu’s comments, who also said women who engaged in premarital sex should be cast away, comparing them with “used tires”.
“Do you want a spare tire for yourself, oh brother? Somebody else has used it and you’re looking for a new tire, but what you get is a used one, which tomorrow will educate your children,” the imam said.
In the same sermon, which is available on YouTube, having drawn more than 246,000 views, the imam uses an array of insults, also comparing women to used spoons, napkins and door locks.
“Leave the trash outside. Let them be. Let it be known they were tainted. If you were fooled and married them, and then you discovered them, leave them. Kick them out,” he urged.
Women’s organisations protested against these remarks and women MPs met with the Islamic Community of Kosova asking for the imam to be dismissed.
However, the imam was only sacked in April 2015 in relation to his anti-patriotic sermon.
Lura Limani, an activist on behalf of gender equality, said indicting the imam for defending the Ottomans was absurd.
“It is ridiculous that a man whose entire history of public speeches seems to rely heavily on inciting hate, specifically against women who do not live by Sharia law, is only prosecuted once he makes a silly claim,” Limani told BIRN.
Kosovo has a poor record on sexism and violence towards women.
According to a survey by the Kosova Women’s Network, 48 per cent of women in the country have been victims of sexual harassment and 68 per cent have been subjected to domestic violence.
Salihu’s online sermons which comprehensively target women, include: “Cursed women”, “Prom night”, “Nudity”, “Obligations of wives towards husbands”, “Events in an Albanian wedding (kiss, kiss, kiss)” and others.
Following concern over the number of people from Kosovo who have gone to fight in the Middle East, the authorities have been cracking down on hard-line Islamists.
The authorities have arrested nearly 100 alleged hardliners lately, including imams, accusing them of involvement in terrorist activities.
The Ottoman Turks invaded and subjugated the Balkans in the early medieval era and remained in control there for about 500 years. They were not expelled from Albanians lands until 1912/1913, when Albania declared itself independent and Serbia conquered Kosovo.
Under Ottoman rule, most Albanians converted to Islam and some flourished in the Ottoman Empire. Most Albanian historians, however, see the Ottomans an oppressive force who held back the nation’s development.



