Press Interpreter

07/09/05 -- The leaders and imams of the Islamic Union appealed to the Muslims of Macedonia to ease tensions, after the escalation of a clash over the presidency of the union, following an attack upon five of the imams by armed and masked men.

The five imams, who requested that the Islamic Union elections be free and fair, confirmed that those who attacked them were among the partisans of the Mufti of Skopje (Zenun Berisha) and the former president of the union (Jakup Selimovski), in coöperation with those who elevated them among the Wahhabis.

The five imams, among whom was Muharram Faisali, the president of the planning committee for the imams of Skopje, were dealt intense blows by hand and foot, as well as with rifle butts, after a visit to one of their colleagues in one of the suburbs of Skopje, from which they were brought to the hospital in Skopje. The Macedonian police have not divulged the names of the assailants to the bureau of identification, according to its statement.

This crisis seemed to reach a fork in the path after a gathering in the city of Titova (northwest Macedonia) which brought together eight of the mufti's men, and seven members of the presidential committee of the union, and adopted an agreement to accept the resignation of the current president Arif Amini, a censure of all the recent events which gave rise to rumors of terror and chaos among the Muslims of Macedonia, and established an interim presidential committee to manage the elections.

The imams of Skopje said that no one notified them about these decisions, but they demonstrated their willingness to comply with them, on the condition that the interim council and the governing institutions adopt punishments for the assailants that would deter any future attacks.

In this context, the governing committee moved to coördinate mediation with the religious gatherings in order to respond to this crisis, but they had not yet received permission from the interim council.

In a religious gathering, the president of the committee, Cani Mojanovski, stated in reference to this ferocious squabble that it was desirable to work amidst it in peace and on the basis of mutual respect.

One of the members of the Islamic Union presidential committee declared to Aljazeera.net that, at the opening of the session of the committee, it reinstated the decision to prohibit the entrance of Zenun Berisha and his associates, as its initial order of business.

The return to complete tranquility among the Muslims of Macedonia and their religious leadership will be tied to the election of a new president for the Islamic Union in a fair and peaceful atmosphere.

[Full Article]

By Samir Hassan

--Translated by C.G. Häberl

This article was translated using the Translation Wiki ( http://www.translationwiki.net ). To see the original text side by side with the translation and to make additions or improvements, go to the Translation Wiki for this article: http://www.translationwiki.net/index2.php?action=trans&type=view&id=21&PHPSESSID=e1119a76e74e270cdae075d254d57a88 (works best in Firefox, http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ ).

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