Kosovo: 'Islam-lite' Kosovars determined to stay secular

Kosovo: 'Islam-lite' Kosovars determined to stay secular

Via the Irish Times:

“We are nominal Muslims,” says Dren, a researcher at a Pristina- based NGO. “We don’t go to the mosque much; we drink alcohol and eat pork. That’s just the Kosovar way.”

However many within Kosovo’s secular-minded majority are uneasy over what appears to be a drift towards more conservative interpretations of Islam in some parts of the country.

“You see more women wearing hijab and more men wearing beards,” says Brikena Hoxha of the Kosovo Stability Initiative, a Pristina-based think tank. “This is new for us.”

The emergence of an increasingly vocal minority of devout Muslims has unsettled those who would prefer that the majority faith in Kosovo – which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008 – remains “Islam-lite” as one Pristina resident puts it.

(source)

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Gothenburg: Christian-Muslim couple from Kosovo hiding from immigration police

Gothenburg: Christian-Muslim couple from Kosovo hiding from immigration police

Via SR:

A couple from Kosovo are living in hiding in Gothenburg, and say they are willing to do so for the rest of their lives in order to stay in Sweden. Their asylum request has been rejected. According to the Immigration Service, there are close to 5,000 people in Sweden who were refused asylum but cannot be found to be deported.

The woman is pregnant and says it is diffiuclt, every day they think of the fact that their child will have no future.

The woman says she had been married off by her family to a man she didn't love. She was not allowed to marry the man she loved since she was Muslim and he was Christian. "The rules are that Muslims marry Muslims and Christians marry Christians," they say.

Therefore they decided to flee together to Sweden and Gothenburg. For now they're hiding from the police, and are hoping for a change to the asylum laws. Until then, they hope the Church can find them an apartment where they can hide.

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Germany: Kosovan jailed for life for killing U.S. airmen

Germany: Kosovan jailed for life for killing U.S. airmen

A Kosovo-Albanian man who killed two U.S. airmen and wounded two others in a gun attack at Frankfurt airport last March was sentenced to life in prison by German court on Friday. (source)

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