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THE MUSLIM FORUM OF ALBANIA

Press Release

03.01.2006

Su: The desecration of the Tabakëve Mosque in Tirana

In morning of January 1st, 2006 the Mosque of Tabakëve in Albania’s capital, Tirana, was attacked by some unidentified people who after breaking the doors of the mosque, desecrated its praying halls, broked many of its equipments, as well as spread dirt upon the carpets, the Qurans and other holy books of the mosque and cut them into pieces. This act of desecration against one of the most important mosques of Islam in Albania is not the first precedent, when Islamic buildings have been desecrated with dirt or filled up with hate graffitis. However, the attack on the Tabakëve Mosque which happened just few hours after the embassy of the Republic of Albania was attacked in a terrorist fashion in Beograd, reminds us of the days when people working for foreign enemies of Albania (which were later discovered and discredited by our public opinion) tried to incite inter-religious hatred in the country, by throwing dead animals and dirt in mosques and churches.

The Muslim Forum of Albania finds it very disturbing, that our law enforcing authorities are showing to be too slow on finding the perpetrators of this violent attack on the said mosque, which was attacked during the daylight in the middle of our country’s capital. Even that the police came in the crime scene immediately after the incident, the specialists who had to document the fingerprints of the perpetrators came only after two days.

The Tabak Mosque preserves until this very day the signs of the bullets with what it was hit some years ago, when an armed band of criminals entered into its premises and terrorized and robbed its believers. This crime has unfortunately gone unresolved until this present day. The believers of the mosque have complained since a long time of provocations and threats they have received by well known criminals of the area, who in some cases have even thrown explosives inside the mosque. What concerns us more than the actual acts of crime, is the negligence that our law enforcing authorities are showing towards tracing and punishing the criminal and provocateur elements, who, by seeing this general negligence from the law authorities are finding the mosques easy targets for attacks.

The Muslim Forum of Albania, is deeply concerned not only because a religious institution has been attacked and desecrated, but even from the heavy emotional weight that such criminal acts cause to our society. For this reason we demand from our authorities to show their maximal attention for addressing properly the above mentioned criminal acts.

The Muslim Forum of Albania
Tirana