“Instead of public, content sharing and communication is done through closed groups and encrypted platforms that are not easily visible and that are more difficult to access,” said Simeon Dukic, senior manager, Balkans and Central Asia, at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
According to Dukic, those behind such extremist content have adjusted their language to avoid classification as hate speech, but that the messages remain just as dangerous in attracting followers to radical ideas.
He said that that several groups spread material “related to Salafi-jihadist groups” in Albanian.
A particularly popular group is Bejtul Muhaxhirin, “whose followers share material on several social networks such as Facebook and YouTube, use platforms such as Google Driver and Archive.org, and manage public and created channels on encrypted platforms such as Telegram and TamTam,” Dukic told BIRN.
A particularly popular group is Beitul Muhaxhirin, whose followers share material on several social networks. Screenshot from Facebook
‘Blood should be shed’
The YouTube channel of Bejtul Muhaxhirin features a video of a woman purportedly being held in a Saudi prison. In it, the woman says that “blood should be shed” and “we should sacrifice ourselves” to protect Islam’s holy places. “The Prophet said that ‘Whoever dies protecting his property, his religion, his family is a martyr’,” she says.
In another, from 2020, a man identified as Sheikh Suleiman Ibn Nasir Al Ulwan decries moves away from laws prescribing amputation of an arm for individuals found guilty of stealing, saying that whoever endorses such a change is a “sinner”.
Dukic said that extremist groups are using the proliferation of mobile technologies and the development of social media to reach larger audiences, share narratives, and mobilise support for their political agenda. This is also the case with religiously-motivated radical groups, especially Salafi-jihadist organisations such as Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
Bejtul Muhaxhirin’s YouTube channel has 195 subscribers; the video by Sheikh Suleiman has been viewed just over 1,000 times. The group’s Facebook page has 853 followers.
In a report published in January and authored by Dukic, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue identified both Bejtul Muhaxhirin and a group called ‘Nasheedi im’ as propagating “ISIS-affiliated propaganda calling for jihad.”
Extremist content proliferated in parallel to the rise of Islamic States, but has been curtailed by efforts by social networks to improve their algorithms and by security services identifying and prosecuting individuals over their activities online.
This is not the whole story, however, said Dukic.
“During this period, it seems that the presence of religiously-motivated extremism online has decreased, but supporters of extremist groups have changed the way they operate,” he told BIRN, citing the use of closed groups and encrypted platforms to share extremist content.
Propagandists are also learning how to avoid direct use of hate speech in public, be they radical Islamists or Christian far-rightists.
“It is important to note that within the religiously motivated radical groups that have an online presence are movements that use Christian symbolism also,” Dukic said.
“For example, the Christian Brotherhood, though it can be primarily classified as a right-wing group, uses Christian symbols and rhetoric in its content. Although there are large differences between groups like the Christian Brotherhood and Salafi-jihadist organisations, the way they use social media is similar.”
Theologian Sadullah Bajrami runs a mosque in the northern town of Kumanovo independent of the Islamic Community. Photo by Sadullah Bajrami’s Facebook profile.
‘Malicious untruths’
Zlatko Apostoloski, the government’s Coordinator for Prevention of Violent Extremism and Terrorism, said that authorities are constantly monitoring extremist online content.
“All cases, regardless of whether it is religious or other type of radicalism, which are posted on social networks, are constantly monitored by the competent institutions and they are removed,” he said.
The head of the Islamic Religious Community of North Macedonia, Reisul Ulema Hfz. Shakir ef. Fetai, said that the community’s imams “do not use vulgar or rude language” in their lectures, “nor is it logical for an imam, or a religious official operating in a particular community, to engage in partisan politics, since he is an imam of all.”
But he added: “We cannot take responsibility for theologians who are not employed in the ranks of the Islamic religious community.”
One such theologian is Sadullah Bajrami, who runs a mosque in the northern town of Kumanovo independent of the Islamic Community.
Bajrami has 79,000 followers on Facebook, 24,000 on Instagram, and more than 23,000 subscribers to his official YouTube channel. Observers of extremism have drawn attention to the tone of some of his teachings, but Bajrami rejected the notion he promotes radicalism.
In a statement to BIRN, Bajrami said: “Our language is never harsh nor threatening, but it is a critical language against all degenerative and destructive phenomena that endanger Islamic morals and ethics.”
“Any finding that asserts that something excessive is legislated in our mosque is tendentious; therefore we reject it as malicious untruths.”