Muslims: Murder must not be motivated by religion
Murder for religious motives goes against Islamic beliefs, experts say.
Albanian Muslims at a prayer. [AFP]
By Ben Andoni for Southeast European Times in Tirana -- 13/05/13
The recent killing of an elderly Muslim man in Albania highlights the growing trend of pinning religious motives to crimes, an action that goes against moderate Islamic beliefs, experts said.
The suspect, who was apprehended by police, said that the old man was praying according to Albanian-Muslim tradition, not the Afghan prayer tradition, according to authorities.
"This crime must be brought to justice. All believers in our mosque received similar threats," Tomor Borici, mufti of the Lushnja region, where the murder was committed, told the Albanian media.
Agron Hoxha, director of public relations at the Muslim Community of Albania, attempted to distance religion from the crime. "It was not a murder that occurred for religious reasons. The police made a statement said that the [suspect] had other problems," he told SETimes.
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2013/05/13/feature-03