AlHijjah 8, 1432, Nov 4, 2011, SPA -- Imams across Bosnia issued a rare joint message during prayers on Friday condemning violence in the name of Islam, a week after an extremist attack on the U.S. embassy shook the country's overwhelmingly moderate Muslim community, Reuters reported. The assault by an Islamist gunman has revived questions over the threat from radicals in the Balkans. "We have all been disturbed and upset by the heinous and perfidious act of terrorism against the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo," imams across Bosnia told believers at Friday noon prayers. "We are particularly concerned and embittered by the violence, terror and crime that has been committed in the name of religion -- in this and previous such cases in the name of Islam," they said. The 23-year-old gunman, a Muslim man from neighbouring Serbia, fired at the city centre embassy for 30 minutes, wounding one police officer before a sniper shot him in the leg and he was arrested. At a court hearing, the gunman said he did not recognise the court, describing it as worthless. Two other men have been arrested and accused of aiding him. The Islam traditionally practised in Bosnia is moderate, and shaped by long coexistence with other faiths. Many Bosnian Muslims -- Slavic people who converted to Islam in the 15th century when the Ottoman empire conquered the Balkans -- see their model of Islam as under threat. "Don't fall into the trap of judging them as all the same," imam Mehmed Sljivo said during a sermon at the packed, elegant Ali Pasha mosque, where some prayed in the courtyard because they could not fit inside the building. -- SPA
