Their sons went to fight for ISIS in Syria or Iraq, and some even had children in the conflict zone, then they were killed, leaving their impoverished relatives in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia to suffer.
Selim Demolli gripped the table with his hands, and his lip trembled with anger as he spoke.
The previous day he had talked to an imam about his son, who was killed three years ago in Syria. He asked the imam for a religious explanation about what happens to a dead person whose parents have not forgiven him. The answer was hard to take.
“He is not a shahid [martyr]. Those who did not get a blessing from their father cannot rest in peace. The imam even told me so. They are called ‘cursed’,” Demolli said.
