German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung mentions that Kosovo, from where in the wars in the Middle East has already been killed more than 40 people, and Bosnia with more than 30 killed, are leading countries for the recruitment of jihadists in the Balkans. The paper points out that Serbia is undertaking measures, which provide even the ten-year sentence, in order to impede or prevent Islamic groups to recruit the fighters.
German newspaper writes that “as in the case of other poor Balkan countries, with high rates of unemployment, the influence of radical forces is also growing in Kosovo.” According to the estimates of Kosovo’s security services and American CIA, in the wars in the Middle East participated 150 people from Kosovo. The paper states that, in addition to 150 people from Kosovo, there are about 140 recruited people from Albania, 30 from Montenegro and 20 from Macedonia.
“Balkans, among Western countries with a large Muslim minority, such as France, Belgium and England, became one of the European major areas for recruitment of fighters for the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other radical groups – the newspaper said, citing as an example Bosnia, where 40 per cent of Muslims live. In that country, from the time of the Bosnian war in the early nineties, exists the link with radical Islam. Then, Muslims from all over the world came to help their brothers in faith, in the fight against the Serbs. In recent years, the Islamic Foundation, often with Saudi money, is increasingly engaged in Bosnia. Some villages, such as the Gornja Maoca, are considered to be an Islamic fortress – Sueddeutsche Zeitung writes.
The paper states that the Bosnian police, several years ago, estimated the number of radical Islamists to more than 3,000 people and that at the beginning of September, B&H Security service said that there are indications that 340 Bosnian Islamists are in Iraq and Syria, as part of ISIS, or other radical groups. More than 30 of them have died, reads the paper.
Noting that more than 40 ethnic Albanians were killed in the wars in the Middle East, the newspaper writes that the Kosovo authorities, in August and September, in a raid arrested dozens of alleged veterans of ISIS and agitators, and 15 Islamists suspected of terrorism, violation of the constitution and inciting religious hatred. Among those arrested were Fuad Ramići, leader of the Islamic Party Lisba and 12 Imams, including Pristina imam Shefqet Krasniqi. That action was supported by the American government. However, some observers were sceptical in regards to the entire event, because “the president of the Kosovo government, Hashim Thaci, and his PDK party were not so bad in understanding with the Islamists, for years.”
The newspaper reminds that Kosovo Court of Appeal decided to release 11 of 15 arrested, as in the case of Bosnia, where those who were arrested, later were released. “Muslims in Europe are killing and dying for ISIS. Many of them come from Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo. The governments correspond to it with a wave of arrests, including Imams,” writes the paper.
Even the citizens of Serbia, which is predominantly inhabited by Orthodox Christians, went to the Middle East, reads Sueddeutsche Zeitung and suggests that, at least, a few young men from Novi Pazar, according to statements of their desperate parents, last year went to the Middle East.
The German newspaper says that Muslim minority lives in Sandzak. In that area, a call on Facebook sparked attention – it is a call, as they say, that Muslims in Novi Pazar establish Mujahedeen Army, to defend the region from Serbian nationalists. According to the newspaper, Serbian nationalists criticized for several years a growing public role of Islam in Novi Pazar and the call was a response to the comment of one Serbian nationalist.
The newspaper says that Serbia and other Balkan countries, in the coming weeks are planning to tighten the Criminal law, in order to hinder Islamic groups to recruit the fighters, along with the prison sentence for the offenders of 10 years. Similar laws have both Bosnia and Macedonia, and Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro are preparing the documents, the newspaper said, writing that, according to the estimates of the secret services and the London-based Centre for the Study of radicalization, hundreds of Islamists from this region was in ISIS and similar war groups.
When it comes to Macedonia, the paper states that the President of the State, Georgi Ivanov, at the end of September, used his speech at the United Nations to invite the European Union and NATO to, as soon as possible, admit Macedonia in their membership, or else, there is a danger that radical Islamists will fill a “vacuum” in the Balkans.
