Kosovo’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Enver Hoxhaj, writes in an opinion piece that “although Kosovo is a secular state with a secular society, lately we have been hearing radical statements by some Islamic religious leaders who were educated in Arab and Islamic countries. They preach an Islam that is very different from Albanian Islam and a way of life that is different from reality in Kosovo”. Hoxhaj notes “the influence of different associations that in the post-war period were funded by the Arab world and which are trying to change the minds of young people and influential people in Kosovo”. Hoxhaj also talks about the “birth of smaller political parties that don’t enjoy electorate support and some of whom are trying to change Islam into a reactive and resisting ideology in Kosovo. With their radical religious orientation, they are trying to find new room, to establish their constituency, and to promote and encourage contradictory topics of religion. There is an active effort to Islamize public and political life in Kosovo. Such efforts are at the same time aimed at promoting an anti-European identity that goes against Kosovo’s vital interests”. Hoxhaj argues that religious extremism wants to create hostile relations between Kosovo and the West, and to make the United States of America and the European Union lose faith in the state and society of Kosovo. Hoxhaj suggests that Kosovo needs to further strengthen security and intelligence mechanisms to prevent all sorts of radical tendencies. “Moreover, structures of the Islamic Community of Kosovo that safeguard the Albanian tradition of Islam need to be actively engaged in removing extremist elements by encouraging a moderate and peaceful Islam,” he writes.