Black Banners in the Western Balkans: Jihadis in Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia

Introduction

In their study De-radicalising the Western Balkans, Tatyana Dronzina and Sulejman Muça (two researchers from Bulgaria) point out that „out of a total of 4000 Europeans who have joined the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS, 900 (approximately one-quarter) originate from the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia)”[1]. In addition, it is estimated that “in Albania, Bosnia, and Kosovo alone, extremists control more than 150 mosques and prayer rooms”.[2] These numbers are alarming and indicate an increasing security threat in the Balkans. Although jihadism is rooted in the Balkans since the 1990s, Balkan states have initiated a process of democratization and Europeanization, thought of as pacifiers of the region, and its religious-ethnic conflicts. The recent resurgence of jihadism in more radical and transnational forms reveals the uncertainties of the Balkans, which have led previously to large scale wars and conflicts.

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