The influence of Islamic terrorism in Kosovo - is there a danger for the region as well?

According to the latest available data, more than 400 people from Kosovo joined ISIS during the previous years, and it is assumed that throughout Kosovo there are thousands of sympathizers and those who recruit new fighters and spread the propaganda of Islamist terrorist organizations. In April 2021, they confirmed in Pristina that a total of 253 people returned to Kosovo from Syria, but that some are still there.

Without a doubt, Lavdrim Muhaxheri, better known as the Butcher from Kacanik, who was killed in 2018, was the most famous Albanian ISIS commander.

In the period from 2014 to 2018, the Kosovo police arrested several imams on charges of calling for war, i.e. jihad, but those charges were not upheld, and one of the most famous who was behind bars at that time was imam Sefqet Krasniqi.

It should not be forgotten that in 2015, a group that planned terrorist attacks in the north of Kosovo fell, but they also planned to poison the lake near Gracanica, and a year later, an attack on Israeli football players planned by Muhaxheri was prevented.

Last year, the US Federal Court convicted a 40-year-old man from Peja of supplying weapons and recruiting fighters for ISIS in the US, and after the terrorist attack in Vienna in 2020, the Austrian police arrested young men from Kosovo, Bangladesh, and Chechnya.

Security and terrorism expert Dzevad Galijasevic warns that the entire region is threatened by radical Islamists and terrorists whose bases and strongholds are in Kosovo.

"Through terrorist actions and threats of terrorist actions and through the emergence of radical Islamists, people in Kosovo will increasingly be tempted to leave Kosovo, where the government in Pristina is absolutely determined and violent and seeks to create a Kosovo without the Serbs and in order to more easily legalize its statehood. Radical Islamists are suitable for such things," Galijasevic said.

According to him, Kosovo proved, by sending radical soldiers to the Syrian and Iraqi battlefields, that it has an organizational structure and capacity for radical Islam, although it hides it from the public.

"Very often, the authorities in Pristina took action to arrest nine or ten radical imams, then released them, and among them was Idriz Bilibani, who went through the school of the El Mudzahid in Bosnia and Herzegovina and participated in the wars in those areas," Galijasevic said.

He emphasizes that the Pristina authorities use radical Islamists, on the one hand, to put pressure on the Serbs from Kosovo, while on the other hand, radical Islam is used to put additional pressure on the municipalities of Medvedja, Bujanovac, and Presevo, and then on to Montenegro and Macedonia.

"Radical Islam is a great security threat and it cannot remain limited only in Kosovo, but in that territory, it is under the protection of the local authorities in Pristina and the Western diplomacy located there," Galijasevic warns.

He believes that the security procedures of Serbia and the region must be respected and that the authorities closely monitor radical ideologies, their aspirations, movements, and development.

Security expert Drizan Shala points out for Kosovo Online that Kosovo has once again shown its determination to fight and prevent the emergence of terrorism.

"Regarding the draft strategy against terrorism in Kosovo, which is in the process of being formed, we can say that Kosovo has shown determination in fighting and preventing the emergence of terrorism in Kosovo, especially Islamist terrorism.

From the first cases presented in Kosovo, the security institutions, the police, and the Kosovo Intelligence Agency acted and reacted to bring the situation under control. The greatest success was in preventing a terrorist attack on the Israeli football team in Shkoder. Kosovo's political institutions have taken initiatives to fulfill the legal obligation by passing adequate laws that prevent participation in terrorist groups as well as their financing. I can say that Kosovo's national security has a direct impact on regional security by providing guarantees and institutional evidence in the prevention and fight against terrorism," Shala says.

Political scientist and professor, Radomir Milasinovic, states that radical Islam is a tool used to disrupt peace everywhere in the world and that the "conductor's baton" is in the hands of the US.

He points out that it is inevitable that such terrorist organizations are present in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but that their activities are marginalized because the Western powers are the decision-makers in the Balkans.

"It is a latent danger and it will sleep until the conductor's baton starts the concert," Milasinovic said for Kosovo Online.

He explains that the activity of radical Islamists was greatest during the conflict on the territory of the former Yugoslavia and that today their presence in the Balkans is the same as in other European countries.

"Radical Islam is a hoax of Washington, and every terrorist organization was created by the Central Intelligence Agency. Every stew cooked was cooked in Washington," Milasinovic says.

Currently, there are radical Islamists and their activities in Kosovo to the extent that they do not listen to their mentors, he assesses, adding that it is an "occupied territory" where it is known who has the main say - the countries of the NATO pact.

He states that 300 to 500 people from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo went to the Islamic Caliphate.

"Radical Islam is, in reality, marginal in the region for the simple reason that there is no institutionalization of their activities. Because who is in charge there? KFOR and foreign emissaries who pass laws and rules of conduct, both in Bosnia and Kosovo, are in charge," Milasinovic says.

When asked how much the region should be afraid of radical Islam, Milasinovic says that extremist groups and individuals are under control as long as the Western security system functions in these areas.

"The Balkans is never protected from conflict, because if the fire is not fueled, there will be no fire, but even when an individual is initiated, he acts in a group or organization or network. When the controller presses the button, it is known exactly who will act and how much will act anywhere in the world," Milasinovic concludes.