Islam in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Sandzak region in southwestern Serbia is considered cosmopolitan and tolerant. Sunni Muslims have lived here for centuries alongside Christians and Jews, creating their own European form of Islam. But since the 1990s, this Islam has repeatedly come under pressure from outside influences. The June 29, 2024, attack on a security guard at the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade is fueling fears of a new wave of radicalization.
Before the Bosnian war (1992-1995), there were no Salafists or Wahhabis in the Balkans, says Vetron Dzig of the Austrian Institute for International Policy in Vienna. “Their roots are not in the Balkans.” To this day, radical groups remain a minority among Muslims.
The Influence of Radical Groups During the Bosnian War
During the Bosnian War, Muslim Bosnians received significant military support, especially from Islamic countries, and foreign fighters also brought radical Islamist movements to the country, which did not disappear at the end of the war. They are the “foundation of political Islamism” in Bosnia-Herzegovina, writes Carsten Dummel. From 2014 to 2018, Dumel was the foundation’s office manager in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia.
About 4,000 mujahideen from Arab countries fought on the Bosnian side at the time, many of whom remained in the country after the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords. Radical groups have established themselves in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sandzak since the late 1990s with the apparent support of Saudi Arabia. Saudi money was used to build Salafist mosques and maintain cultural institutions.
During the war in Syria and Iraq, Islamic State served as a platform for socially disillusioned youth who went to fight for jihad in those two countries, according to Dzic. At the time, Bosnia and Herzegovina had an individual IS. These IS supporters actually come from some of the well-policed so-called Salafist villages in Bosnia. After the end of IS in Syria and Iraq in 2019, this type of radicalization decreased again. Since then there have been no Islamist attacks in the Western Balkans.
Saudi Withdrawal
Radical organizations persist even as Saudi Arabia cuts its financial support. According to media reports, the attacker in Belgrade, a Serbian convert, was radicalized among them. Most recently he lived in the Islamic town of Novi Bazar in the southern Serbian region of Sandzak. In January 2020, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced that he would no longer support mosques abroad. In 2021, the country’s de facto ruler described the “ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam as outdated” in a televised address.
The pillar of terrorism has been broken here. New factors play a role in this. The ongoing war in the Middle East may become a new driver of radicalization. “So far the impact of the Gaza war on the Balkans has been minimal,” says Giorgio Safiro, a Balkans expert at the US think tank Gulf State Analytics. “But the longer the situation in Gaza continues, the greater the risk.” The Gaza war contributes to the radicalization of young Muslims more than any other conflict around the world. “There are intense emotions in the Arab and Islamic world considering the many deaths in Gaza that should be mourned every day.” This leads the youth into the arms of extremist forces.
Extremism through the Gaza War?
Political scientist Vedran Žižić believes that current events in the Middle East are contributing to a new wave of radicalization, even if the exact number of these new extremists cannot be determined. In the Western Balkans, the Gaza war is seen as a global campaign against Muslims. “West mourns dead children in Ukraine, but calm prevails in Gaza”. This leads to bitterness, anti-Westernism and anti-Semitism.
Serbia’s policy is also seen as ambiguous. On the one hand, the country supports the concerns of Palestinians internationally, but on the other hand, it supplies weapons to Israel from October 7, 2023.
Social injustice and discontent
The majority of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sandzak reject extremism as an abuse of their religion. The Islamic community has clearly distanced itself from the terrorist attack in Belgrade. But apart from the Gaza war, social inequality and the unfulfilled promise of a better future after the Bosnian war are fertile ground for radicalization.
“In the 1990s the entire region experienced a major social and economic decline,” says Vedran Žižić. “Hopes for ‘catch-up process’ unfulfilled.” Only a small, new elite close to the regimes benefited. On the other hand, the vast majority of Bosnians struggle with marginalization, poverty and low living standards near the poverty line. There is great dissatisfaction among the youth about their status. Tens of thousands of people leave the region every year.
“This situation leads to despair and is fertile ground for radical ideologies, not only Islam, but also Serbian nationalism.” Muslims in Sanjak also see themselves as backward and discriminated against by the Serbs. After the Belgrade attacks, the risk of anti-Muslim sentiment in Serbia is on the rise. These will further fuel the cycle of disillusionment and radicalization.
Source: Deutsche Welle
