This article includes Radical Islamism and Islamic terrorism in the Balkans. While there is a significant community of Muslims in the Balkans, Wahhabism only began to spread after the Yugoslav Wars. There is an increase in incidents involving radical Islamism in the Balkans since the 1990s.
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Background
In 1990, Alija Izetbegović was the president of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA). The Party won the November 1990 elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the Bosnian War, Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) received financial aid from Iran and Saudi Arabia, and foreign fighters numbering up to 4,000 waged jihad in the war. There were several strict Muslim special units in the ARBiH, such as the 7th Muslim Brigade, Black Swans, Green Berets, Green Legion, El Mujahid, and Patriotic League. The Bosnian mujahideen (El Mujahid) was made up of foreign fighters and radical Bosniaks. In 1995, Izetbegović invited the jihadists to leave the country in return for American peacekeepers, leading to his denouncement from other Islamists.
In 1995, veterans of the Bosnian mujahideen established the Active Islamic Youth, regarded the most dangerous of the Islamist groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Incidents
Organisations
Kosovo
Kosovo has a mainly Muslim population. The traditional Islam in Kosovo is the Hanafi school, described as 'liberal' and 'moderate'.
Islamist volunteers in the Kosovo Liberation Army from Western Europe of ethnic Albanian, Turkish, and North African origin, were organized by Islamist leaders in Western Europe allied to Bin Laden and Zawahiri. Some 175 Yemeni mujahideen arrived in early May 1998. There were also a dozen of Saudi and Egyptian mujahideen.
Since the Kosovo War, there has been an increasing radicalization of Islam in Kosovo. Wahhabism, which is dominant in Saudi Arabia, has gained a foothold in Kosovo through Saudi diplomacy. Saudi money has paid for new mosques, while Saudi-educated imams have arrived since the end of the war in 1999. During UN administration, Saudi Arabian organizations sought to establish a cultural foothold in Kosovo. 98 Wahhabist schools were set up by Saudi organizations during UN administration. Hundreds of Kosovo Albanians have joined jihad in the Middle East.
The Kosovo Police arrested some 40 suspected Islamist militants on 11 August 2014.
By April 2015, a total of 232 Kosovo Albanians had gone to Syria to fight with Islamist groups, mostly commonly the Islamic State. Forty of these are from the town of Ferizaj (Srbica), according to Kosovo police reports. As of September 2014, a total of 48 ethnic Albanians have been killed fighting in Syria.