Bosnia and Kosovo, Jihadi Safe Havens in the Balkans
Balkans Penetration — Islam’s Main Achievement in the 20th Century
Islamic Terror and the Balkans by Shaul Shay, Transaction Publishers, 231pp, $39.95, ISBN: 076580347X. Buy this book at Amazon.com
In the eyes of the radical Islamic circles, the establishment of an independent Islamic territory including Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania along the Adriatic Coast, is one of the most prominent achievements of Islam since the siege of Vienna in 1683. Islamic penetration into Europe through the Balkans is one of the main achievements of Islam in the twentieth century.
Dr. Shaul Shay
Al Qaeda-Sponsored Bosnian and Kosovo Jihad Against Serbs
The disintegration of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s ended the Yugoslavian Federation, which for nearly fifty years had succeeded in preserving a delicate coexistence among the ethnic, religious, and national components contained within it. Following this, the Balkans became a violent arena of confrontation due to these warring factions. Islamic Terror and the Balkans describes and analyzes the growth of radical Islam in the Balkans from its inception during the years of World War II to the present.
Shay’s account shows how the Bosnian War between the Muslims and the Serbs provided the historical opportunity for radical Islam to penetrate the Balkans, at a time when the Muslim world, headed by Iran and the various Islamic terror organizations, including al-Qaeda, came to the aid of the Muslims in Bosnia. In the framework of the mobilization of these entities in aiding the Muslim side in the conflict, the operational and organizational infrastructure of Iranian intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards was established, as well as those operated by other Islamic terror organizations.
Bosnia and Kosovo Province: The European Forefront for Islamic Terror Organizations Today
When war in Bosnia ended, terrorist infrastructures remained in the Balkans and served as a basis for these entities’ intervention in the confrontation that developed in the Balkans in the late-1990s, specifically in Kosovo and Macedonia. Today, the Balkans serve as a forefront on European soil for Islamic terror organizations, which exploit this area to promote their activities in Western Europe, Russia, and other focal points worldwide. Shay’s analysis of terror activity in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and exposure of terror cells throughout the world, and particularly in Europe, attest to the increasing involvement of the “Balkan alumni” and of the terrorist infrastructure from this area in creating global terror activity.
Dr. Shaul Shay holds the rank of Colonel in the Israeli Army. He is a graduate of the Israeli National Defense College and completed both MA and PhD at Bar Ilan University in Political Science — International Affairs. Dr. Shay is a lecturer at Bar Ilan University, senior research fellow of the International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism (ICT) at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzilya and heads the Department of Military History of the IDF.
During the war in Bosnia the Muslim leadership and the government in Bosnia were directly supported by mujahideens both from Iran and elsewhere. These Muslim volunteers were part of the Muslim army in Bosnia. Many remain in Bosnia today and are recognized as a serious threat to the West.
During the war in Kosovo, the KLA enjoyed the support of former Albanian President Berisha, who regarded the war in Kosovo as a Jihad and issued a call to all Muslims to fight for the protection of their homeland. In one way or the other we had similar developments in Albania including the Islamic charities, which financed the KLA in Kosovo . Some of the key figures that participated in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina were involved in the war in Kosovo as well.
(Excerpt from interview with Dr. Shay at Serbianna.com)