Targeting muslims beyond Europe: preventing violent extremism and radicalisation in Kosovo

Abstract

Ervjola Selenica is post-doc fellow and adjunct professor in Terrorism and Counterterrorism at the University of Bologna and associate research fellow at the University of Sussex. Previously, she was post-doc fellow at Scuola Normale Superiore (Firenze). She holds a PhD in International Studies (University of Trento), an MSc. in International Development Studies (University of Amsterdam), a BA in International Relations and Political Science (University of Bologna), and a PGDip on Peace and Conflict (Peace Research Institute Oslo). Her research interests include education, international interventions, conflict, global changes. She has published at The Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienze Politiche, Critical Studies on Terrorism, Globalisation, Societies and Education, and Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. The paper analyses national and international interventions on preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) and radicalisation in Kosovo and their underpinning rationales. The analysis seeks to understand how a country with a Muslim majority is targeted by P/CVE and counter-radicalisation policies. Furthermore, it seeks to understand whether these policies are informed by an understanding of violent extremism and radicalisation as underpinned by Islamic extremism and, if so, how they tackle and interact with the question of Islam in Kosovo. The article has found that P/CVE and counter-radicalisation policies in Kosovo are mainly externally driven and funded, rest upon the same preventative, anticipatory logic that has characterised similar policies implemented in EU member states, are informed by an understanding of violent extremism and radicalisation as ideological processes fuelled by radical Islam, and encompasses an all-societal approach combining hard and soft measures of prevention as those found in other EU and non-EU contexts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 BBC. (2010). “One killed in central Bosnia bombing”, 27 June 2010, https://www.bbc.com/news/10428626 last accessed 23 October 2023.

2 BBC. (2011). “Sarajevo gunman fires at US embassy in Bosnia capital”, 28 October 2011, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-15499143 last accessed 23 October 2023.

3 Zuvela, M. (2015). “Gunman kills Bosnian policeman in apparent Islamist attack”, Reuter, 27 April 2015, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bosnia-police-attack-idUSKBN0NI25A20150427 last accessed 23 October 2023.

4 RFERL. (2018). “Kosovo Sentences Eight Men to Prison Over Plot To Attack Israeli Soccer Team”, 18 May 2018, https://www.rferl.org/a/kosovo-sentences-eight-men–prison-plot-attack-israeli-soccer-team/29235986.html last accessed 23 October 2023

5 In 2018, the following stakeholders were interviewed: two local researchers working on P/CVE with a preeminent local think tank, one local political scientist working on Islam and radicalisation in Kosovo, one local expert on P/CVE working with an international organisation, one investigative journalist working on P/CVE topics. In 2022, the following stakeholders were interviewed: one preeminent religious authority, two local researchers working on P/CVE with a prominent think tank, two international experts working on P/CVE, and intercultural dialogue with an international organisation.

6 Seeing radicalisation and dynamics of violent extremism as a relational process implies shifting the focus from investigating policies that counter it and their effectiveness to analyzing the effects, and sometimes the side effects, of state and non-state policies and actions in countering it.

7 According to Blumi, ‘it is reported that the SJCRKC spent four million Saudi Riyals (about $500,000) to sponsor 388 religious ‘propagators’ (i.e., missionaries) to travel throughout Kosovo in the immediate post war period.’ (2005, 9).

8 Interview with Researcher 2, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

9 Interview with Researcher 2, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

10 Interview with Researcher 2, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

11 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo; Interview with a prominent religious representative, Kosovo Islamic Community (Bashkesia Islamike e Kosoves, BIK), May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

12 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo; Interview with a prominent religious representative, Kosovo Islamic Community (Bashkesia Islamike e Kosoves, BIK), May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

13 Interview with Researcher 2, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

14 Interview with two officials working with an international organisation, May 2022, Gracanica, Kosovo.

15 Interview with a prominent religious representative, Kosovo Islamic Community (Bashkesia Islamike e Kosoves, BIK), May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

16 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

17 Interview with Researcher 2, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

18 Interview with Researcher 2, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo; Interview with a prominent religious representative, Kosovo Islamic Community (Bashkesia Islamike e Kosoves, BIK), May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo; Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

19 These data are anonymous and were shared with the author informally in various interviews during fieldwork in September 2018 in Prishtina; Interview with a local scholar, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo; Interview with a local official working with an international organisation active in CVE, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo.

20 Interview with an investigative journalist, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo; Interview with a local official working with an international organisation active in CVE, September 2018, Kosovo.

21 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo; Interview with Researcher 2, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo.

22 Interview with Researcher 2, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo.

23 Law No. 05/L-002, 12 March 2015. See also Annex 3, Azinovic e Jusic 2015.

24 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo.

25 Interview with an investigative journalist, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo.

26 Interview with an investigative journalist, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo.

27 Interview with Researcher 2, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo.

28 Interview with an investigative journalist, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo.

29 Interview with an investigative journalist, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo.

30 Interview with Researcher 2, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo.

31 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

32 Interview with two officials working with an international organisation, May 2022, Gracanica, Kosovo.

33 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo; Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

34 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo.

35 Interview with a local official working with an international organisation active in CVE, September 2018, Prishtina, Kosovo.

36 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

37 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

38 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

39 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

40 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

41 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

42 Interview with Researcher 1, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, May 2022, Prishtina, Kosovo.

Additional information

Funding

No conflict of interest has to be reported on this research. The research has benefitted from a previous postdoctoral fellowship at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Firenze and the current postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Political and Social Science at the University of Bologna.