Germany’s Intel Worries About Islamist Mobilization in the Balkans
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Europe’s Muslim-majority state becomes hotbed for Islamist recruitment
German Intelligence Agency (BND) is concerned about the Islamist ideology increasing its influence in the Balkan region, German newspapers report. The main focus of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency is the Muslim-majority country of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The agency has been alarmed by massive investments being made by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries in the religious and Islamist infrastructure of the country.
The investments made by Arab patrons are paying off handsomely. Bosnia-Herzegovina has the highest percentage of ISIS recruits compared to any other European country, German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung confirmed. An estimated 200 Bosnians have left the country to fight for the Islamic State, a German broadcaster reported. In recent months, Bosnian Police have made several arrests and recovered large amounts of explosives and military hardware in raids across the country.
Carved out of the Communist Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992, the country of Bosnia-Herzegovina became the first Muslim-majority state of the modern Europe. Nearly 16 years later, Kosovo would declare independence from Serbia, emerging as Europe’s second Muslim-majority state. Unsurprisingly, both Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo are today hotbeds for Jihadi recruitment. In early 1990s, hundreds of ‘mujahedeen’ fighters came from abroad to bolster the ranks of Bosnian Muslims forces battling the Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats. Today, Bosnian Muslims are returning the favor by exporting Jihad abroad.
German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
German Intelligence Agency (BND) is increasingly turning its attention towards the Balkans, especially towards Bosnia-Herzegovina. The BND is cooperating with other intelligence agencies in this regard, the newspaper Berlin Zeitung reported citing sources within the national security circles. The primary reason behind this is the growth of Islamist movement in the region.
Like most of the erstwhile Yugoslav states, Bosnia-Herzegovina is regarded as a highly volatile entity. Besides, Arabian Gulf States, especially Saudi Arabia, have invested heavily in order to replacing the existing moderate variety of Islam with the so-called Wahhabi kind. From no other European state — in proportion to its population — did so many fighters join Jihadists group than from Bosnia.
Furthermore, the Balkans remain a transit route for the refugees that arrive through Turkey and Greece and move towards Central Europe — despite the EU-Turkey Deal halting that flow. [Translation by the author]
Formerly part of the Christian Byzantine Empire, the Islamization of the Balkans began with the Ottoman conquest in the fourteenth century. The rise of the European nationalism led to several revolutions and uprisings but failed to create stable nation-states in the region.
After the Second World War, the region was consolidated under the communist dictatorship of Josip Broz Tito into the unified and multi-ethnic Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. The collapse of the Eastern Block in the early 1990s reignited the dormant ethnic nationalism in the region, fueling a decade-long war which led to the creation of 6 new countries on ethnic and historical lines: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Serbia’s Muslim-majority provinces of Kosovo was the latest addition to the Balkan states, declaring Independence in 2008.
The European security apparatus, however, has a bigger problem at hand than a bunch radicalized Muslims somewhere in the Balkans. If the trend in Muslim-majority Balkan states is any indicator, Europe’s biggest challenge is rearing its head in its heartland.
According to the projections released by the Pew Research Center, the Muslim population in major European countries is expected to triple by 2050. The Muslim population of Germany is predicted to grow from 6 percent in 2016 to nearly 20 percent in next three decades. As the left-wing British newspaper The Guardian points out, “Even if all current 28 EU members, plus Norway and Switzerland, closed their borders to migrants, the Muslim population share in the west would continue to grow owing to a younger age profile and higher fertility rates, but remain very low in the east.”
Even if we go by the admission of European politicians, who keep on reminding everyone how Radical Islam holds sway over just a tiny minority within the immigrant Muslim population, Europe is moving deeper and deeper into the Jihadist quagmire. Mathematically speaking, as the proportion of Muslim population grows in Europe, the Islamist threat grows as well.
[Cover image via YouTube]
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Comments
You have to be clear about who is doing the funding here, and why. There is a massive Shiite-Sunni War brewing, one that will also bring Israel in on the side of the Sunni’s. In the Balkans, the Iranian Shiites are preparing for this by operating through Hezbollah, out of Lebanon. The Saudi’s are trying to establish their own network to counter Hezbollah (ie, Iran) so they are counter-organizing.
Salman and his son are attempting to eliminate internal opposition inside the Saudi regime, and since most of that opposition was also intensely opposed to the US, that is a good thing for us. A ruthless King and his ruthless son are not the best of allies, but they are a damn sight better than the 2nd Coming of Adolf Hitler who’s running the Iranian state today.
I won’t trust the Wahhabis/Salafis/Isis anymore than Iran/Hezbollah. They’re not our allies. And they won’t be our friends.
Bravo, Vijeta Uniyal. This is an excellent thumbnail sketch that weaves history, current events, and a basic scorecard to make a complex problem understandable.
I long for the good ol’ days of the Sebian Wars of 1912-13 when the 4 armies kicked muslim butt and pushed the Turks out of Europe, back across the bosporus.
That was once upon a time, but now that it’s the opposite, Europe opened the immigration flood gates, plus bought the knife that will slit its throat.
I fear Europe is doomed.
Thank you! Historical context matters. We are in this mess because Europeans have forgotten the lessons of history.
Vijeta,
Great article.
You know,but it seems more like denial on the part of the Europeans than their forgetting history. The corrupt girlie-men running the EU want money and perks first. And the Brussels crowd wants their freedom to practice pedophilia. In exchange, they sell-out Europe to the fascist left.
We have the same problem in America: pervs in hollywood and in our media and in democrat party circles barter their services to the fascist left: the pervs get to be pervs, and the fascist left gets them to be their propagandists. Along the way, the fascist left even bought-out the leadership of the opposition party (we call it the “GOPe.”)
Merkel has, in fact, single-handedly destroyed Europe. Given the projections of Muslim birthrates in Europe, it is done. Just a matter of 30 years, or less.
In America, Obama and Hillary Klinton have nearly single-handedly destroyed the United States (obama at the behest of his handlers, and klinton at the behest of the parties who have paid her off in anticipation of her becoming president (how’s that for a laugh?))
The only difference in America is ascension of a genius named Donald Trump. While there is no hope for Europe (baring a very deadly civil war) there still is for America, solely because of Donald Trump, and in spite of the two major political parties, which have actually been corrupted into one – with the democrat media keeping the GOPe on a short leash.
Thank you for reading. Yes, we did dodge a bullet last November.
don’t forget that some of the European states have Nukes –
we need a strong leader in the USA, but the SJWs only think about how to define sex and MaryJane for everyone.
We have Pakistan as Muslim nuclear power. barry obama has ensured Iran will soon become one.
With the Muslim takeover of Europe, add France’s and England’s much more advanced arsenal (including nuke submarines) to the Muslim collection.
The axis nuclear powers will be North Korea, Iran and….?
The biggest killer of radical Muslims is other radical Muslims, so this problem COULD work itself out.
Could a Christian Russia end up being the savior of Europe?
No reference to Bill Clinton and Yugoslavia?