In December 2016, the trial panel of the Serious Crimes Department at the Basic Court in Ferizaj, sentenced Fatos Rizvanolli seven years in prison for the criminal offence of recruiting terrorists. He is not the first to be sentenced for terrorism. According to the authorities, approximately 40 people have been sentenced and over 127 arrested by the Kosovo Police.
In September 2015, The Government of Kosovo approved the Strategy on the Prevention of Violent Extremism and Radicalisation Leading to Terrorism. However, a lot of experts in this field think that approving a strategy and a law that prohibits the citizens from joining foreign wars, is not enough to prevent this phenomenon.
Journalist Serbeze Haxhiaj thinks that Kosovo could use other mechanisms to prevent extremism, besides arresting.
She says: “I have seen suspicious activity inside the institutions of Kosovo, or an inadequate form of prosecuting the people involved in religious extremism and terrorist organizations. There is a selective approach and cases from Syria and Iraq are not treated equally.”
Skender Përteshi, researcher at the Kosovar Center for Security Studies(KCSS) believes that Kosovo is a bit behind on dealing with religious extremism. This phenomenon, which started in 2012, wasn’t dealt with until 2014. Although the government’s reaction was late, Përteshi says that they are satisfied with the measures taken.
He does however believe that there should be a larger budget to improve the social and economic conditions that have influenced them to go to war, so that when these people come back to Kosovo, they won’t have to face the same problems.
The Government of Kosovo isn’t the only one that got criticized; some representatives of the civil society believe that the Islamic Union of Kosova needs to work more on preventing religious extremism.
According to the journalist Arbana Xharra, the Islamic Union of Kosova is responsible because certain people have recruited citizens in mosques that were under the Islamic Union’s Jurisdiction.
Xharra says:”Until now, their silence has had a negative effect. They can fight extremism by appointing traditional imams that would be more successful in convincing the youth than someone who is not religious.”
Burim Ramadani from Security Research Center (SPRC) sees the Islamic Union as a key institution in preventing extremism.
Ramadani says: “I am not only talking about the possible terrorist attacks or with specific acts that the police, intelligence and other security institutions deal with, but the Islamic Union, like the other institutions that offer public services, have a huge part to play in informing the public what the universal religious truth is and what manipulating feelings is.”
The spokesman of the Islamic Union of Kosovo, Vedat Sahiti, says that the Islamic Union has used religious speeches in mosques to appeal youth not to join such wars, and have suspended the imams that have lawsuits against them.
Sahiti says:”The essential characteristic of extremism is surpassing the average, the average itself is relative, and therefore, definitions of extremism vary. The danger lies in the radicalization of extremist that can lead to violence.”
He thinks that the law preventing extremism has had a big success at restraining young people from going to these wars.
However, Arbana Xhara, who was present while the Government’s Strategy on the Prevention of Violent Extremism and Radicalization Leading to Terrorism was being written, does not think that this document is enough.
Based on the research she did on this topic she concludes that France is where different campaigns against extremism are organized. They use speeches from people who have returned from Syria or the parents of recruited people to share their experiences and convince other people not to go.
Xharra says:”We should work closely with our people; we need to organize debates with parents, with their mothers. There needs to be more teacher trainings, schools need to have psychologist that can spot early signals, there need to be more efforts on preventing it.”
Sociologist Sibel Halimi agrees with this. She criticizes the government for only dealing with this phenomenon’s statistical aspect and not giving much effort on initiating various TV campaigns or campaigns in schools.
She thinks that this kind of traditional security wasn’t very efficient and didn’t give the outcome that the involvement of experts that know the social and psychological context of every category of the society would have.
Halimi says: “When we discover their techniques we need to use the same technique to create the counter narrative of what they promote and recruit.”
Ramadani from SPRC adds financial control as an aspect that the justice and intelligence institutions should develop, because according to him, that is one of the elements that contributed to spreading this ideology.
Bulza Çapriqi
