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April 19th, 2024 | 9:08 PM ET

ISIS in the Balkans

Posted: May 13th, 2016

The 1990s Yugoslav wars disintegrated a nation and created a fractured Balkans that continues to deal with ethnic strife and political instability. The wars also opened the door for the development of Islamic extremist ideologies.

The former Yugoslav region has a history of moderate Islam. But during the communist era, many official Islamic governance bodies were shut down or scaled back. With the collapse of communism and subsequent opening of religious practice in the early 90s, institutions were largely incapable of providing adequate oversight of religious affairs. “They [religious institutions] have drawn fierce criticism for being slow to react to extremism and apparently failing to tackle radicalization and recruitment by violent jihadi groups,” explains Anita Rice, Senior Editor at the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN).

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