Bosniaks in ISIL and the Role of Vienna in Global Jihad

A mass raid (involving 500-900 police officers) on mosques in Vienna, Graz, and Linz ended up in the arrests of thirteen individuals, including a Vienna-based imam of Bosniak origin, suspected of recruiting for ISIL and other radical Islamist groups operating in Syria. Recently, many European governments have been cracking down on elements recruiting for ISIL among the Muslim immigrant population. Money, propaganda materials, data files, and weaponry were seized in the raid. Austrian police arrested nine jihadists attempting to join ISIL back in August, and the Austrian interior ministry believes that about 150 people living in Austria have left the country to fight in Syria or Iraq. This, along with the infamous case of two young girls leaving the country to fight for ISIL back in April, has led to proposed laws to revoke the citizenship of anyone who fights for a terror group, controls on minors traveling abroad, and a ban on symbols linked to ISIL and other Islamist groups.

Austria in particular has been a hotbed of Islamist activity in Europe due to permissive laws and relatively weak counter-intelligence programs, in addition to a large Chechen, Turkish, and Bosniak population. Vienna is a major hub of Islamist radicalism in Europe, possibly second only to London due to a long standing ineffectiveness of Austrian counter-intelligence programs dating back to the Cold War. Vienna was a popular hangout of foreign intelligence agents where they could operate without fear of being discovered.

The recent raids in Austria and the Balkans have resulted in several arrests of prominent imams who have been accused of supporting ISIL. So far, the identity and trial of an Ahmed Mussa have been revealed. Mussa was a Christian Roma Bulgarian who converted to Islam back in 2000 when he lived in Vienna for a time. Though the identity of the imam arrested in Vienna remains as of yet secret, there are several Bosniak imams in the area who have had histories of being connected to jihadist groups, such as Mahmud Porča or Effendia Nedzad Balkan. Muhamed Porča has been accused of supporting Wahhabi groups in the past, and has been linked financially and ideologically with deceased Bosnian Wahhabi leader Jusuf Barčic. Both have been linked to Asim Cejvanovic and Mehmed Djudjic, who attempted to bomb the US embassy in Vienna back in October 2007. Another possibility for the imam is Effendia Nedzad Balkan (aka Abu Muhammed), imam of the Sahaba Mosque in Vienna. Balkan is a known financier of Bosnian Wahhabi groups.

Austria has a sizable immigrant population of Chechens, Turks, and Bosniaks; the rapid radicalization of these three ethnic groups in the past two decades is already well documented. The spread of radical Islam in heretofore secular/moderate Turkey has been a very concerning problem recently, and it is well attested among expatriate populations in nations such as Germany and Austria. Chechens and Bosniaks have been courted by both Sunni and Shia radical groups during their armed revolutions in the 1990s, and there are ties to both Saudi Arabia and Iran in both groups. In fact, a great deal of the “Islamic charities” active in Bosnia during the 1990s were front groups for jihadist organizations, transferring funding, weapons, and training for jihadist organizations into Bosnia and Europe as a whole. Bosnia is often used as a facilitator for Islamist terrorists active in Europe, as a Bosnian passport makes travel in Europe easier than with most Middle Eastern passports.

Back in September Bosnian police conducted raids on mosques, arresting several individuals with ties to ISIL. ISIL is not the only Islamist group to have had ties to Bosnia; Iran has been aiding certain groups in Bosnia ever since the war in the 1990s. In fact, Bosnian founder (and Islamist radical sympathizer) Alija Izetbegovic (despite being Sunni, as with most Bosniaks) established diplomatic relations with Iran back in the 1980s. Salafist clerics in Bosnia have encouraged Muslim Bosniaks to go to Syria and Iraq to fight for ISIL, and ISIL has aggressively sought recruits from the Balkans; around 200-600 fighters from the Balkans have fought in Syria.

Last week, there was a raid in Bulgaria on a mosque resulting in the arrest of an imam in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria. Other raids were carried out on mosques in Plovdiv, Smoljan, Haskovo, and Asenovgrad. The Pazardzhik imam’s name is Ahmed Mussa. Mussa, a Bulgarian Roma who converted to Islam 14 years ago whilst living in Vienna, was sentenced to a year in jail last March for spreading radical Islam. Mussa is charged with propagating anti-democratic ideology and incitement to war in support of ISIL.

The recent raids in Eastern Europe and Austria are a reflection of the pertinent threat ISIS poses to the region, especially the Balkans. The large population of Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Southern Serbia are currently housing the regions next generation of violent jihadists. Fueled by ISIS ideology and the organizations apparent supremacy of the global jihadist movement, the young Islamic radicals living in this region have latched on to ISIS for legitimacy and may soon begin conducting attacks in their home countries. According to one estimate, Bosnia has provided more volunteers per capita for the Syrian jihad than any other country in Europe, and various reports suggest there are probably more than five hundred jihadis from southeastern Europe now in Syria.