Can the Balkans Kick Its Jihadi Habit?

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Bosnian children appear with an Islamic State flag in an IS video.


VOA's Jeff Swicord visited Bosnia, Herzegovina and Kosovo to examine radical extremism in the Balkans. This is the first of three parts.

As the camera pans across a group of Bosnian children holding an Islamic State flag, they chant greetings to IS leader Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi. Boys under the age of 10, many with blond hair and European features, then offer "the crusaders of America" a warning: "Your grave will be in Syria."

The video is one of many "Mujatweets" – slickly produced clips published by the Islamic State’s media operation. This one targets the Balkans.

Across the Balkan region, security officials say there is a war on for hearts and minds, and children are often the targets.

"Right now, we are in the phase where we have to fight for the [computer] chips inside their heads," says Vjekoslav Vukovic, the deputy security minister for terrorism in Bosnia and Herzegovina. "This is ideology, radical ideology, that is very present right now."

Hundreds of citizens – mainly from Bosnia and Kosovo, a few from Serbia, Macedonia and Albania – have gone to fight in Syria.

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Crowds of people in the streets of Bascarsija, Sarajevo


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