Serbia continues to use narratives about Islamic extremism as part of a broader strategy to damage Kosovo’s international image and undermine the religious harmony among Albanians, according to a report by the Institute for Security and Resilience (REVENT) and regional security experts.
The issue has resurfaced following a recent ruling by the Basic Court in Pristina, which found that Hysri Selimi had joined the terrorist organization ISIS under the guidance of Serbia’s Security Intelligence Agency (BIA) while simultaneously providing the agency with information on radical Islamic movements in Kosovo.
KIPRED Executive Director Lulzim Peci said Serbia’s interest in promoting such narratives is not new but rather a continuation of policies dating back to the 1990s.
According to Peci, Serbia—often alongside Russia—has spent decades attempting to portray Albanians, and later Kosovo, as a hub of Islamic extremism in an effort to depict the country as unstable and linked to religious radicalism.
“They need this narrative primarily to smear Kosovo and portray it as an unsafe country with tendencies toward Islamic radicalism,” Peci said. “Although some citizens from Kosovo traveled to Syria, this is not Kosovo’s defining issue. Kosovo’s institutions have actively fought Islamic radicalism, while Serbia continues to exploit isolated cases to present Kosovo as an unstable state connected to extremism.”
Peci also argued that another objective of Belgrade’s strategy is to undermine the long-standing tradition of religious coexistence among Albanians.
“Albanians belong to four different religious communities, and Albanian national identity was built on a secular foundation that united them all. Radical Islamist movements have deliberately targeted this pillar by attacking national figures such as Skanderbeg, Mother Teresa, and other personalities who shaped Albanian identity,” he added.
According to the REVENT report, authored by Skender Perteshi, Serbian diplomacy has repeatedly promoted the narrative that Kosovo is a center of extremism.
The report cites the June 2024 terrorist attack on the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade, in which a Serbian security officer was seriously wounded. Following the attack, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić attempted to link the attacker to Kosovo by claiming that Senad Ramović Beqan had been assisted while hiding there.
REVENT states that this claim was false and intended to damage Kosovo’s international reputation by portraying it as a country that supports terrorism.
At the same time, the report emphasizes that terrorist attacks carried out in northern Kosovo in recent years have been conducted by organizations allegedly backed by Serbia.
According to REVENT’s analysis, members of the Civil Defense and North Brigade organizations carried out more than 17 terrorist attacks in Kosovo between 2021 and 2024.
These attacks targeted Kosovo’s state institutions, international missions, civilians, and critical infrastructure.
The report concludes that while Serbia promotes narratives portraying Kosovo as a center of extremism, organizations allegedly supported by Belgrade have, in practice, been responsible for a series of terrorist attacks that have undermined Kosovo’s security and stability.
