Islamist Extremism In Kosovo And The Countries Of The Region

Kosovo and the region of the Balkans in general had always been areas where different cultures and the influences of major powers clashed. The influence of the Roman Catholic Church collided with that of the Byzantine Orthodox Church, Islam clashed with Christianity and the geostrategic interests of the East collided with those of the West. These cultural and religious clashes on the same territory as well as the impacts of the different geostrategic interests resulted over the course of the past centuries in the development of different competitive cultures and religions sometimes opposed to each other in Kosovo. Irrespectively of this religious and cultural diversity, the Kosovar people have not been treating these ideological divides as separations of the entire nation based on a religious basis. Rather, they have been cultivating feelings of harmony, tolerance and understanding with respect to members of other faiths. But unfortunately, the traditional model of harmony and interfaith tolerance that had existed in Kosovo for centuries has come more and more under attack in recent times.