The Origin of Islamic Extremism that leads to Terrorism - How to treat it in Kosovo: as War, Crime, or Disease?

Terrorism is a rising phenomenon which challenges states that are considered the main actors in the discipline of the International Relations (IR). It is important to understand that many countries are endangered by terrorism and that terrorists in our time, declare war on our international order that was founded with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. We often see it on the news that democratic states get attacked by terrorists, who kill and injure many. We also see emerging campaigns with extremist content that are thrown on the internet to radicalize people. There are cases when young Kosovars traveled to Middle East (ME) to become part of terrorist groups and fight for them. All of this is a matter of concern. As a result, many countries have worked towards drafting different laws and strategies in order to combat this phenomenon. After the war between Kosovo and Serbia in 1998-99, the kosovar society, with little institutional experience found itself in the middle of many challenges, with Religious Extremism (RE) being one of them. Kosovo institutions addressed the rise of RE with police methods only after it was confirmed that a considerable number of Kosovo citizens had traveled to ME to become part of violent terrorist organizations. This paper aims to find out whether treating RE as crime is sufficient to address this problem in Kosovo or whether Kosovo institutions should treat the underlying symptoms that caused the rise of RE. State institutions at some degree have managed to successfully address this phenomenon with the analogy of crime. However, the main findings of this research paper show that treating RE as crime is only a short-term solution because the arrest and imprisonment of radicalized individuals does not guarantee that their desires for jihad will also be shuttered. Therefore, in order to address terrorism in an effective way, it is important to identify the factors that lead Kosovo citizens to terrorism. For a long-term solution, this paper suggests that state institutions must concentrate more on reducing the socio-economic problems that are the underlying cause to many challenges. In order to build resilience against RE that leads to terrorism, Kosovo institutions must improve the social welfare and return people’s trust in the public institutions.