KOVAČ: MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD - OBSTACLE TO COEXISTENCE IN BiH

BELGRADE, JANUARY 18 /SRNA/ – Mitar Kovač, director of the Eurasian Security Forum, assessed that the Muslim Brotherhood is an obstacle to the coexistence of the three peoples in BiH, as some political parties act according to the demands of this organisation to create a unitary Islamic state, in which Serbs and Croats would become a minority community.

"Of course, these are an obstacle, influencing through the legal institutions of certain political parties from so-called official Sarajevo," Kovač told SRNA. He pointed out that the extreme ideology of political Islam, both before and during the war, along with financial donations from certain Middle East countries, increasing efforts by Turkey in its neo-Ottoman ambitions, together with the activities of organisations like the Muslim Brotherhood, contribute to further division among the constituent peoples of BiH. "We have witnessed, from the Dayton Peace Agreement onwards, that these extreme political parties inherit the values of extreme organisations from the Muslim world," Kovač emphasized. According to him, some of these organisations even act on the principles and demands of the Muslim Brotherhood to create a unitary Islamic state from which Serbs and Croats would gradually move to their motherlands and become a negligible or minority community in BiH. "This is the danger looming over BiH through so-called democratic processes of unitarization of BiH. Behind this essentially lies political Islam, which has support or is the framework within which such extreme organisations operate," Kovač stated. He welcomed the decision of the U.S. administration to initiate the process of declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation. "It is important to seek through international action that this organisation is condemned, its activities in the Balkans, especially in BiH, are prevented, and that this becomes one of the tasks of the legal authorities, primarily of the Federation of BiH and all of BiH. Such organisations cannot be tolerated; their activities must be banned not just on paper but in practice through the work of relevant state security authorities," Kovač stressed. He noted that there has long been data indicating that the Muslim Brotherhood has roots in the Balkans, particularly in Kosovo, Metohija, Albania, and most significantly in BiH. Kovač pointed out that the Muslim Brotherhood has support in extremely radical environments in BiH, where they are protected and attempt to influence political organisations. Recently, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a decision to initiate the process of officially declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation.