Vol. 44, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2006- "The Pennsylvania Geographer"

RADICAL ISLAM'S PERIPHERY: BOSNIA &

HERZEGOVINA'S EXTREMIST THREAT

Steven Oluic

United States Military Academy

Abstract

In October 2005 President Bush spoke to the issue of the global radical Islamic threat at an address to the National Endowment for Democracy. For the first time Mr. Bush warned that one of Islamism's goals is a trans-national Muslim theocracy, technically a Caliphate - "a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia" (Mayer and Rabinowitz 2005). Bosnia and Herzegovina is located at the periphery of this Caliphate and where a legitimate extremist militant and ideological Islamic threat does exist. Although the International Community's attention is focused elsewhere as the US and its allies struggle in the Global War on Terrorism, the Balkans and Bosnia in particular, with its historical linkage to Islam and recent radical Islamic activity merits closer scrutiny. This paper investigates how radical Islam developed in Bosnia and considers if there is a tangible threat.