Serbian MP Under Police Protection After ISIS Threats

The Serbian authorities have put MP Muamer Zukorlic under police protection after he received several threats from Islamists on social networks, the Bosniak party leader said on Tuesday. 

"They target those who are a threat to them. And for sure I am an impediment, not for the reason that I lead the Islamic community, but because I interpret Islam in a way that does not suit them [ISIS]," Zukorlic told Prva Television.

Serbian media reported that ISIS accused Zukorlic of "betraying Islam because he became a politician, and an MP in the Serbian parliament, in this way accepting the infidel's system". 

The Serbian media reports did not say which social media account the threat originated from.

Zukorlic said that he presents a "moderate and non-violent and non-radical" version of Islam, and warned that radicals are exploiting social discontent to recruit people.

"Extremist ideologies use the state of the country, and then unrealistic things are promised, and then Islamic spirituality is used as bait. People are religious and want faith. People are thirsty and want water, so if you do not give them clean, they are forced to drink dirty," he said.

Zukorlic is the leader of Justice and Reconciliation, a minority Bosniak party in Serbia's Bosniak-majority Sandzak region.

This is not first time that ISIS has threatened him. In April 2017, ISIS media outlet Rumiyah called for the murder of several religious leaders from Serbia and Bosnia, among them Zukorlic.

In a report in September, the US State Department noted that levels of ISIS recruitment activities in Serbia are low. Serbia has also not been hit by any terrorist attack. 

"The main terrorism threats in Serbia remain the potential movement...