Montenegro Parliament to Mull Islamist Threats

Parliament's Committee for Security and Defence on Monday will consider a report from the Agency for National Security on potential threats to the country from Islamist extremists and members of the Wahhabi movement.

The chair of the committee, Mevludin Nuhodzic, said the authorities needed to be more effective in countering extreme Islamist groups in Montenegro, saying that action against radical Wahhabism had to involve everyone, from families to the media.

"No one can violate the law by hiding behind faith," Nuhodzic said last week.

He added that the Committee will consider the report in order to get a clearer idea about the activities of these groups in recruiting people for the battlefields of Syria and Iraq, and their links to radical groups in the region.

In August, media reports said that the national security agency had stepped up surveillance of radical Muslims suspected of links with Wahabbi movement in the region. Police have been authorised to tap the phones of alleged members of a group based in several towns, reports said.

Some 100 to 120 Wahhabis are in the small Balkan country, according to the national security agency, believed to be financed by various Islamic charities.

The towns in Montenegro that secret police have placed under surveillance include Plav, Gusinje, Rozaje and Bijelo Polje.