Bosnian Taxpayers Funding Spread of Hardline Salafi Message

Three non-governmental organisations involved in organising Da'i lectures have received a total of KM 19,000, or some 9,500 euros, from state or local budgets in the past four years, BIRN has found.

Most of the money has been spent on Da'wah activities which seek to spread the faith.

Observers of the movement say Salafi Da'is have toned down their most radical messages but continue to preach intolerance, call into question basic human rights enshrined in Bosnian law and harbour hopes of challenging the authority of the official Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

They appear to be reaching a wider audience thanks to their sophisticated use of social media.

Aner Zukovic, a researcher at the Sarajevo-based Atlantic Initiative, which advocates for Bosnia's Euro-Atlantic integration and has analysed the work of Salafi Da'is, said such organisations are "increasingly starting to engage in Islamic missionary activity, so-called Da'wah, through which is sought the toppling of the Islamic Community's authority."

Salafi preachers, he said, openly oppose "contemporary democratic views on issues of the order of society and the state," Zukovic told BIRN.

"It is indicative that their work has or has had some informal political consent from politicians in the Federation," he said, in reference to the mainly Bosniak-Croat Federation that is one of Bosnia's two entities.

Big social media following

Hasim Mujanovic. Photo: BIRN 

For three consecutive years, the Alternativa association for the promotion of 'positive values', registered in Ilidza just west of the capital Sarajevo, has received money from the local municipality - some KM 3,000 in total for 2017 and 2018 for cultural work and KM 2,000...