TRNOVI, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) – The long-bearded man burst into the mosque’s yard and pinned Selvedin Beganovic to the ground. Shouting “Now I will slaughter you!” he plunged a knife three times into the imam’s chest and fled.
It was no random attack: Beganovic has suffered seven assaults blamed on Muslim extremists in the past year – with three just last month.
The apparent reason for the jihadi wrath? Beganovic uses his pulpit to tell the faithful in predominantly Muslim Bosnia they have no business fighting in Syria or Iraq. And he vows to keep preaching the message no matter how many times extremists try to silence him.
“That is not our war,” the imam told The Associated Press in his small northwestern town. “Our jihad in Bosnia is the fight against unemployment. The care for our parents who have small pensions. The care for the socially jeopardized.”
Some 150 Bosnians have joined Islamic militants in Syria or Iraq, officials estimate, with many fighting for the Islamic State group. All are apparently members of a small community that follows an ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam. Last month, a court in Bosnia charged a man believed to be the spiritual leader of the group with recruiting Bosnians to fight with Islamic militants in Syria and organizing a terrorist group.