Islamism and Islamic terrorism in the Balkans
There has been an increase in incidents involving alleged radical Islamism in the Balkans since the 1990s. Bulgaria. The Iztok neighbourhood of Pazardzhik, inhabited by Muslims (Romani), includes an Islamist community headed by unlicensed imam Ahmed Moussa. Kosovo. Kosovo has a mainly secular Muslim population part of a cultural remainder from the Ottoman era. The traditional Islam in Kosovo is the Hanafi school, described as 'liberal' and 'moderate'. Islamist volunteers in the Kosovo Liberation Army from Western Europe of ethnic Albanian, Turkish, and North African origin, were recruited by Islamist leaders in Western  Europe allied to Bin Laden and Zawahiri. Some 175 Yemeni mujahideen arrived in early May 1998. There were also a dozen of Saudi and Egyptian mujahideen. Since the Kosovo War, there has been an increasing radicalization of Islam in Kosovo. Wahhabism, which is dominant in Saudi Arabia, has gained a foothold in Kosovo through Saudi diplomacy. Saudi money has paid for new mosques, while Saudi-educated imams have arrived since the end of the war in 1999. During UN administration, Saudi Arabian organizations sought to establish a cultural foothold in Kosovo. 98 Wahhabist schools were set up by Saudi organizations  during UN administration. The Kosovo Police arrested some 40 suspected Islamist militants on 11 August 2014. These were suspected of having fought with Islamist insurgent groups in Syria and Iraq. By April 2015, a total of 232 Kosovo Albanians had gone to Syria to fight with Islamist groups, most commonly the Islamic State. Forty of these are from the town of Skënderaj (Srbica), according to Kosovo police reports. As of September 2014, a total of 48 ethnic Albanians have been killed fighting in Syria. The number of fighters from Kosovo is at least 232 and estimated at more than 300  (as of 11 February 2016). A 2017 UNDP study shows that Islamic extremism has grown in Kosovo. Groups. Groups of ethnic Albanians were arrested by police in November 2016 in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia for planning terrorist attacks. They were coordinated by IS commanders Lavdrim Muhaxheri and Ridvan Haqifi, both Kosovo Albanians, and planned attacks on international and state institutions, ultimately with the intent to establish an Islamic state. They planned to attack the Israeli football team during a match in Albania, and potentially Kosovo government institutions and Serbian Orthodox Church sites. A group of ethnic Albanians, Kosovo-born immigrants  to Italy, were arrested by Italian police in Venice on 30 March 2017 for planning blowing up the Rialto Bridge.