Terrorist attack in Belgrade: an Islamic challenge to a quiet Serbia?

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There was an attempted attack on the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade on June 29. During the terrorist attack, a Serbian gendarmerie officer was shot in the neck with a crossbow, but the attacker was killed. The terrorist attack came a year after the bloody May shootings at the Vladislav Ribnikar Model Elementary School and the neighborhood of Mladenovac. And the terrorist who attacked the embassy and a policeman turned out to be a Serb who converted to Islam.

The attack was carried out by 25-year-old Milos Žujović from Mladenovac, who converted to Islam with the name Salahudin. He lived in Novi Pazar, which is densely populated by Muslims. The wounded policeman, who had an arrow removed from his neck at the Emergency Center, survived. He was personally visited by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Interior Minister Ivica Dačić. The wounded man was later safely discharged and awarded for his courage.

Immediately after the attack, another man suspected of involvement in the attack was detained in Belgrade. Serbia had been on a “red terrorism alert level” for several days, and all Interior Ministry units were on high alert. Two days after the attack, the police said they had detained a man with a crossbow and knives in his backpack. However, no connection to the previous attack was revealed.

At Serbia’s request, Montenegrin police questioned the wife of the attacker, Milos Vujovic. The attack was motivated by “revenge” against Israel for its hostilities against the Palestinians. The Israeli Foreign Ministry called the incident in Belgrade an “attempted terrorist attack”. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz thanked the Serbian government for its quick response, and wished the wounded gendarme a speedy recovery.

Terrorism expert Dževad Galijašević said that the terrorist attack in Belgrade was the result of the activities of a special group of jihadists in Serbia, where their activities, in addition to Belgrade, were also recorded in Arandjelovac. The specialist noted that the name Salahutdin was not chosen by chance – in honor of the greatest Arab warrior of the Crusades period. Galijašević emphasized that the damage, in addition to Serbia, was also inflicted on Muslims, explaining that the attack took place in a peaceful country, where Muslims have an almost privileged status. Galijašević himself lives in Republika Srpska, an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is no stranger to inter-religious problems with Islam. Although the expert professes Islam, he is on the “Serbian side” and actively fights against its radical manifestations.

It is not entirely clear what exactly the purpose of the attack was, whether it was planned by a serious terrorist group or whether it was the work of fanatics (to some extent hinted at by the course of events and the level of preparation for the attack), but for Serbia, which is calm in this respect, the case has become unpleasant. On the one hand, there is turmoil in neighboring Bosnia, where a single spark can ignite a conflict between Orthodox Serbs and Bosniak Muslims. Serbia itself has problems of Islamic crypto-separatism in Sandžak, a place of compact settlement of Muslims. Finally, Kosovo, overrun by Islamic Albanians, could also become a center of even greater instability for the entire region.

And, of course, it is possible that behind such a seemingly “amateurish” terrorist attack, there may be much more influential forces, for which a new explosion in the “powder keg of Europe” would be only to their advantage.