Foreign media magnified and simplified the problem of religious radicalisation

A report published by the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs criticises the media treatment of radicalisation in Kosovo, and states that the issue has grown and motives have been simplified.

Even though the international media treatment of foreign fighters from Kosovo to Syria has managed to give international attention to the issue of radicalisation, very often media reports were very simplified and non-unital, the new report published by the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs (NUPI) states.

Published in May of this year, the report, titled “Radicisation and foreign fighters in the context of Kosovo: An analysis of the international media treatment of this” phenomenon takes a critical approach to addressing the questions of “the jihadist and foreign fighters from Kosovo” from international media. This is the first publication from the project The NUPI on the impact of radicalisation and terrorism on relations between Kosovo and the EU, which began in late 2016 and is expected to end with publishing a policy report.

Written by senior researcher Rita Augestad Knudsen, the report highlights the key topics of international media treatment of radicalisation issues in Kosovo, including scriptures from the New York Times, Newsweek, the Nation, as well as Sputnik, Russia Today, and B92.

Augestad Knudsen, which keeps the doctorate from London School of Economics and has published previous research on Kosovo, since 2013 conveyed the international media treatment of “jihad issues” in Kosovo, and began to suspect their authenticity.

The report from international media seemed sensational and wanted to consider whether it really presented an accurate image of the” situation, she said through Skype for Pristina Insight. The report, which contains a detailed study of international media content, academic and secondary literature, as well as 50 original interviews, states that international media treatment sometimes gave the wrong impression or a lack of shades, especially when reported on the number of Kosovo fighters, motives and reasons for radicalisation and travel to Syria, as well as the Kosovo Government's response to the issue.

The majority of states now have their own special challenges when it comes to radicalisation, and Kosovo also has some importance but these have been exaggerated by the majority of reports from international media”, Augestad Knudsen explained. For example, in 2016 New York Time published the title “Making Kosovo fertile land for ISIS”, thus disturbing local and international debate over “SIS” in Kosovo.

According to Augestad Knudsen, most international reports issue a highly simplified link between the poor socioeconomic situation and the potential for radicalisation.

Citing the unemployment rate of at least 55.7 per cent among young people, Augestad Knudsen believes that this is nothing more than a matter of the state of <x0-economic characters” but actually inaction.

The problem is not only lack of jobs, but inaction, meaning lack of all organised activities, specifically for young people”, Augedad Knudsen said. “While people from all walks of population can radicalise and radicalise, international media should focus almost exclusively on poor people with low schooling”.

At the same time, Augestad Knudsen argues, if the demographic profiles of European jihadists as a group are looked at, then there are a lot of Kosovo's sosh who seem to have the same characteristics: “are socioeconomically poor performance and are unemployed males”.

“But from that point of view”, she added, “you can also ask why (in Kosovo) there are so little of the way you're lured to attach to jihadist groups”.

According to official numbers quoted in the Augestad Knudsen report, since March 2017, 316 Kosovar have gone to war zones in Syria and Iraq. But not all can be described as warriors, according to the report, 38 women and 28 children who have gone hard to get part in the fighting.

The number is high per capita, but if one takes into account that 95 per cent of Kosovo's population is identified as Muslim, then this number is not as informative as thought, the report argues. Also, not enough attention has been paid to the cultural context and possible motives of people who have gone to war zones, which cannot be reduced only to terrorist propaganda.

Given I propaganda The SIS in Albanian, which focuses on the suffering of “Muslim brothers”, foreign fighters from Kosovo could have gone to help civilians, other Muslims, or even the descendants of Albanians, the report says, adding that this cultural-historic context is of sleeves in most cases from reports in English.

According to Augestad Knudsen, another factor that could have contributed to representation of the problem of radicalisation by international media is the polarised debate on religion in Kosovo.

There is a possibility that the language of international journalists had become a little more dramatic after speaking to local journalists, who could have been influenced by this polarised debate”, Augedad Knudsen explained.

The report also draws attention that media from states that had opposed NATO's intervention during the war in Kosovo pose terrorism as a much bigger problem than it seems to be in Kosovo.

The “was a little bit surprising to see the media of those states even though there were exceptions that had been against the intervention of NATO and independence of Kosovo, such as the Russian and Serbian media in the English language, seem to present the risk of redeploying in Kosovo as something much larger than the media of states that had supported these”, said Augstadten Kudsen, who says some of these reports argue in a way that it argues as if you see what happened and how Kosovo has dreamed about being housed, we had been right from the start of its citizenship.

According to Augestad Knudsen's research, most of the English-language media have welcomed the Kosovo Government's actions against terrorism as the timely, severe, and effective”, especially with prior eyes on the charges against terrorism (over 130, according to the report). But it is measured in the way cases are handled.

“From outside, (the arrests) look a little bit like a show. This could have been a strategy to intimidate others from committing similar crimes, and this could have been effective, however, this would have been difficult to measure”, Augedstad Knudsen said.

The situation is still exasperated by the possibility of radicalisation in prison, issues faced throughout Europe.

“Radicisation in prisons is not a particularly Kosovo challenge, but it is something that must be taken into account very seriously”, Augstad Knudsen said.

The justice ministry has denied radicalisation in prisons to be a matter in Kosovo, which is not a good start. This is a matter everywhere. Just removing some books from prison libraries won't be enough”.

Write author: Lura Limani; From JNK newspaper, http://kallxo.com/grant/mediet-e-huaya-e-extremised-and-simplify-e-raditional-religiousisation/