Risk of Romani Radicalization in the Balkans: Freeing the Shackles of a Filthy Identity

The Romani people as the largest European ethnic minority are generally considered to be resilient against radicalization that may lead to terrorism or violent extremist. However, there are exceptions represented by distinct communities of the Wahhabi-Salafi Romani in the Balkans that generated a group of foreign fighters reportedly joining the ISIS insurgency in the 2010s. The paper presents the results of field research conducted in several locations in Serbia, most prominently in the Wahhabi-Salafi community of the city of Novi Sad, formed predominantly by Romani refugees from the Kosovo War, who have proved to be particularly vulnerable to radicalization. The primary data were collected using ethnographic techniques, especially in-depth qualitative interviewing and observation, and analysed with the methodological tools of Critical Discourse Studies. By understanding the various forms of belonging (e.g. attachments; recognition) often leaving individuals in the state of identifying themselves 'in-between', our aim is to demonstrate that even with an ethnic group historically embracing the ideology of nonviolence, continued stigmatization combined with systematic exclusion may incentivize the community members to escape their ‘filthy’ Romani identity and embrace an inclusive ideology of Salafism to purify it. However, by depriving themselves of their Romani tradition of nonviolence and adopting the universalist principles of Salafism, they also increase their vulnerability to both cognitive and behavioural radicalization.