The small republic of Kosovo, with a population of less than two million—90 percent ethnic Albanians, of whom 80 percent are Muslim—is the Balkan zone offering the greatest resistance to radical Islam. Some vignettes from recent interviews may impart the flavor of the debate over Islamism in the country:
Burim Ramadani, 31, is a deputy in the Kosovo Assembly, the republic’s parliament, and secretary-general of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (known by its Albanian initials as AAK). His party is the second of two created by veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and is smaller than its predecessor, the politically dominant Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) led by prime minister Hashim Thaci. But AAK is increasingly more credible with the public. It holds 10 of 100 elected seats in the 120-member assembly.
