Paris Attack Stirs Tension in Divided Bosnia

Security levels around French embassy and other diplomatic premises in Sarajevo have been raised to a higher level following the recent attack in Paris, Bosnian officials said on Thursday, declining to elaborate on the details of ongoing operations.

While the brutality of the Paris attack raised fears of further terrorist activities across the globe, it has fuelled additional tensions in Bosnia, which is struggling to control its own radical Islamic elements, as well as religious, ethnic and political divisions.

"This was hugely important event, one which will certainly have consequences like those of the 9-11 or the attacks in London and Madrid," Mladen Ivanic, the Serbian chairman of  Bosnia's tripartite Presidency told Radio Free Europe on Thursday.  

"This incident inflicted the biggest damage on the very religion in whose name it was committed and I think that it opens up many questions here in Bosnia," he added.

With some 50 per cent of its population following the Islamic faith, and with small but active community of radical Islamists, the Paris attack has raised questions and opened public debates in Bosnia.

"I am deeply convinced that this represents a serious challenge to [Bosnia's] Islamic  Community which, within itself, has to clearly state what kind of Islam is to be practiced in Bosnia," Ivanic said.

The President of Bosnia's mainly Serbian entity, Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, said that he feared the possible activation of radical Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina, adding that he would work on strengthening the intelligence and security structures in the entity.

"We dread something eventually happening to us here because the records about people in Bosnia and Herzegovina who promote...