s members of the Ustasa. The Ustasa were a group of extreme Croatian nationalists who collaborated with both the Nazis and MussoliniÆs Italian forces in their occupation of Yugoslavia during World War II. RacanÆs family had actually been killed by the Ustasa; therefore, this association was completely unjustifiable. But the unignorable severity of the reference served to create a dangerous link between the Croatians and the Ustasa in the minds of many Serbs.
Milosevic initiated a similar campaign of anti-Muslim rhetoric by claiming that the Serbs must be on guard against the forces of Islamic Fundamentalism. The defining characteristics of Islamic Fundamentalism include political extremism and a fierce political and cultural hostility to any Western influence. As is the case with the accusation that the Croatians are members of a revived Ustasa, the association between Yugoslavian Muslims and Islamic Fundamentalism is simply inaccurate.
Muslim extremism does have a precedent in the Balkans in the form of the Handzar Division, an all-Muslim volunteer
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