TIRANA, Jan. 16 – Zulfi Hoxha, son of American-Albanian pizza-shop owner in New Jersey, has been identified as one of the few leading Americans in the ranks of ISIS according to a long report published this week by The Atlantic.
Now a senior commanders of the Islamic State and an active recruiter, Hoxha was according to multiple law-enforcement officials the first American to be shown beheading Kurdish fighters on tape.
Hoxha first left the US in April 2015; four days later he was at an ISIS training camp.
While the US government does not comment on the identities or rank of US citizens who were involved with ISIS through the years, Hoxha’s status in the group seems to have placed him in a position of leadership and attention.
Another reason is that the jihadist recruitment networks in the US can’t compare to extent with those in Europe, but Hoxha is proof they nonetheless exist and play an important role in attracting a number of Americans.
Most American IS supporters don’t make it to Syria however. More than 50 were arrested trying to make the journey in the last three years, according to The Atlantic.
Albania, on the other hand, has had a number of people leaving the country to join ISIS – 120 from Albania and 315 from Kosovo according to a recent report by regional media – yet none is known to have reached Hoxha’s status.
The last time authorities in Albania and Kosovo arrested a dozen people tied to ISIS who were planning an alleged attack against the Israeli soccer team playing in the country was Nov. 2016.
In Albania and Kosovo, recruitment of young IS fighters happens in a less sophisticated manner, usually through lectures in semi-hidden places outside mosques.
Kosovo is particularly exposed to the threat of Islamic extremism as after the war ended in 1999, the country was flooded by Islamic organizations, some of which spread propaganda masked as humanitarianism.
In addition, in both countries recruiters are often welcomed due to the hopelessness of the young generation, part of which experiences identity crisis and has no clear economic prospects for the future, according to regional experts.
With ISIS slowly losing ground, the US, but also Albania and Kosovo, are starting to think about where the expatriates will return to and what will the implications of these returns be.
