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The Bosnian Muslims and Albanians: Islam and Nationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Aydin Babuna
Aydin Babuna*
Affiliation:
Ataturk Institute, Bogaziçi University, Turkey. [email protected]
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Extract

The drastic changes in the Balkans in the 1990s and the disintegration of Yugoslavia in particular have resulted in a large number of publications attempting to explain the break-up of this country and the political developments in the Balkans. Some of these publications deal partly with the local Muslims who were engaged in the Balkan conflicts but, with some exceptions, they are focused mainly on recent developments, with less attention paid to the historical contexts in which the Muslim nationalist movements were shaped.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , June 2004 , pp. 287 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 Association for the Study of Nationalities of Eastern Europe 

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References

Notes

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54. Skendi, Albanian National Awakening, pp. 464–466, 469. The most important contribution was made by the Italo-Albanians. In time, the majority of the Italo-Albanians would join the uniate church.Google Scholar

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75. After the proclamation of the royal dictatorship by the Serbian King Alexander in 1929 the name of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was changed to “Yugoslavia.”Google Scholar

76. Only 30 of the 2,492 officials were Bosnian Muslims. See Salihagic, Suljaga, Mi bosansko-hercegovački Muslimani u krilu jugoslovenske zajednice (Banja Luka: Štamparija Zvonimir Jović i Co., 1940), p. 59.Google Scholar

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120. The leader of the religious hierarchy.Google Scholar

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122. However, the orders remained active. Some of the tekkes were reopened during the 1960s as centers for religious instruction. The tekkes in Sarajevo were closed down again in 1972 but their members went to Kosovo and Macedonia, where the tekkes had been more numerous and had never been closed down by the Islamic authorities.Google Scholar

123. A headquarters was established in Sarajevo for Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia and Slovenia, in Prishtina for Serbia (including Kosovo) and in Titograd for Macedonia.Google Scholar

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131. For the establishment of the Community of Dervish Orders see Prljaca, “Razgovor sa hadzi Fejzulahom ef. Hadzibajricem,” p. 22.Google Scholar

132. There are some important differences between the dervish orders in Bosnia and those in Kosovo. The sheikhs in Kosovo enjoy greater social prestige. Their influence is not only religious but can also be political or economical. Popovic, “Muslim Mystic Orders,” p. 247.Google Scholar

133. Duijzings, Religion and the Politics of Identity , p. 118.Google Scholar

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138. This trend was very evident in the social circles of the white- and blue-collar workers as well as among some young people in their teens and twenties. C. Sorabji, “Islam and Bosnia's Muslim Nation,” in F. W. Carter and H. T. Norris, eds, The Changing Shape of the Balkans (London: UCL Press, 1996), p. 55.Google Scholar

139. Kosovar Muslims were considered by the Bosnian Muslims to be lazy, ungrateful and undisciplined and therefore somehow not truly Muslim; Western Europe was civilized and akin to the Muslims. Sorabji, “Islam and Bosnia's Muslim Nation,” p. 56.Google Scholar

140. In the early 1990s, the majority of the Bosnian Muslims considered religious activities and freedoms to be intimately associated with Western values. Ibid., pp. 55–60.Google Scholar

141. Atif Purivatra, Nacionalni i politicki razvitak Muslimana (Sarajevo: Svjetlost, 1970), p. 32.Google Scholar

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145. Tito wanted to show the open-mindedness of his regime to the other members of the non-aligned bloc. Francine Friedman, “The Muslim Slavs of Bosnia and Hercegovina (with Reference to the Sandzak of Novi Pazar): Islam as National Identity,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2000, p. 174.Google Scholar

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