IDENTITIES: BOSNIAN AND EUROPEAN, BOSNIAK AND MUSLIM
IDENTITIES: BOSNIAN AND EUROPEAN, BOSNIAK AND MUSLIM

Summary/Abstract: In his article the author equates Bosnian identity with loyalty to the Bosnian state, which he sees as the most effective guarantor of all three sub-identities (Bosnian Croat, Bosnian Serb and Bosniak). As for Bosniak identity, he sees it as having three components: one geographic (the European element), one religious (the Muslim element), and one historical (the fact that the Bosniak heritage reaches back through all phases of Bosnia´s history, not merely to its Ottoman/Muslim phase). "The Bosnian and European identities are not the Bosniaks´ only characteristics, but they, along with our Bosniak and Muslim identities, are among the most important. The Bosniaks, of course, are not the only ones in Bosnia who have both Bosnian and European identities, although during the recent turbulent years this has been the subject of heated debate. But one should be wary of conclusions arising from heated debates. In those difficult years, as a result of the harrying of Bosnia by Serb and Croat nationalists, many Bosniaks both within and outside Bosnia may have doubted that the Bosnian Croats, and especially the Bosnian Serbs, might also have a Bosnian identity." (...)

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