re europe vs muslim bosnians in article may edison usask ca f oguocha edison usask ca writes please don t be offended at this question who are the muslims in the bosnian context bosnian muslims are citizens od bosnia herzegovina who identify themselves with bosnian muslim cultural and religious tradition i know that a moslem muslim is a believer in islam islam is a religion and it is practised in many parts of the world but it is not yes definitely not an ethinic group ok so these bosnian muslims who are they to which ethnic group do they belong what language s do they speak do they have a different language from that of the serbs or croats in bosnia muslim is not merely a religious category but an ethnic one as well actually here are the two contradictory arguments made by people on this subject there is only serbian and croatian nationality and bosnian muslims are simply croats and serbs of islamic faith bosnian muslims are a separate nationality since they do not feel themselves to be croats nor serbs in argument was accepted by former yugoslavia as valid and was soundly rejected the reasons are pragmatic even if bosnian muslims are croats and serbs who converted to islam under turkish rule centuries ago none of the present generation has any clue what was their ancestor s actual nationality in fact although bosnian muslims have felt drawn to croatian or serbian national allegiance most of them feel they have a separate cultural and historic identity so arguments like yes but your ancestors were croats or serbs carry very little weight regardless of what their ancestors might have been as long as bosnian muslims feel that they are a separate national group that ends the debate what outsiders say is simply not relevant the way the western press use the word muslim in this bosnian debacle has kept me wondering when the meaning of muslim moslem i knew from childhood was changed in the dictionary this is just a question no flames intended in the case of former yugoslavia the date is when muslim nationality appeared as a census category for the first time this was the result of a sequence of decisions over the past decade from recognizing bosniaks as an ethnic group to february resolution in b h declaring that muslims are a separate nation to formal endorsement of this in january and eventually to the inclusion of muslim nationality choice in census forms for comparison in census there were three national categories available to muslims in bosnia herzegovina serb muslims croat muslims muslims ethnically undeclared this clearly demonstrates that muslims feel themselves to be their own nationality only a tiny minority felt able to choose serb or croat nationality census results show that bosnian muslims have consistently opted for a third category in they chose undeclared in they chose yugoslavs in both yugoslavs and bosniak ethnic group and in and they chose muslim nationality perhaps the term bosnian muslim nationality is too confusing for the rest of the world but in the present context we are talking about muslims as nationality not as a religous group within some separate national identity the reasons are mostly historical and cultural religion plays a smaller role as a part of culture in general because the area is simply not known for religious fanaticism political fanaticism yes religious fanaticism no group security and survival dominate people s thinking not fine points of theology in fact bosnia herzegovina is as well known for religious tolerance in peacetime as it is known for terrible carnage in wartime sincerely josip
