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Abstract
The disintegration of the former Yugoslavia posed challenges for the universal concept of the Yugoslav Muslim nation for which several development paths were imaginable under the new circumstances. The concept of Bosniakdom, which was initially developed to address the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina, gradually grew to become a new and coherent national program to include all the Muslims of former Yugoslavia, primarily due to its new pan-Bosniak orientation. The present article traces the conceptual history of the national ideas of Muslimdom versus Bosniakdom within the former Yugoslav states, as well as the conceptual and institutional history of the pan-Bosniak idea and movement during the 1990s and 2000s. It does this by emphasizing the decisive role the Official Muslim Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina played in their development and divulgence. This article claims that, contrary to some expectations, the strategy of internationalization and universalization of the hitherto territorial concept of Bosniakdom toward Muslims in neighboring countries during the second half of 1990s and 2000s was closely linked to the idea of the construction of the Bosniak national state. It also proposes that the evolution of Bosniakdom into pan-Bosniakdom during that time primarily followed concerns related to that goal.
Notes
1. Speech at the 20th Anniversary of the Association of the Citizens of Sandžak origin living in the Federation of B&H, Sarajevo: Narodno pozorište, 20 April 2011.
2. Zulfikarpašić recounted the reaction of Alija Izetbegović to the speech of Prof. Mujagić at a conference taking place in Sarajevo in 1990, in which Mujagić declared himself in favor of the Bosniakdom:
Izetbegović sat beside me and said: “This is what he has from you, you have taught him this.” I laughed and said: “What nonsense you are saying.” He replied: “By God, you and I, we will split on this question.” (Đilas and Gaće Citation1996, 161)
3.
In the circles close to Salih Čolaković it is still remembered that the president of the Presidency of B&H Alija Izetbegović never sent his congratulations on the election as the new leader of Islam, whereas he did attend the inaugurations of the religious leaders of other religious communities.
4. The group included the following persons: Rešid Bilalić, Senahid Bistrić, Nusret Čančar, Prof. Dr Enes Duraković, Hadžem Hajdarević, Nihad Halilbegović, Prof. Dr Kemal Hrelja, Prof. Dr Mustafa Imamović, Alija Isaković, Mustafa Jahić, Prof. Dr Enes Karić, Zijad Ljevaković, Šemsudin Musić, Prof. Dr Muhamed Nezirović, Mustafa Spahić, Mustafa Sušić, Ismet ef. Spahić, Mahmut Traljić, Ismet Veladžić. The president of this committee was Šemsudin Musić.
5.
A group of citizens, some of whom are employed in the Islamic Community, but who are not its representatives, decided to organize the Islamic Community from outside of its institutions. (…) What is especially irritating for the Muslim public is the fact that this meeting abolished all previous legal acts and institutions of the IC of B&H, beginning with the High Committee, Rijaset, Reis-ul-Ulema even to the Committees and Meshihats of the other (former Yugoslav) Republics. What that group did contains all the elements of a classical coup. (Mehtić Citation1993)
6. Emphasis by the author.
7. In the words of Mustafa Spahić, one of the founding members of the SDA and the new IC in B&H, who was also one of the co-defenders of Alija Izebegović in the trial against the “Islamic group” in the 1980s: “Assimilation through mixed marriages was a reliable and effective way to fulfil this, in its core fascist and genocidal goal – the annihilation of an entire nation.” And further: “Although all these rapes [referring to war crimes] are hard, insupportable and unpardonable, they are, from the point of reference of Islam, easier and less painful than mixed marriages, the children and the friendships which resulted from them” (Spahić Citation1994, 120).
8. Supra-ethnic political parties, which explicitly advocated civic and supra-ethnic nationhood in B&H gained between 15% and 25% (depending on the region) of the total vote at the first multiparty elections in B&H in 1990 (Agencija Citation2007).
9. “Serbia and Croatia are nation states. Bosnia and Herzegovina is not and it can only be a civic republic” (Izetbegović Citation199 Citation0).
10.
I have considered it and I ask of you, please consider it too, and by the next round of talks, what shall we do. Consider it. If the Croat community does not participate in the referendum, the referendum has failed. Do not gamble with it by any means. (…) We have to go through with the referendum, if not, we will stay stuck in the well and there will be nothing to get us out for the next thirty years.
(…) Later
I think that we have persuaded the Croat element about this referendum. They want to vote (for it) now because they hope that in this Bosnia and Herzegovina they will get some sovereignty, some national recognition, some regions etc., because that is part of this consent.
11. Voting paper for the referendum on the autonomy of Sanžak held on 25 October 1991, printed in the daily newspaper Borba on the same day.
12.
The historical truth is in fact the following: the Muslims of B&H are autochthonous (i.e. born on their own land/country) Bosnian people, who actually have all the proper and specific elements of its own peoplehood (narodnosti) and nationality (nacionalnosti): soil: Bosnia and Sandžak (regional name of Herzegovina was added first by the arrival of the Austro-Hungarian empire … . (Latić Citation1993, 29)
13. In a furious reaction to the announcement of Milorad Dodik about a possible referendum on secession of the Republika Srbska, known as the “Blagaj speech,” Cerić states
Anyone can say this or that, but no one can take away our holy land. This is our holy land, Bosnia and Herzegovina. God has guaranteed it to us. We were born here and here shall we die. And not only that. We also call all the Bosniaks across Europe, Australia, America, Kosovo, Mazedonia, Serbia and Croatia to come back: This is your holy land! (…) There are 8 to 10 million of us in the Balkans and 4 millions are in Turkey. They resettled us, dispersed us all around the Balkans so that we cannot be the majority anywhere, because those from Zagreb announce that we are too many. (Citation2011a)
14. This parallel is especially remarkable given the fact that Mustafa Cerić is one of the leading figures of the Council for Fatwa and Research in Dublin, the supreme legislative body of the European Muslim Brotherhood (under the leadership of Sheikh Jusuf al-Quaradawi), for which unconditional support for Palestine, including Hamas, which calls for the abolition of Israel, remains one of the central agendas.
15. For the complete list of the signatories of the declaration and the full text of the declaration, see: Almanah (Citation2003, 13–16).
16. Last census was conducted in 1991.
17. The leaders of Roma and Jewish communities in B&H, Dervo Sejdić and Jakob Finci, sued B&H for discrimination by “ineligibility to stand for election to the House of Peoples and the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the grounds of their Roma and Jewish origin” (ECHR Judgement Citation2009) by the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg, and won.