NATION IN HANDS OF RELIGION Cover Image

Nacija u rukama religije
NATION IN HANDS OF RELIGION

Author(s): Senadin Lavić
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics and religion, Nationalism Studies, Sociology of Religion
Published by: Bošnjačka zajednica kulture "Preporod"
Keywords: Bosnia; Bosniaks; people; nation; state nation; secular society; religion; religious institutions;

Summary/Abstract: In the area of South-eastern Europe the nations are defined as an ethnic-religious and cultural communities. This understanding of the nation creates numerous problems in the construction of the modern states-nations with a democratic constitution. Long ago, religions in this area have played a decisive role in defining the ethnic (cultural-historical and multi-party parliament, multiethnic population, the rule of law, freedom and rights of individuals) and the national (state-legal) being of the population, but never bear the responsibility for catastrophic failures and events in which they participated by their fundamentalism. Therefore, once again it is showed the claim of nation subordination to the rigid religious view of the world that enables it to become a space of freedom for all members of society and the state with their respective specificities. Religion is forced as the foundation of culture and politics, education and everyday life, and then it used to derive a special mentality of differences in civilization. People who live together for centuries in the same village, clan, tribe, and later people suddenly become members of different cultures and civilizations. This is seen in the process Croatize Catholics in Bosnia or Serbianization of Bosniak Orthodox from the end of the 19th century. We understand the nation as a community of people (citizens or residents) living in one state (citizens) regardless of their ethnic, religious, racial and any other commitment. At Balkan, however, it is not developed such understanding of the nation and the citizen as the basis for the construction of state and national identity - national identity is not derived from the civil base, but the religious narrations and ethnic constructions are set as "foundations" of building the state, but it is always tragic in multi-ethnic communities.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 270-300
  • Page Count: 31
  • Language: Bosnian
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