BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: The Complex Ecology of Islamic Narratives and Movements in Bosnia and Herzegovina Cover Image

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: The Complex Ecology of Islamic Narratives and Movements in Bosnia and Herzegovina
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: The Complex Ecology of Islamic Narratives and Movements in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author(s): Muhamed Jusić
Subject(s): Civil Society, Islam studies, International relations/trade, Social differentiation, Studies in violence and power, Radical sociology , Sociology of Religion, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Atlantska inicijativa: Udruženje za promicanje euroatlantskih integracija BiH
Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bosnian Muslims; civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Islam; Bonsiaks; Islamic community; jihadists; Islamic movements;
Summary/Abstract: The current religious life of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina is about returning to domestic traditions and reducing the post-communist euphoria in public demonstration of religion. The fall of the socialist order led to this euphoria, which was intensified by the aggression and war in Bosnia and Herzegovina – seen, in the minds of Bosnian Muslims, as aimed at destroying Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state and Bosniaks as a people. Meanwhile, the pluralization of the Islamic religious scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina has resulted in the emergence of non-traditional forms of Islamic religious practice. On one hand, this pluralization occurred within the Islamic Community as a consequence of its openness toward other madhhabs and Islamic experiences, and as a result of its exposure to globalization and other broader social and cultural shifts. On the other hand, it occurred outside the Islamic Community and, sporadically, against it, through advocates of different alternative, and in principle, sloppy and rigid interpretations of Islam. The vast majority of Bosnian Muslims perceive these alternative views as attacks on the traditional Bosnian practice of Islam, and they reject them as unacceptable attempts to replace a religion of joy, serenity, and tolerance with a religion of gloominess, discontent, and exclusiveness; attempts to abandon a religion that palliates in order to accept a religion that aggravates.

  • Page Range: 43-57
  • Page Count: 15
  • Publication Year: 2017
  • Language: English