Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina

"Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina" redirects here. For other uses, see Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina (disambiguation).

Islam in Europe
by percentage of country population

95–100%	Azerbaijan Turkey
90–95%	Kosovo
50–55%	Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina
30–35%	North Macedonia
10–20%	France Georgia Montenegro Russia
5–10%	Austria Bulgaria Sweden Belgium Germany Greece Liechtenstein Netherlands Switzerland United Kingdom Norway Denmark
4–5%	Italy Serbia
2–4%	Luxembourg Malta Slovenia Spain
1–2%	Croatia Ireland Ukraine
< 1%	Andorra Armenia Belarus Czech Republic Estonia Finland Hungary Iceland Latvia Lithuania Moldova Monaco Poland Portugal Romania San Marino Slovakia

Share of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina by municipalities in 2013

Islam is the most widespread religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was introduced to the local population in the 15th and 16th centuries as a result of the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Muslims make the largest religious community in Bosnia and Herzegovina (52%) (the other two large groups being Eastern Orthodox Christians (31%), almost all of whom identify as Serbs, and Roman Catholics (16%), almost all of whom identify as Croats). Another estimate done by PEW Research states that 50% of the population is Muslim, 35% Orthodox and only 9% Catholic.

Almost all of Bosnian Muslims identify as Bosniaks; until 1993, Bosnians of Muslim culture or origin (regardless of religious practice) were defined by Yugoslav authorities as Muslimani (Muslims) in an ethno-national sense (hence the capital M), though some people of Bosniak or Muslim backgrounds identified their nationality (in an ethnic sense rather than strictly in terms of citizenship) as "Yugoslav" prior to the early 1990s. A small minority of non-Bosniak Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina include Albanians, Roma and Turks.

Albeit traditionally adherent to Sunni Islam of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, a 2012 survey found 54% of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Muslims to consider themselves just Muslims, while 38% told that they are Sunni Muslims. There is also a small Sufi community, located primarily in Central Bosnia. A small Shia Muslim community is also present in Bosnia. Almost all Muslim congregations in Bosnia and Herzegovina refer to the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina as their religious organisation.

The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina guarantees freedom of religion, which is generally upheld throughout the country.

History

The Ottoman era

Main articles: Ottoman Bosnia and Islamization of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Further information: Devshirme and Saqaliba

Islam was first introduced to the Balkans on a large scale by the Ottomans in the mid-to-late 15th century who gained control of most of Bosnia in 1463, and seized Herzegovina in the 1480s. Over the next century, the Bosnians – composed of native Christians and Slavic tribes living in the Bosnian kingdom under the name of Bošnjani – were converted to Islam in great numbers during the Islamization of Bosnia under Ottoman rule. During the Ottoman era the name Bošnjanin was definitely transformed into the current Bošnjak ('Bosniak'), with the suffix -ak replacing the traditional -anin. By the early 1600s, approximately two thirds of the population of Bosnia were Muslim. Bosnia and Herzegovina remained a province in the Ottoman Empire and gained autonomy after the Bosnian uprising in 1831. Large numbers of mosques were built all over the province. Most mosques erected during the Ottoman era were of relatively modest construction, often with a single minaret and central prayer hall with few adjoining foyers.

• 
  Fethija Mosque, former church of St. Anthony, 1266
• 
  Muslihudin Čekrekčija Mosque, Sarajevo, 1526
• 
  Aladža Mosque, Foča, 1550 (rebuilt 2018)
• 
  Karađoz-beg Mosque, Mostar, 1557
• 
  Ali-pasha Mosque, Sarajevo, 1560
• 
  Šišman Ibrahim-pasha Mosque (Hadži Alijina Džamija), Počitelj, 1561
• 
  Ferhat-pasha Mosque, Sarajevo, 1562
• 
  Čobanija Mosque, 1565
• 
  Hadži Ahmed Dukatar's Mosque, Livno, 1574
• 
  Ferhat-pasha Mosque, Banja Luka, 1579 (rebuilt 2016)
• 
  Koski Mehmed-pasha Mosque, Mostar, 1617
• 
  Džindijska Mosque (Huseina Čauša), Tuzla, 1708
• 
  Esma Sultana Mosque (during reconstruction), Jajce, 1760

The Austro-Hungarian era

After the 1878 Congress of Berlin, Bosnia and Herzegovina came under the control of Austria-Hungary. In 1908, Austria-Hungary formally annexed the region. Unlike post-Reconquista Spain, the Austro-Hungarian authorities made no attempt to force convert the citizens of this newly-acquired territory as the December Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, and so Bosnia and Herzegovina remained Muslim.

Bosnia, along with Albania and Kosovo were the only parts of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans where large percentages of people converted to Islam, and remained there after independence. In other areas of the former Ottoman Empire where Muslims formed the majority or started to form the majority, those Muslims were either expelled, assimilated/Christianized, massacred, or fled elsewhere (Muhajirs).

The post-war period

Many Islamic religious buildings were damaged or destroyed in the Bosnian War during the 90s, with up to 80% of well-over 4000 different buildings, and several mosques were rebuilt with the aid of funds from Saudi Arabia and other countries from the Middle and far East.

Historically, Bosnian Muslims had always practiced a form of Islam that is strongly influenced by Sufism. Since the Bosnian War, however, some remnants of groups of foreign fighters from the Middle East fighting on the side of Bosnian Army, remained for some time and attempted to spread Wahhabism among locals. With very limited success these foreigners only created friction between local Muslim population, steeped in their own traditional practice of the faith, and without any previous contact with this strain in Islam, and themselves.
Although these communities were relatively small and peaceful, restricted to a certain number of villages around central and northern Bosnia, the issue was highly politicized by local nationalists and officials, as well as officials and diplomats from countries like Croatia, Czech Republic and Serbia, to the point of outright fiction. Security Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time, Dragan Mektić of SDS, reacted strongly on such falsehoods by pointing on seriousness of such conspiratorial claims, and warned on possibility of further dangerous politicization and even acts of violence with an aim of labeling Bosnian Muslims as radicals.

Demographics

In the 2013 census the declared religious affiliation of the population was: Islam (1,790,454 people) and Muslim (22,068 people) which makes up a total number of 1,812,522 (51.3%) followers of the Islamic faith in Bosnia and Herzegovina. PEW survey says that there are 52% Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The municipalities of Bužim (99.7%) and Teočak (99.7%) have the highest share of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Canton	Population (2013)	Number of Muslims	%
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina	2,219,220	1,581,868	71.3%
Tuzla Canton	445,028	395,921	89.0%
Zenica-Doboj Canton	364,433	303,994	83.4%
Sarajevo Canton	413,593	350,594	84.8%
Una-Sana Canton	273,261	252,758	92.5%
Central Bosnia Canton	254,686	147,809	58.0%
Herzegovina-Neretva Canton	222,007	91,395	41.2%
Republika Srpska	1,228,423	172,742	14.1%
Brčko District	83,516	35,844	42.9%
Bosnian-Podrinje Canton Goražde	23,734	22,372	94.3%
Posavina Canton	43,453	8,341	19.2%
Canton 10	84,127	7,904	9.3%
West Herzegovina Canton	94,898	780	0.8%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	3,531,159	1,790,454	50.7%

Percentage of Muslims by Population Census

Year	Number	Percentage
1872	630,456	51%
1879	448,613	38.73%
1885	492,710	36.88%
1895	548,632	34.99%
1910	612,137	32.25%
1921	588,244	31.07%
1931	718,079	30.90%
1948	788,403	30.73%
1953	891 800	31.3%
1961	842,247	25.69%
1971	1,482,430	39.57%
1981	1.630.033	39.52%
1991	1.902.956	43.47%
2013	1.790.454	50.70%

Contemporary relations

Tekija of Pehare, Zenica

For a majority of Bosniaks that identify themselves as Muslims, religion often serves as a community linkage, and religious practice is confined to occasional visits to the mosque (especially during Ramadan and the two Eids) and significant rites of passage such as aqiqah, marriage, and death. Headscarves for women, or the hijab, is worn only by a minority of Bosniak women, or otherwise mostly for religious purpose (such as the çarşaf for prayer and going to the mosque).

Velika Kladuša Mosque

Religious leaders from the three major faiths claim that observance is increasing among younger people as an expression of increased identification with their ethnic heritage, in large part due to the national religious revival that occurred as a result of the Bosnian war. Leaders from the three main religious communities observed that they enjoy greater support from their believers after the end of Bosnian war. On the other hand, however, the violence and misery caused by religious conflict has led a small number of Bosnians to reject religion altogether. This atheist community faces discrimination, and is frequently verbally attacked by religious leaders as "corrupt people without morals". According to the latest census, openly-declared atheists make up 0.79% of Bosnia's population.

In a 1998 public opinion poll, 78.3% of Bosniaks in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared themselves to be religious.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there are eight muftis located in major municipalities across the country: Sarajevo, Bihać, Travnik, Tuzla, Goražde, Zenica, Mostar, and Banja Luka. The head of the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina is Husein Kavazović.

See also

• Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Islamization of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Bosniaks
• Religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian)
• Persecution of Muslims
• Pomaks
• List of mosques in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina

References

Bibliography

• Aščerić-Todd, Ines (2015). Dervishes and Islam in Bosnia: Sufi Dimensions to the Formation of Bosnian Muslim Society. The Ottoman Empire and its Heritage. Vol. 58. Leiden: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/9789004288447. ISBN 978-90-04-27821-9. ISSN 1380-6076. S2CID 127053309.
• Bougarel, Xavier (2005). "Balkan Muslim Diasporas and the Idea of a "European Islam"". In Dulic, Tomislav (ed.). Balkan Currents. Essays in Honour of Kjell Magnusson. Uppsala Multiethnic Papers. Vol. 49. Uppsala: Uppsala University Press. pp. 147–165. S2CID 158986618 – via Halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr.
• Bougarel, Xavier (2012) [2007]. "Bosnian Islam as 'European Islam': Limits and Shifts of A Concept". In al-Azmeh, Aziz; Fokas, Effie (eds.). Islam in Europe: Diversity, Identity, and Influence (PDF). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 96–124. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511809309.007. ISBN 9780511809309. S2CID 91182456.
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• Friedman, Francine (2000). Mylonas, Harris (ed.). "The Muslim Slavs of Bosnia and Herzegovina (with Reference to the Sandžak of Novi Pazar): Islam as National Identity". Nationalities Papers. 28 (1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of Nationalities: 165–180. doi:10.1080/00905990050002498. eISSN 1465-3923. ISSN 0090-5992. S2CID 154938106.
• Greenberg, Robert D. (2009). "Dialects, Migrations, and Ethnic Rivalries: The Case of Bosnia-Herzegovina". Journal of Slavic Linguistics. 17 (1/2). Bloomington, Indiana: Slavica Publishers (Indiana University Press): 193–216. doi:10.1353/jsl.0.0022. JSTOR 24600141. S2CID 154466698.
• Malcolm, Noel (1995). Povijest Bosne. Novi Liber. ISBN 953-6045-03-6.
• Malečková, Jitka (2020). "Civilizing the Slavic Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina". "The Turk" in the Czech Imagination (1870s-1923). Studia Imagologica. Vol. 26. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 118–158. doi:10.1163/9789004440791_005. ISBN 978-90-04-44077-7. ISSN 0927-4065.
• Račius, Egdūnas, ed. (2020). Islam in Post-communist Eastern Europe: Between Churchification and Securitization. Muslim Minorities. Vol. 35. Leiden: Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-42534-7. ISSN 1570-7571. LCCN 2020907634.
• Šuško, Dževada, ed. (2019). Both Muslim and European: Diasporic and Migrant Identities of Bosniaks. Muslim Minorities. Vol. 30. Leiden: Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-39402-5. ISSN 1570-7571. LCCN 2018061684.
• Zheliazkova, Antonina (July 1994). "The Penetration and Adaptation of Islam in Bosnia from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century". Journal of Islamic Studies. 5 (2: Islam in The Balkans). Oxford: Oxford University Press: 187–208. doi:10.1093/jis/5.2.187. eISSN 1471-6917. ISSN 0955-2340. JSTOR 26195615. S2CID 144333779.

Further reading

• Akyol, Riada Asimovic (13 January 2019). "Bosnia Offers a Model of Liberal European Islam". The Atlantic. Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on 13 January 2019. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
• Allievi, Stefano; Maréchal, Brigitte; Dassetto, Felice; Nielsen, Jørgen S., eds. (2003). Muslims in the Enlarged Europe: Religion and Society. Muslim Minorities. Leiden: Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-13201-6. ISSN 1570-7571. S2CID 142974009.
• Bencheikh, Ghaleb; Brahimi-Semper, Adam (19 May 2019). "L'Islam dans le Sud-Est Européen". www.franceculture.fr (in French). Paris: France Culture. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
• Bougarel, Xavier; Clayer, Nathalie, eds. (2001). Le Nouvel Islam Balkanique. Les Musulmans, acteurs du post-communisme, 1990-2000 (in French). Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose. ISBN 2-7068-1493-4.
• Bougarel, Xavier; Clayer, Nathalie (2013). Les musulmans de l'Europe du Sud-Est: Des Empires aux États balkaniques. Terres et gens d'islam (in French). Paris: IISMM - Karthala. ISBN 978-2-8111-0905-9 – via Cairn.info.
• Clayer, Nathalie (2004). "Les musulmans des Balkans Ou l'islam de "l'autre Europe"/The Balkans Muslims Or the Islam of the «Other Europe"". Religions, pouvoir et société: Europe centrale, Balkans, CEI. Le Courrier de Pays de l'Est (in French). 5 (1045). Paris: La Documentation française: 16–27. doi:10.3917/cpe.045.0016. ISSN 0590-0239 – via Cairn.info.
• Elbasani, Arolda; Roy, Olivier, eds. (2015). The Revival of Islam in the Balkans: From Identity to Religiosity. Islam and Nationalism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/9781137517845. hdl:1814/36698. ISBN 978-1-137-51783-8. S2CID 164180984.
• Popović, Alexandre (1986). L'Islam balkanique: les musulmans du sud-est européen dans la période post-ottomane. Balkanologische Veröffentlichungen (in French). Vol. 11. Berlin: Osteuropa-Institut an der Freien Universität Berlin. ISBN 9783447025980. OCLC 15614864.
• Stieger, Cyrill (5 October 2017). "Die Flexibilität der slawischen Muslime". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). Zürich. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017. Retrieved 25 March 2021.