Transformation from Islamic Community to a Nation in Bosnia and Herzegovina:

Nationalism in Party of Democratic Action’s Ideology in

Nationalism as a political phenomenon, has a relatively short history in Balkans. Balkan

region was in between of two great empires; Ottoman Empire and Austria- Hungarian Empire.
The people in the region, embraced the identities given to them, by the empires. Thus, when
nationalism has first sowed its seeds in the Balkans, multireligious, multiethnic society had
faced identity problems. In addition to this, ethnicity based nationalism understanding in the
Balkans states was also different from civic value-based nationalism understanding of Western
Europe[1] and this has deepened the identity problem in the region. Bosnia and Herzegovina is the clear example of how nationalism is an
obstacle to state formation. Multiethnic society lead by different nationalisms prevented a state formation in the country. The lack of unification

can even be seen the flag of the country[2]. Bosnia and Herzegovina also have special situation which make itself unique in this term. Bosnia

is the example how a large group in the country fail to create identity and rather continue to identify themselves in the old ways, with their

religion; ‘Muslimani[3]’. The Muslim population in Bosnia and Herzegovina had Slav origins in terms of race, yet since they converted to

Islam they couldn’t fit into Croatian or Serbian nationalist movements. In this study, I will focus on Muslim population in Bosnia and

Herzegovina and their identity creation process.

This study will examine the transition period of Bosnian Muslim population from
religious community to a nation. I will examine the transformation period by focusing on Party
of Democratic Action’s (Stranka Demokratske Akcije/ SDA) ideology and its founder Alija
Izzetbegovic’s discourse. The reason of focus on these two actors, is that both of the actors has
important influence for the creation of ‘Bosniak’ identity, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
The aim of this study is to argue how a nation was created by the Islamist- nationalist
movements among the Bosnian Muslims in the 1990s. The study will have three main parts. In
the first part, I will define the theoretical concepts like nation and nationalism. In the second
part, I will provide historical context to the nationalism in Bosnia and the situation of Bosnian
Muslims in the country. In the third part, I will investigate the ideology of Alija Izzetbegovic
and SDA and present my thesis on how they shifted from Islamic identity to a national one. In
the conclusion part, I will summarize my arguments and support my thesis.

Nation, Nationalism and Bosnia and Herzegovina

The nation-state that begins with revolutions in the 18th century, is now the most
prevalent and legitimate state form. The logic that nations constitute nation-states is valid and


reasonable, but one question still protects its validity: What is nation? In the era of nations and
nationalisms, there is no largely accepted definitions of the term[4]. There are main divisions over the nature
of nation and how it is constituted. On the one hand, some scholars argue that nations are organic structures that existed even before the

nationalism era. There were mostly two common elements that enables a nation formation; will and culture[5]. On the other hand, some scholars

perceive nation as a result of social engineering, like Eric J. Hobsbawm[6]. Ernest Gellner also follows a similar path to explain the creation

of nations and establishment of nation states. Ernest Gellner argue that nations are the result of nationalisms, not vice versa[7]. Benedict

Anderson comes up with clear definition of this approach; “It is imagined political community- and imagined as both inherently limited and

sovereign”[8]I will embrace the second path as a basis to my study and to explain the Bosnian nationalism.

For the Bosnia and Herzegovina case, I find it necessary to define these concepts to
understand the identity and nationalism crisis in the country. ‘Bosniak’ term refers to Muslims
living in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Besides this groups, there are two more ethnic groups in the
country; Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs. The term ‘Bosnian’ is being used to refer all the
people living in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As mentioned before, the nationalism we see in the Balkans is different from the
Western Europe’s nationalism. Ethno-nationalism prevailing in Bosnia and Herzegovina
created three nationalism and one nationalism process. Slavenka Drakulic’s quote explains
nationalism in Balkans by all means;

“Something people cherished as part of their cultural identity has become their political identity and
turned into something like an ill-fitting shirt”[9].

Before passing to historical part, I believe it will be useful to mention why Bosnian
Muslims identify themselves with their religion instead of their nationality. Bosnia was in the
rule of Ottoman Empire for centuries and Ottoman Empire had ‘Millet’ system which defines
people according to their religion. When nationalist movement began in the region, Muslim
population lacked the conditions for creating a nation. However, Catholics and Orthodox
populations managed to create a national identity as Croats and Serbs. Thus, Muslims began to
be the religious minorities in the national states until the 1990s. Thus, Bosnian Muslims became
the people with no nation, hence no modern identity.

From One Race to Three Nations; History of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The history of people in Bosnia and Herzegovina starts approximately in 4th century
with the flow of South Slavs, to the region. When Slavs settled to the country, they had Zupan
system which divides the territory to the local rulers- called Zupan- and unite in times of war.[10]


Thus, the land were divided among the tribes like Croat tribe and Serb tribe. When Christianity began to prevail in the region, Zupans embraced

different versions of Christianity. Serbian tribe embraced Orthodoxy and Croatian tribes embrace Catholicism. In 11th century, the
Bosnian people who live in a relatively isolated area because of its geography didn’t affiliated
to the Orthodoxy or Catholicism, rather they established their own church. This religious
difference will be the main reason why one Slavic community created three nations. The
Bosnians who lacked a strong church embraced, Islam with the influence of Ottomans. For
some scholars, from that point, Ottoman rule enabled Bosnians to maintain their cultural
uniqueness from pressures of their neighbors. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Croat and Serb
populations gained their independence from Austrian and Ottoman Empires and created their
own nations. The Catholic Slavs became Croatian and Orthodox Slavs became Serb. These
nationalist movements- with ethnic references- recreated the history according to their
perspective and used historical links to legitimize their claims over the territory. They had
Yugoslavia dream to revive the ‘glorious’ Slavic history. Both movements had territorial claims
over Bosnia and Herzegovina because of the Catholic and Orthodox population living in there.
Because of the national identities highly influenced from religious identities, Catholics and
Orthodox in Bosnia and Herzegovina embraced Croatian and Serbian identities instead of
creating a Bosnian identity. Hence, Muslim population remained without national identity. In
1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina were given under the rule of Austrian- Hungarian Empire
instead of Ottoman Empire. The identity problem began for Muslim population with this date.
They face assimilation and Muslim elite began to lose their privileges that they had during the
Ottoman rule. Thus, there were resistance movements among the Bosnian Muslims, mostly for
preserving religious ties with the Caliphate and to regain their economic status. In 1909,
Bosnian Muslim population lost all its ties with the Ottoman Empire with the abolition of
‘khutba’ from Caliphate. With 1929, the nature of Bosnian resistance began to change. After
King divided the country into 4 Banavinas which disregards the national or group-based
identities, Bosnian Muslims sought for autonomy. The movements after 1929 was the first
identity regarding movements of Bosnian Muslims. They were right and identity oriented in
contrast with the economic based movements of pre-1909. Another change came with the
Yugoslavia. After WW2, Yugoslavia was established under the leadership of Serbia and it gave
status to regions and people according to their nationality. Bosnian Muslims remained without
identity and sought for religious identity which is recognized by Yugoslavia. They also faced
religion problem in an atheist state. The Bosnian movements were mostly Islamic movements
and part of the ‘Young Muslim’ movements in the world and Bosnian Young Muslims were as
linked with Brotherhood in Egypt. Young Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina was following


the pattern of Association of Young Muslims with their pan-Islamist ideology. Their concerns
and aims were not limited with Bosnia, they were aiming a pan-Islamist state in Europe which
includes other Muslim populations in the Yugoslavia. As we can see from their ideology,
Bosnian Muslims weren’t in search of a national identity, rather they embraced their religious
identity more than ever. Their ideology was anti-Western and radical in terms of coexistence.
They even blamed Ottomans because they believed Ottomans corrupted the religion by
softening it and getting into contact with Christian West. In 1940s, Bosnian Muslims cut their
ties with Ottomans and historical links and embraced a more radical ideology. This radicalism
made the organization short-lived. In 1950s, the movement was suppressed by the Yugoslav
government and the members faced serious sentences. Despite these sentences, Islamic
movements continued to exist and operated. In 1968, Yugoslav government’s recognition of
‘Muslimani’ as a constituent of Yugoslavia, paved the way for ethnicity based on religion.[11].
This event is the major point for Bosniak nationalism to be created. In the 1970s and 1980s, a new movement among Bosnian Muslims emerged.

Alija Izetbegovic- former member of Young Muslims- established a book in the 1979 called ‘Islamic Declaration’. With its pan-Islamist notion,

Izetbegovic defines Bosnian Muslims as the Muslims in Europe and creating an ideology which is beyond the nation. He mentions about an

Islamic Federation from Morocco to Indonesia and from Tropical Africa to Central Asia, as his ideal[12]. This ideology in the movement

enabled Bosnian Muslims to create new links with Arab countries, Iran and other Muslim countries. Thus, the Bosnian Muslims’ movement

turned into a more radical movement which seeks pan-Islamist order. In 1990s, Alija Izetbegovic established Democratic Action Party (SDA)

as the voice of Yugoslavian Muslims. However, both party and Alija Izetbegovic changed in discourse during the 1990s. They created a nation

for Bosnian Muslims as ‘Bosniak’. In the next part, I will focus on how and why Bosnian Muslims created a nation and embraced ethno-

nationalist discourse and explain the transition process.

Bosnian Muslims Searching for an Identity: Alija Izetbegovic and Party of

Democratic Action

Bosnian Muslims who were left without a valid identity was seeking for a one that
provides them the legitimacy over the territory. They embraced Islamic identity throughout the
20th century but this was not a valid identity in the world of nation states. As Gellner mentions:

“A man without a nation defies the recognized categories and provokes revulsion.”[13]

This was the case for Bosnian Muslims, too. For Croats and Serbs, Bosnia and
Herzegovina should be divided into two -based on Croatian and Serbian population majority-
after the dissolution of the Yugoslavia. The Muslims were seen as Croats by the Croat
nationalist. Thus, they were only Croats or Serbs who believes in Islam and they will be
minorities in the Croatia and Serbia. In this atmosphere, Bosnian Muslims couldn’t emphasize


their ‘uniqueness’ to the other populations in the country. Thus, their ethnic identity was refused
by Serbs and Croats. There was even no notion of nationalism among Muslims, too. Even Alija
Izetbegovic and SDA didn’t have national discourse till 1990s, they used the term Muslims to
identify the population. Alija Izetbegovic refers to this problem as follows:

“… Every time Cemal and me mentions about Bosnian Muslims as a different people or Bosnian
language as distinctive one, Croats interrupted our speech and say they see Bosnia as an inseparable
part of Croatia and calling us as the ‘Croats who converted to Islam’…”

Thus, Alija Izetbegovic saw that Bosnian Muslims didn’t have a valid identity to form
a state and began to embrace a national identity while they used to see nations as the enemy of
Islam in the 1980s.

[1] Romantic Nationalism- Maria Tadarova

[2] The current flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina is decided by UN in 1998. The triangle represents the three constituents in the country. Also, the flag doesn’t involve ethnic
or historical motifs instead involve stars that represent Europe.

[3] Status given to Muslims in the Yugoslavia,

[4] Gellner ya da anderson dan kaynak ekle

[5] Gellner, Ulus ve milliyetçilik, sf 101

[6] Umut Özkırımlı, sf 57, Hobsbawn

[7] Gellner, ulus ve milliyetçilik , sf 105

[8] Benedict Anderson, Imagined Community, sf 16.

[9] Umut Özkırımlı sf 193, oradaki alıntı kaynak verilecek.

[11] Douglas A. Philips.

[12] İslam Deklarasyonuu sf 81

[13] Gellner, Nation and Nationalism, sf 6