The role of religion in the identity of south Slav nations

Abstract

Researchers who dealt with the Balkan national question saw religion as a large formative variable in the ethnic consolidation of peoples in this part of Europe. The main difference between the three largest Balkan Slav ethnic communities - Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims - is a religious one. Virtually all Serbs are Orthodox Christians, Croats Catholic and Bosnian Muslims, as their preferred ethnic reference suggests, all Muslim. Changing religion in the past meant changing nations. In the past centuries when Orthodox Serbs changed their religion into Islam they also changed their ethnicity and became Bosniac. The same holds for Croats. Today's situation shows that religious communities played very important role in development of national feeling of those nations. Nearly all Bosnian Muslim intellectuals say that the most important characteristic of their nation is their religious affiliation to Islam. Likewise, majority of Serbs and Croats consider Orthodoxy and Catholicism, respectively, as their national religion so that there is no reference such as Catholic Serb or Orthodox Croat. While the big part of the population may not be believers in the literal meaning of their religious faith, they, nevertheless, belong to it because of the tradition. Political analysis of Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian societies show that their religious institutions are the most respected pillars of the nation. Having in mind these facts, it is clear that the degree of patriotism, nationalism, jingoism and xenophobia in those societies and among these peoples can not be researched without exact facts on the position of religious institutions because without that knowledge, it isn't possible to evaluate the process of globalization of that region. .

Istraživači koji se bave Balkanom nisu mogli da ne vide religiju kao jednu od činjenica koja je uticala na stvaranje nacija u tom delu Evrope. Najveća razlika između tri najveće jugoslovenske etničke zajednice, Srba, Hrvata i Bošnjaka, jeste religijska. Skoro da su svi Srbi pravoslavni, svi Hrvati rimokatolici i svi Bošnjaci muslimani. Menjanje religije u prošlosti je značilo menjanje nacije; kada su pravoslavni Srbi menjali veru prelazeći u islam, stvarali su pretpostavke da se danas transformišu u Bošnjake. Isto se desilo i sa Hrvatima. I danas se vidi da religija igra veliku ulogu u formiranju nacionalne svesti ovih zajednica. Skoro svi bošnjački intelektualci ističu da je islam jedna od osnova njihove nacije. Isto tako, veliki broj Hrvata i Srba smatra da su rimokatolicizam i pravoslavlje njihova nacionalna religija, pa se često čuju pojmovi pravoslavni Srbin i Hrvat rimokatolik. Mada je vidljivo, da značajan deo ovih zajednica zna da pokaže da nije vernik u pravom smislu te reči, oni ističu da pripadaju nekoj od ove tri konfesije zbog tradicije. Najznačajnije analize uglednih institucija pokazuju da ove tri zajednice smatraju religiju jednim od stubova njihove nacije. Imajući u vidu ove činjenice, jasno je da se patriotizam, nacionalizam, šovinizam, džingoizam i ksenofobija ne mogu istraživati kod ovih zajednica ako se nemaju tačne činjenice o stavovima religioznih institucija. .