Islam at the Balkans in the Past, Today and in the Future
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YUGOSLAV SOCIETY FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION YSSSR Anuual – Year XIV ISLAM AT THE BALKANS IN THE PAST, TODAY AND IN THE FUTURE _____________________ edited by DRAGOLJUB B. ĐORĐEVIĆ DRAGAN TODOROVIĆ LJUBIŠA MITROVIĆ YUGOSLAV SOCIETY FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION Niš 2007 ISLAM AT THE BALKANS IN THE PAST, TODAY AND IN THE FUTURE YSSSR Anuual – Year XIV XIV Annual International YSSSR Conference Islam at the Balkans in the Past, Today and in the Future Founder Yugoslav Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Niš, Serbia Editors YSSSR, Niš, Serbia Edited by Dragoljub B. Đorđević Dragan Todorović Ljubiša Mitrović Reviewers Jovan Živković Đokica Jovanović Computer Support Srđan Pavlović Cover Design Darko Jovanović Print PUNTA, Niš Circulation 300 ISBN 978-86-86957-00-9 The book done within the project THE CULTURE OF PEACE, IDENTITIES AND INTER-ETHNIC RELATIONS IN SERBIA AND AT THE BALKANS IN THE EUROINTEGRATION PROCESS (149014D) carried out at the Faculty of Philosophy, Niš, and financed by the Ministry of Science and Environment Protection of the Serbian Government CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: FACING THE ISSUE OF ISLAM AT THE BALKANS 5 ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY AT THE BALKANS: PERSPECTIVES OF THE CULTURE OF PEACE 1 Islam in the Balkans, Islam within the Balkans 9 Darko Tanasković 2 Dialogue and Convergence of Islam and Christianity in the Balkans as a Precondition for Development of the Culture of Peace, Cooperation and Integration among People 15 Ljubiša Mitrović 3 Bulgarian Ethnic Model – Tolerance Between Christians and Muslims 21 Bogdana Todorova MUSLIMS OF THE BALKANS: IDENTITY AND ITS TRANSFORMATION 4 Muslims in the Balkans: Problems of (Re)Institutionalization and Transformation of Identity 29 Srđan Barišić 5 Islamic Community in Serbia 43 Zorica Kuburić Rifat Namlidji 6 Bosnian Muslims and Country in Transition 51 Dino Abazović 7 Consequentiality in the Religion of Bosnian Muslims 57 Sergej Flere FROM THE HISTORY OF ISLAM IN YUGOSLAVIA AND SERBIA: ISLAM COMMUNITY AND DERVISH ORDERS 8 Processes of the Internal Organizational Consolidation of the Islam Religious Community in the Socialist Yugoslavia 67 Dragan Novaković 9 Dervishes in Belgrade: The Belgrade Tekkes, Tariqas, Shaikhs 83 Milan Vukomanović 10 Tekkias, Tarikats and Sheiks of Niš Romas 87 Dragoljub B. Đorđević Dragan Todorović ISLAM-CHRISTIANITY BORDER ZONE AND THE ISSUE OF GENDER IN ISLAM 11 Anti-plague European-Ottoman Border in Serbia in the First Half of the 19TH Century in the Foreign Historiography of the Islamic World 105 Antonaeta K. Dimčevska Sonja K. Kecmanović Marija M. Mašanović 12 Gender, Religion, Fundamentalism – The Case of Islam 113 Danijela Gavrilović 13 “The Female” Element and Its Influence on Islam 117 Dragana Stjepanović-Zaharijevski Abstracts 125 Notes on the Contributors 135 WE ARE THANKFUL FOR THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO THE MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AND THE MINISTRY OF FAITHS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA INTRODUCTION: FACING THE ISSUE OF ISLAM AT THE BALKANS Yugoslav Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (YSSSR) and its Program Board have brought about the decision that the Fourteenth traditional International YSSR Conference should be devoted to the “Islam at the Balkans in the Past, Today and in the Future”. Fifteen distinguished domestic and foreign sociologists of religion dealing with a complex issue of the position of Islam at the Balkans will debate, for two days, on June 29-30 at Babin Zub, a well-known resort on the Stara Mountain), in four plenary sessions, namely: I ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY AT THE BALKANS: PERSPECTIVES OF THE CULTURE OF PEACE II MUSLIMS OF THE BALKANS: IDENTITY AND ITS TRANSFORMATION III FROM THE HISTORY OF ISLAM IN YUGOSLAVIA AND SERBIA: ISLAM COMMUNITY AND DERVISH ORDERS IV ISLAM-CHRISTIANITY BORDER ZONE AND THE ISSUE OF GENDER IN ISLAM It has also been decided to continue with the four-year practice, that is, that the papers should be published in an anthology of papers in English while the debates should be published as a separate book in Serbian after the Conference. The Anthology before the readers comprises papers arranged according to the plenary sessions. The idea to devote the Conference to Islam has come from Dragoljub B. Đorđević, President of the YSSSR who has also conceived of the Conference’s basics, Dragan Todorović, Secretary General of the YSSR who has, like so many times before, carried the greatest organizational burden and Ljubiša Mitrović as the leader of the project Culture of Peace, Identities, and Interethnic Relations in Serbia and the Balkans in the Eurointegration Process (149014D) who has most enthusiastically supported the whole idea. These three distinguished academic figures from the University of Niš are also, as expected, editors of this Anthology. ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY AT THE BALKANS: PERSPECTIVES OF THE CULTURE OF PEACE UDK 323.1:28(4:497) 327.39:28(4) Darko Tanasković ISLAM IN THE BALKANS, ISLAM WITHIN THE BALKANS Islam and the Muslim communities in Europe have been attracting more and more public and academic attention in recent years. This growth of interest is caused primarily by the emerging of the social phenomenon of radical neoislamism, whose protagonists are the inadequately integrated members of the first and second generation of immigrants from the Muslim world. On the other hand, Muslim communities in the Balkans, who are the only representatives of the historic and authentic European Islam, have unjustly been excluded from the debate about the situation of Islam in Europe. Therefore, there is no argument over the actuality and the importance of the issue that this conference is addressing. Also, it is equally obvious that its scientific study so far has been theoretically and methodologically deficient and inconsistent. I have decided, therefore, to offer my modest contribution to this gathering in the form of an unpretentious theoretical and methodological essay. Considering the limitation of space and time I have at my disposal, I will try to organize my presenta- tion through a few basic points. Each of them will be explained and, if necessary, illustrated with examples from the reality of Islam in the Balkans. I believe it must be clear to everyone that this approach inevitably implies a significant selectivity and a high degree of generalization. Of course, many aspects of Islam in the Balkans will certainly stay out of my reach and perspective, which doesn’t mean that I am over- looking or underestimating them. It will bring me great joy, and it will certainly be most useful, if this theoretical and methodological stimulus gives rise to a discussion and critical replies already during the conference. Through discussion, it can be ex- panded, supplemented and, if necessary, corrected in a way that is most productive. Its basic intention is to help, eventually to point in a direction through a question, least of all to teach. I have already pointed out that Islam in the Balkans is a very complex and multidimensional phenomenon. I will try through my essay to touch on dimensions and aspects of this complex issue which I find to be the most important. It is also fundamentally important to stress that, for it to be successful in analysis and learn- ing, contemporary academic approach to Islam in the Balkans must lend itself close to the everyday complexity of its object of study. This approach, after taking every- thing into consideration, must be holistic. Of course, to this synthesis of knowledge an unavoidable contribution must be given by the specialized studies of certain ar- eas. Coordination between them would be most desirable. Although I will attempt to mention all the main ways of existence and manifestation of our theme, I hold that it is useful, during my opening remarks, to make one more suggestion. I am certain that in the study of modern occurrences that are connected to the Islamic phenome- non in the Balkans, it is necessary to pay more attention to the cultural and civiliza- tional, and not only religious and political dimensions. Because, unlike in Western Europe, Islam does not exist only in the Balkans, but also deep within Balkans. 1. For the appropriate theoretical basing and methodological organizing of the whole academic approach to the Islamic problem in the Balkans, it is a matter of principle to answer the following question: Is there a specific “Balkanic Islam” or we ISLAM AT THE BALKANS IN THE PAST, TODAY AND IN THE FUTURE can only speak of “Islam in the Balkans”. It is not an easy question to answer. The answer to this question, prior to discussing the Balkan case, assumes establishing a methodological balance between two opposing tendencies which have marked inter- national islamology in the last decades. On one side we have the supporters of Is- lamic relativism. They insist on the diverse manifestations of Islam in different re- gions of the world. They refuse any possibility to speak of Islam as a monolith and, as they see it, an abstract ideological construct produced by orientalism (in a sense that is attributed by E. Said). They often like to say that there is not one Islam, but many “Islams”. On the other side are the supporters of the so called “essentialist” view. Mostly they do not deny the historic and cultural reasons behind the diverse regional and local manifestations of Islam, but they point out that this difference in appearance should not be apsolutised. The essentialists warn that if we relativisti- cally overestimate the importance of surface appearances of “Islams”, we will lose the awareness of its deep rooted unity, which may lead to wrong conclusions and even worse actions. When applied to the Balkans, it would mean that the muslims in Bosnia and Hercegovina, in Kosovo and Metohija, in Macedonia, Bulgaria and in Greece are different in many aspects, but at the same time all of them, despite those differences, are Muslims like their counterparts in Turkey, Iran, Egypt and Malaysia.