Orthodox Churches and the ‘Othering’ of Islam and Muslims in Today’s Balkans

Abstract

The article focuses on the relation between the socio-legal status of national Orthodox Churches and their role in the legal, institutional and social ‘othering’ of Islam and ethnic groups of Muslims in three Balkans countries, namely, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Serbia. The research reveals that the state-pursued construction of national identity and politics of belonging are expressly permeated by ethno-confessional nationalism, which is at the core of the deep-running tensions between the dominant ethnic group and the marginalized Muslims. There is an alliance between the political and the Church elites to keep ethnic groups of Muslim background either altogether outside the ‘national Us’ or at least at its outer margins.

The Bosnian Islamic Community and Its Position on Inter-Religious Dialogue, International Law, and the Nature of Bosnian Society

“…Accepting the 'religious other' as equal has proven difficult for some. The Serbian Orthodox Church was proclaimed the official church of the Serb-dominated Bosnian half until the High Representative decided to remove the provision from the Constitution of the Republic of Srpska (Alibašić and Begović 2017;Racius 2020). Contrary to the expectations of many, Bosnian Muslims still have a marginally more positive view of the secular state than either local Catholics or Orthodox Christians (IRI, 2017: 59).…”