Bosniaks In Serbia

Bosniaks of Serbia () are a recognized national minority in Serbia. According to the 2022 census, the population of ethnic Bosniaks in Serbia is 153,801, constituting 2.3% of the total population, which makes them the third largest ethnic group in the country. The vast majority of them live in the southwestern part of the country that borders Montenegro and Kosovo, called Sandžak. Their cultural center is located in Novi Pazar.

Politics

The first major political organisation of Bosniaks from Sandžak happened at the Sjenica conference, held in August 1917, during the Austro-Hungarian occupation of the former Sanjak of Novi Pazar. The Bosniak representatives at the conference decided to ask the Austro-Hungarian authorities to separate the Sanjak of Novi Pazar from Serbia and Montenegro and merge it with Bosnia and Herzegovina, or at least to give it autonomy in the region.

After the end of World War I and the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918, the Sandžak region also become a part of the newly created country. At the Constitutional Assembly election held in 1920, the Bosniaks in Sandžak voted for the People's Radical Party. The main reason for supporting the radicals was a promise made to several influential Bosniaks that they would be compensated for losing their lands during the agrarian reform.

The Muslims in Sandžak organised themselves together with the Albanians into the Džemijet party, that covered the area of present-day Kosovo, North Macedonia and Sandžak. The main goal of the Džemijet was the protection of the interests of Bosniaks and Albanians. Džemijet was founded in 1919 in Skopje and was led by Nexhip Draga and later by his brother Ferhat Bey Draga. After it was founded in Skopje, branches of the party were soon founded in Kosovo, Sandžak and the rest of North Macedonia. District and municipal branches in Sandžak were founded at a meeting of the Džemijet held in Novi Pazar in 1922. The meeting was highly attended, and it insisted upon Bosniak unity instead of division by various political parties.

One of the most important political figures of the Bosniaks in the part of Sandžak situated in Serbia was Mufti Muamer Zukorlić, who led the revival of Bosniak territorial and institutional organization in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Religion

According to the 2011 Census, almost all Bosniaks in Serbia are Muslim (99.5%). The remainder is not religious or did not declare their religion. Bosniaks make up the basis (75%) of the Muslim community in Serbia, while most other Muslims are ethnic Albanians or Romani.

Demographics

Bosniaks, an ethnic minority, are primarily the ones living in southwestern Serbia, in the region historically known as Sandžak, which is today divided between the states of Serbia and Montenegro. Colloquially referred to as ''Sandžaklije'' by themselves and others, Bosniaks form the majority in three out of six municipalities in the Serbian part of Sandžak: Novi Pazar (77.1%), Tutin (90%) and Sjenica (73.8%) and comprise an overall majority of 59.6%. The town of Novi Pazar is a cultural center of the Bosniaks in Serbia. Many Bosniaks from the Sandžak area moved to Turkey after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Over the years a large number of Bosniaks from the Sandžak region left to other countries, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Germany, Sweden, United States, Canada, Australia, etc. A second group is formed by Bosniaks that came from Bosnia and Herzegovina to the largest cities in Serbia during the 20th century as economic and inter-Yugoslav migrants.

Today, the majority of Bosniaks are Sunni Muslim and adhere to the Hanafi school of thought, the largest and oldest school of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. Some in this region who identify as Bosniak do so on the account of religious identity as Muslims, but are ethnically Albanian and live in villages (Boroštica, Doliće, Ugao) located in the Pešter region. They have adopted a Bosniak identity in censuses, due to intermarriage, during the period of the SFR Yugoslavia, or due to sociopolitical discrimination against Albanians following the break-up of the SFRJ.Andrea Pieroni, Maria Elena Giusti, & Cassandra L. Quave (2011). "Cross-cultural ethnobiology in the Western Balkans: medical ethnobotany and ethnozoology among Albanians and Serbs in the Pešter Plateau, Sandžak, southwestern Serbia." ''Human Ecology''. 39.(3): 335. "The current population of the Albanian villages is partly “Bosniakised”, since in the last two generations a number of Albanian males began to intermarry with (Muslim) Bosniak women of Pešter. This is one of the reasons why locals in Ugao were declared to be “Bosniaks” in the last census of 2002, or, in Boroštica, to be simply “Muslims”, and in both cases abandoning the previous ethnic label of “Albanians”, which these villages used in the census conducted during “Yugoslavian” times. A number of our informants confirmed that the self-attribution “Albanian” was purposely abandoned in order to avoid problems following the Yugoslav Wars and associated violent incursions of Serbian paramilitary forces in the area. The oldest generation of the villagers however are still fluent in a dialect of Ghegh Albanian, which appears to have been neglected by European linguists thus far. Additionally, the presence of an Albanian minority in this area has never been brought to the attention of international stakeholders by either the former Yugoslav or the current Serbian authorities."

Notable people

Politics

* Ejup Ganić, former president of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Rasim Ljajić, Deputy Prime Minister of Government of Serbia and Minister of Foreign and Internal Trade and Telecommunications
* Sulejman Ugljanin, president of the Party of Democratic Action of Sandžak and the Bosniak National Council

Military personnel

* Hasan Zvizdić, commander of a detachment of the Sandžak Muslim militia
* Sefer Halilović, the former general and commanding officer of the Bosnian army during the 1992–95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Religious figures

* Muamer Zukorlić, former Mufti and president of the SPP ( Justice and Reconciliation Party)

Athletes

* Mustafa Hasanagić, footballer
* Enver Hadžiabdić, footballer
* Adem Ljajić, footballer
* Enver Alivodić, footballer
* Erhan Mašović, footballer
* Fahrudin Mustafić, footballer
* Mirsad Türkcan, born as Mirsad Jahović, basketball player
* Hedo Türkoğlu, Turkish basketball player
* Alem Toskić, handballer and European Championship silver medalist
* Mirsad Terzić, handballer
* Asmir Kolašinac, shot putter and European Indoor Champion
* Amela Terzić, middle-distance runner and two-time European U23 Champion
*Marco Huck, professional boxer and former WBO cruiserweight champion
* Mensur Suljović, professional darts player
* Hamad Međedovic, professional tennis player
* Hena Kurtagić, professional volleyball player

Performing arts

* Irfan Mensur, theatre, television and film actor
* Emina Jahović, singer
* Mirza Šoljanin, Bosnian singer
* Senad Hadžifejzović, Bosnian journalist, news anchor and TV host.

Others

* Dina Džanković, 2005 Miss Serbia and Montenegro

See also

* Bosnia and Herzegovina–Serbia relations
* Bosniaks of Montenegro
* Islam in Serbia
* Muslims (ethnic group)
* Exodus of Muslims from Serbia

References

Notes

Sources

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External links

Congress of North American BosniaksSandzakpress.net

{{Ethnic groups in Serbia

Bosniak diaspora
Ethnic groups in Serbia
Islam in Serbia
Muslim communities in Europe