Muslims in the Balkans are divided into two groups: Bosniaks and Albanians, each with distinct identities and histories. During my two trips to the Balkans, I encountered a reality that almost everyone in the region is aware of but speaks less openly about: Serbs, Bosniaks, and Croats are ethnically the same and even speak a common language.
Religious Differences
The fundamental difference among these three groups lies not in language or ethnicity, but in religion; to the extent that Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs, despite sharing the Christian faith, have harbored deeper animosities and conflicts among themselves throughout history than with their Muslim Bosniak neighbors.
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Before my trip, I assumed that the Muslims of the Balkans were a homogeneous group and direct descendants of Ottoman migrants; a perception that was completely incorrect. My curiosity and field observations during the trip revealed that two main Muslim communities, with entirely different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, live in the Balkans: Bosniaks and Albanians.
Identity of Bosniaks and Albanians
Bosniaks, like Serbs and Croats, are of Slavic descent. Before the arrival of Islam, they followed an independent church known as the "Bosnian Church"; an institution influenced by the Bogomil sect that denied the Trinity and the incarnation of Christ, deeming the mediation of priests illegitimate. These beliefs provoked the wrath of Rome and Constantinople, leading to centuries of excommunication, inquisitions, and religious wars imposed by Catholic and Orthodox neighbors on this land.
After Bosnia was conquered by the Ottomans in 1463, the people of this land turned to Islam. The reasons for this were both the similarities in their beliefs with Islam and the search for refuge from church oppression, the preservation of land ownership, and the enjoyment of social rights within the Ottoman structure. Thus, the independent identity of "Bosniaks" emerged as the largest community of Muslim Slavs in Europe.
Albanians, however, have a different history. They consider themselves not Slavs, but ancient inhabitants of the Balkans and descendants of the Illyrians; therefore, the Albanian identity, unlike the Serbian or Bosniak identity, has a linguistic-ethnic nature rather than a religious one. Before the spread of Islam, Albanians were predominantly Catholic and Orthodox, and since the fifteenth century, they have undergone a gradual process of accepting Islam, mainly motivated by economic and social factors. Today, the Albanian community consists of Sunni Muslims, Bektashi Alevis, Christians, and secular individuals who are united by a common language and ethnicity.
The Albanian approach to Islam, especially within the Bektashi order, has a flexible, moderate, and secular character. On the other hand, Bosniaks, despite following the Hanafi jurisprudential tradition, have an Islam intertwined with local culture and European urban structure, which has taken a clear distance from Salafi and extremist currents. Although a limited minority of Ottoman-era Turks also live in the Balkans, the image that emerges from the combination of Bosniaks and Albanians contradicts the notion of "a homogeneous Islam in the Balkans." These two communities, relying on two completely different historical, ideological, theological, linguistic, and ethnic paths, have shaped two distinct faces of European Islam.
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