The Revival of Islam in the Post-Communist Balkans: Coercive Nationalisms and New Pathways to God

Abstract

The Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), created in 1992 and directed by Professor Brigid Laffan, aims to develop inter-disciplinary and comparative research on the major issues facing the process of European integration, European societies and Europe's place in 21 st century global politics. The Centre is home to a large post-doctoral programme and hosts major research programmes, projects and data sets, in addition to a range of working groups and ad hoc initiatives. The research agenda is organised around a set of core themes and is continuously evolving, reflecting the changing agenda of European integration, the expanding membership of the European Union, developments in Europe's neighbourhood and the wider world.

Governing religious diversity in Western Balkans: The volatility of ethno-religious coexistence in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania

“…The evident chaotic transformation of the societies from atheistic to religious has resulted in an unprecedented event with 90% of non-religious people to have turned into more than 90% believers in just a couple of years (Hadžić, 2021;4). Yet, liberalization of both religious and political systems in the three decades since the fall of Communism has enabled the recast of the collective ethno-religious national divisions, by chaotically fusing a variety of local, national, and regional processes (Elbasani, 2015). In addition, for many scholars and politicians who tend to look at religion as a repository of ethnonational identities, Islamic 'revival' is viewed as a risky 'depot' that can lead to deepening divisions between and among ethno-religious entities.…”

“…Amidst such a strong feeling of affinity during the age of nation- and state-building, these distinguishable collective identities came to good effect to political schemers of all sorts. They promoted, manipulated and usurped these identities for some reasons, such as to demarcate their new nations, to engineer homogeneity, to consolidate central state authority, and, when necessary, to wage wars against ‘others’ (Elbasani, 2015; 2).…”