Serious question to the Bosniaks

[Anarch]

I was recently re-reading Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Huntington used the balkan wars as an example supporting his thesis:

It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural.

He cites Turkish and Arab Muslim support to Bosnia, Russian support to the Serbs and Western backing of Croatia as an example of how fault-line wars can drag in core powers of different civilisations and thereby expand the scale of conflict.

The question I ask specifically to the Bosnians of this forum is: do the Bosnian population percieve themselves as being part of European or Muslim civilisation? I've heard (and seen) more than enough stories of Bosnian Muslims eating pork and drinking beer and basically treating Islam the same way plenty of Westerners treat Christianity, as a kind of cultural backdrop, but in theory, if the shit hit the fan on a truly epic scale... where lies Bosnia? Let's say the Turks made another lunge at restoring the Ottoman Empire.

I would explicitly ask Serbs and Croatians from slandering Bosnians as Turks or Shqiptars or whatever insult you might elect to use

[Mraz]

Bosniaks will be friendly with anyone who respect their independance, only
2 people are a threat to it and they'll always try to break this state
when the occasion comes, Turks can be seen as friendly, but only if they
stay inside their borders, they would sell Bosnia to Serbs if they
can get something bigger. For me they're the same kind, strong nationalist sitting on a mountain of bones, who never question themselves.
So Turks aren't welcome on my yard, except if it's for a coffee, and if I called them

[Methmatician]

I think it depends on the person. Usually, the more religious (Islam-wise) a Bosniak is, the more they feel a connection to the Islamic world. The ones that side more with the Islamic world usually feel betrayed by Europe and supported by the Middle-East (especially Turkey), whereas the ones who feel closer to Europe, are less religious or just believe that Bosniaks are too European in culture to fit into the Islamic world.

[Hurrem sultana]

The question I ask specifically to the Bosnians of this forum is: do the Bosnian population percieve themselves as being part of European or Muslim civilisation?

You cant talk about muslim civilization and european civilization,those are different things.If you talk about muslim civilization versus christian civilization,then we see our selves as part of muslim civilization

If you talk about european civilization versus asian civilization then we are part of european

Also,most bosniaks are really secular and see not much in comon with radical arab states.The only muslim state most of bosniaks really like is Turkey.And lately Iran,but that has more to do with current politics in the world

[Hurrem sultana]

I think it depends on the person. Usually, the more religious (Islam-wise) a Bosniak is, the more they feel a connection to the Islamic world. The ones that side more with the Islamic world usually feel betrayed by Europe and supported by the Middle-East (especially Turkey), whereas the ones who feel closer to Europe, are less religious or just believe that Bosniaks are too European in culture to fit into the Islamic world.

Most of Bosniaks like to speak about Bosnia "being the bridge between east and west" though.We are not western nor are we eastern

[Archduke]

Im not a bosnian but i can say that they are 1000% european. I don't know bosnians who are fanatical muslim, or a bosnian woman, wearning a burqa.

[Mraz]

you ruined the guys thread,if i were him i would slap all of you

Sorry, but the purpose of this was "Are you possible traitors"?
Which is offensive.
Bosnian will always play for Bosnia, when Croats and Serbs from Bosnia
would betray their birthplace for Zagreb or Belgrade.

[Onur]

Most of Bosniaks like to speak about Bosnia "being the bridge between east and west" though.We are not western nor are we eastern

Bosnian, actually all the Balkan states including Greece is pretty much same as you, having cultural elements from both west and east but they just tend to pretend like they are fully western but in fact, they are not.

[Archduke]

Bosnian, actually all the Balkan states including Greece is pretty much same as you, having cultural elements from both west and east but they just tend to pretend like they are fully western but in fact, they are not.

I highly doubt that. There are not many eastern elements in Bulgarian culture, what remains for Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian cultures.

[Anarch]

You cant talk about muslim civilization and european civilization,those are different things.If you talk about muslim civilization versus christian civilization,then we see our selves as part of muslim civilization

If you talk about european civilization versus asian civilization then we are part of european

Also,most bosniaks are really secular and see not much in comon with radical arab states.The only muslim state most of bosniaks really like is Turkey.And lately Iran,but that has more to do with current politics in the world

Thanks. In the West (Western and Central Europe and the extra-European colonies), Christianity is undoubtably an important part of our identity as a civilisation, but there's also the secular cultural inheritence, particularly post-Reformation developments. I don't think would be possible for Western and Central Europe to return to a completely Christian culture at this point, in contrast to the possibility of (for example) Iran's culture being consumed by Islam. Put another way - in a direct and open wide-scale conflict between Europe and the Muslim world, I honestly think that raising the Cross would be an insufficient rallying point.

There's been plenty of talk in Australia about the 'need' for us to distance ourselves from the United States because of our 'increased ties to Asia' (our economy is booming thanks to Asia's need of raw materials), but there's zero question that we'd throw our lot in with the US if there was an open war for the future of Asia between China and America.