Encyclopedia of Islam

Bosnia and Herzegovina

---

an expedient means of keeping control of the often 

restless population. During World War II, Serbians 

and Croats massacred Muslims, and the latter 

retaliated in kind. Muslims suffered additionally 

under the antireligious policies adopted by the 

Marxist Yugoslavian regime of Marshall Tito (Josip 

Broz, 1892–1980). For a period, mosques were 

closed, children were denied religious instruction, 

and no teachers of Islam could be trained. In reac-

tion, a Muslim revival was noticeable in the 1960s 

identified with nationalistic aspirations as much as 

religious sentiments.

The Yugoslavian Federation fell apart in 1991. 

Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its indepen-

dence. However, the effort to build a Bosnian state 

was opposed by Serbians residing in the north 

and eastern parts of the country. In attempting to 

avoid the dissolution of the country, the Bosnian 

president Alija Izetbegovic (1925–2003) promised 

that the new country would not evolve into an 

Islamic state (in contradiction to a position he had 

earlier advocated) and assured the rights of the 

Christian minorities. The guarantees, however, 

did not stop Serbians allied with troops of the 

former Yugoslav Federation from starting a civil 

war. The Bosnian war became one of the bloodi-

est experiences of the region. Serbian forces, with 

the support of the government in Belgrade, which 

had publicly disavowed its involvement, carried 

out a number of massacres in pursuit of a policy 

of “ethnic cleansing.” The worst of the massacres 

occurred in 1995 in Srebrenica, where thousands 

of Muslims were slaughtered. Such actions led to 

the postwar arrest of many of the Serbian leaders 

as war criminals.

The war ended in December 1995 with the 

signing of the Dayton Agreement, which included 

a new constitution for the country recognizing 

the three distinct groups within its borders and 

assigning to each a set of specific rights and repre-

sentations in the new government.

See also c

hristianity

 

and

 i

slam

; e

Urope

; o

tto

-

man

 

dynasty

.

J. Gordon Melton