Muslims in the Balkans

I'm not an expert on this but my hunch is that Balkan Muslims today are a mix of:
a) Roma (are ALL Roma Muslim?)
b) descendants of Turkish settlers since Ottoman times
c) local populations (i.e. Albanians, Bosnians) who converted to Islam              while not being ethnically Turkish

oh and Roma are a mix of Religions across the regions in which they populate.


Edited by Ovidius - 06-Aug-2007 at 15:58

Bulgaria's Population is 7.6million and there are 780k Bulgarians - 10% of the Population. I'd call that a Vast amount.

I'd say there were a vast amount of Welsh people in Britain, yet they make up less than 10% of our population.

Muslims in Balkans are of different origins. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia most of them are Slavic languages speaking. Because of the last bloody events ( Balkan wars of the XX century) majority of them now think of themselves as Bosniaks (trying to get connected with sole Balkanian Slavic speaking country with Muslim majority). Albanians in Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia are mostly Muslims, even there are huge groups of Orthodox and Catholic Albanians. There are also significant groups of Turks in Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania. Among them live remnants of Tatars and Slavic people that were converted to Islam.

Originally posted by Perun Muslims in Balkans are of different origins. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia most of them are Slavic languages speaking. Because of the last bloody events ( Balkan wars of the XX century) majority of them now think of themselves as Bosniaks (trying to get connected with sole Balkanian Slavic speaking country with Muslim majority). Albanians in Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia are mostly Muslims, even there are huge groups of Orthodox and Catholic Albanians. There are also significant groups of Turks in Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania. Among them live remnants of Tatars and Slavic people that were converted to Islam. Roma people in Balkans are not all Muslim. They kind of chose religion that was major in the country they are living. So, in Bosnia there are Roma Muslims, but also Orthodox Roma and Catholic Roma...

Originally posted by Omar al Hashim Are there any Hindu Roma? Seeing as they migrated from India.

Originally posted by Perun   In fact, there are not much differences in customs among Slavic Muslims. There are just some regional differences. It is the same with all ex-Yugoslav nations. We have the same origin, share the same history, culture and language. These todays differences are more political and artificial. Mentality is the same, so you cannot in some group of people guess who is Serb, Bosnian or Croatian. Only dialects are different (but is also a regional difference, Croats from Dalmatia and Slavonia have different dialects, Serbs from Sumadia or Vojvodina, Bosnians from Krajina or Podrinje).

It was also the monetary policies of the IMF (Yugoslavia joined in1991, I think?) which required cuts in the expenditures and strict fiscal austerity. As a result, federal money ran out and the different ethnicities started to squabble over their shrinking share of the pie. 

Are most of Bulgarian and Rumanian Muslims, like Bosniaks, Slavic converts to the Islamic faith? Or are they descendants are Turkish colonists?

In Romania there are very few Romanians converted to Islam and all are from recent years. Most of the Muslims in Romania are Turks and Tatars established in Dobrudja and Galati county since 13th century. Hundreds or thousands of them (officialy there are ~70.000 Muslims) of them passed to Neoprotestantism, Pentecostalism, in recent years.

Are there any Hindu Roma? Seeing as they migrated from India

The Roma are originary from India but they intermixed so today geneticians says that only half of their blood is Indian. They have kept nothing from their Indian traditions, except language (I think in Romania only 20% of Roma still speak the nativ language) but they adopted recently elements inspired from Indian architecture for the building of their homes, in a style considered by architects to be very kitch, like you can see in this photo from village Buzescu, South of Bucharest:




As religion, Roma people are considered to be Christian even much of them is not Baptized. There are not any other religion among them.

In Balkans nationalism and religious fanatism always come together. Nations in Bosnia were created upon belonging to particular religion. Thus, all the Orthodox in Bosnia see themselves as Serbs, all Catholics are Croats, while Muslims took the name Bosniaks identifiying with Bosnia (becazse they don't have their own motherland but Bosnia). This was the product of Austro-Hungarian politics; a real divide et impera tactics. Unfortunately, later on this was used by politicians from three "national" groups. That all lead us to 1992.-1995. War (which was not only a civil one, but an intervention from Serbian and Croatian forces, together with paramilitary troups and mercenaries).