BOSNIAK UNDERSTANDING OF ISLAM IN THE 20TH CENTURY: SOCIAL CONTEXT AND CHALLENGES (A Sketch)

Abstract

In this paper, the processes and phenomena that marked the life of Bosniaks in the 20th century have been briefly sketched, among which the most important ones are: the civilization shift, narrowing of the living space of Bosniaks, diverse legal frames of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the modernisation experience, changes in the social position of religion and threats to the biological survival. These processes, according to the author, have set up a whole range of challenges for the Islamic thought in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The prevailing questions to which theoretical and legitimate Islamic answers were searched for are related to the status of Muslims living in a non-Muslim state; whether to serve in the non-Muslim army; the question of traditional garments; the question of the reform of Muslim educational institutions; the question of the translation of the Qur’an into the Bosnian language, and many other questions. In the concluding words of the text, the author observes that the Islamic and theoretically legitimate answers were being used as criteria by which one had to evaluate and assess whether the adjustment of Muslim practice in Bosnia and Herzegovina to the modern era has its indispensable Islamic legitimacy.