Muslim Slavs

Muslim Slavs or Slavic Muslims are ethnic groups or sub-ethnic groups of Slavs who are followers of Islam. The term is most often used in the study of the Balkans. The majority of Slavic Muslims are found in Bosnia and Herzegovina, southern Serbia and south-west Bulgaria[1] and North Macedonia.

South Slavic Muslims

• Bosniaks, or "Bosnian Muslims", the majority group in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also a minority in Serbia, North Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro
• Muslims (ethnic group), constitutive people in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• Bulgarian Muslims (or Pomaks)
• Macedonian Muslims (or Torbeši)
• Gorani, a small community in Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, and North Macedonia
• Croat Muslims
• Serb Muslims
• Montenegrin Muslims
• Slovenian Muslims

Ethnic Slavic Muslims in the Western Balkans follow Hanafi, a subcategory of Sunni Islam.[2] According to the religious ideology of Christoslavism, coined by Michael Sells, "the belief that Slavs are Christian by nature and that any conversion from Christianity is a betrayal of the Slavic race"[3] as seen in Croatian and Serbian nationalism, Slavic Muslim are not regarded part of their ethnic kin, as by conversion to Islam, they become "Turks".[4]

See also

• Muslims by country
• Greek Muslims
• Muslim world
• Saqaliba

References

1. Mike Dixon-Kennedy (1998). Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend. ABC-CLIO. pp. 260–. ISBN 978-1-57607-063-5.
2. Sabrina P. Ramet (1989). Religion and Nationalism in Soviet and East European Politics. Duke University Press. pp. 380–. ISBN 978-0-8223-0891-1.
3. Steven L. Jacobs (2009). Confronting Genocide: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Lexington Books. pp. 82–. ISBN 978-0-7391-3589-1.
4. Omer Bartov; Phyllis Mack (1 January 2001). In God's Name: Genocide and Religion in the Twentieth Century. Berghahn Books. pp. 183–. ISBN 978-1-57181-302-2.