The Bosnian Muslims are Slavs who converted to Islam when Bosnia was conquered by the Ottoman empire. Nevertheless they retained many of their old religious beliefs. They have been afforded the status of a nationality since the foundation of the 2nd Yugoslavia. Many Bosnian Muslims rejected their religious beliefs at least two generations ago. In the cities, where the majority of Muslims live, they do not, by and large, observe Islamic laws. Young Muslims of both sexes frequently live together - or with partners from a different nationality - outside of marriage. Islamic dietary laws forbidding consumption of pork, alcohol etc are mostly ignored. Bosnian Moslem women wear the same clothing as Serbian, Croatian - or, for that matter, other European - women. Whilst we can debate whether or not "Muslims" should be defined as a nationality the reality is that they have been treated as such ever since the formation of ex-Yugoslavia. (Only the most extreme Croatian nationalists have ever challenged this - they argue the Muslims are Croats). However, the issue has become of importance because Serbian (and to a lesser extent) Croatian nationalist - as well as sections of the left in Britain - have raised the spectre of an Islamic state in Bosnia. The reality is that, for the moment, the Bosnian Muslims have been the least attracted to Islamic fundamentalism of any Moslem community anywhere in the world. Even the Imam of Sarajevo - the highest ranking Islamic official in Bosnia - stated that the Bosnian Muslims desperately needed arms and that he would accept them from Islamic fundamentalist sources - but only as a last resort and with the greatest of reluctance.
Alija Izetbegovic, president of Bosnia has, on occasions, made statements favourable to the creation of an Islamic state. However, his government - the legal government of Bosnia-Herzegovina, now simply portrayed as 'one of the warring factions' by both the bourgeois and much of the left press - includes Serbs and Croats.(12) The "Platform of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Conditions of War"
" issued at Sarajevo on 26th June 1992, makes clear commitments to maintaining Bosnia-Herzegovina as a sovereign state founded on equality of all its citizens. It makes no claims to the establishment of an Islamic state. More-
over, it calls for the formation of multi-national defence forces to resist external aggression.
The only known "Islamic' defence unit operates entirely outside the framework of the Bosnian army.
Of course we can - and should criticise Izetbegovic for his occasional "Islamic" statements. We should criticise him for his support for market forces- something he has in common with all the ex-bureaucrats throughout ex-Yugoslavia.
But it is totally false to conclude that the Izetbegovic government is simply another gang of nationalist war-mongers - no different from the Serb Cetniks or Croatian HVO - and cannot, therefore, be given any support, however critical.