18 Facts About Bosnian Muslims

On 27 September 1993 after the leading political, cultural, and religious representatives of Bosnian Muslims held an assembly and at the same time when they rejected the Owen–Stoltenberg peace plan adopted the Bosniak name deciding to "return to our people their historical and national name of Bosniaks, to tie ourselves in this way for our country of Bosnia and its state-legal tradition, for our Bosnian language and all spiritual tradition of our history".

However, even with the emergence of a kingdom, no concrete Bosnian Muslims identity emerged; religious plurality, independent-minded nobility, and a rugged, mountainous terrain precluded cultural and political unity.

Generally, historians agree that the Islamization of the Bosnian Muslims population was not the result of violent methods of conversions but was, for the most part, peaceful and voluntary.

Ultimately, the failure of Austro-Hungarian ambitions to nurture a Bosniak identity amongst the Catholic and Orthodox led to almost exclusively Bosnian Muslims adhering to it, with 'Bosniakhood' consequently adopted as a Bosnian Muslim ethnic ideology by nationalist figures.

At the outbreak of World War I, Bosnian Muslims were conscripted to serve in the Austro-Hungarian army, some chose to desert rather than fight against fellow Slavs, whilst some Bosniaks attacked Bosnian Serbs in apparent anger after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

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In calculating the division, the Muslims were discounted altogether which prompted the Bosnian Muslims into creating the Movement for the Autonomy of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Bosnian Muslims were offered compensation but it was never fully materialized.

Several memorandums from many town and cities declared that since the beginning of the Ustase regime, that Bosnian Muslims dreaded the lawless activities that some Ustase, some Croatian government authorities, and various illegal groups perpetrated against the Serbs.

Bosnian Muslims composed approximately 12 percent of the civil service and armed forces of the Independent State of Croatia.

The Bosnian Muslims were recognized as an ethnic group in 1961 but not as a nationality and in 1964 the Fourth Congress of the Bosnian Party assured the Bosnian Muslims the right to self-determination.

In 1971, the Bosnian Muslims were fully recognized as a nationality and in the census the option "Bosnian Muslims by nationality" was added.

Bosnian Muslims Serbs had the upper hand due to heavier weaponry that was given to them by the Yugoslav People's Army and established control over most areas where Serbs had relative majority but in areas where they were a significant minority in both rural and urban regions excluding the larger towns of Sarajevo and Mostar.

Standard Bosnian Muslims is considered a variety of Serbo-Croatian, as mutually intelligible with the Croatian and Serbian languages which are all based on the Shtokavian dialect.

Djevojacka pecina, or the Maiden's Cave, is a traditional place of the 'Rain Prayer' near Kladanj in north-eastern Bosnia, where Bosnian Muslims gather to pray for the soul of the maiden whose grave is said to be at the entrance to the cave.

The Bosnian Muslims literature, are generally known for their ballads; The Mourning Song of the Noble Wife of the Hasan Aga, Smrt Omera i Merime and Smrt brace Morica .

Bosnian Muslims Sufis produced literature, often in oriental languages, although a few wrote in Serbo-Croatian, such as Abdurrahman Sirri and Abdulwahab Zepcewi .

Bosnian Muslims tend to often be described as moderate, secular and European-oriented compared to other Muslim groups.

The Bosnian Muslims fleur-de-lis appears on the flags and arms of many cantons, municipalities, cities and towns.