Balkan national liberation involved expelling Jews and Muslims as alien elements.

Evidence

When the Orthodox nationalities of the Balkans rose up against their Ottoman imperial masters during the nineteenth century with the goal of establishing their independence from the empire, the process involved the expulsion or extermination of much of the non-Christian population, which was identified as an alien, non-national element. This process of ethnic or religious cleansing was directed primarily against the Muslim population that was concentrated in the towns. Yet it targeted the Jews too, who were also concentrated in the towns and who were, in the eyes of the predominantly peasant and Christian rebels, equally alien and part of the Ottoman presence. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1030

Categorization

• XREF: Builds on the reader’s extracts on the holy war tradition as Western, and the velvet/sumptuary work on identity-forming discipline over dress and belonging.