Balkan nationalists in the 1990s traded antisemitism for pro-Israel anti-Muslim posturing

Evidence

By this period—the 1990s—both Serb and Croat nationalists were more likely to identify with Israel on an anti-Muslim basis than they were to indulge in antisemitism. Anti-Semitic statements in Franjo Tudjman’s 1989 work ‘Wastelands of Historical Truth’ probably reflected his background as a general in the army of the fiercely pro-Arab Yugoslavia of the Non-Aligned Movement, and were edited when the work appeared in the 1990s in English translation. Although the more extreme elements among Serb and Croat nationalists in the 1990s did sometimes express antisemitic views, they were generally astute enough to know the propaganda value of not being seen to be antisemitic, and they did try to appeal to Jewish opinion—though not very successfully. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1083 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

In contrast to Serbia, in Bosnia (known from the 1870s as Bosnia- Hercegovina) the Orthodox Serbs in the nineteenth century comprised a minority. Like Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina was inhabited by Orthodox, Muslims and Catholics. The two largest ethno-religious groups were the Orthodox Serbs and the Muslim Bosniaks. Bosnian Serb nationalism consequently manifested the conflicting desires both to define itself against the Muslims and to include them within the Serb nation. The Bosnian Serb socialist nationalist Vaso Pelagić celebrated Bosnia-Hercegovina’s Islamic heritage and spoke glowingly of the Islamic religion: ‘the Turkish religion is of a democratic nature’; ‘In Islam there are no princes or paupers, according to the Qur’an, but only Muhammedans.’ Pelagić believed that medieval Bosnia was inhabited by members of the Bogumil Christian sect and that, on account of the ‘democratic nature of the Muhammedan religion and administration’, members of this sect turned Turk en masse ‘because due to their faith and freedom of thought they had been persecuted by both Orthodox and Catholics’; conversely, the Ottoman government had been ‘towards other faiths much more tolerant and human than many Christian governments and states’. In 1871, Pelagić called on Orthodox Serbs to ‘unite fraternally with Serbo-Muhammedans and Serbo-Catholics’ in the struggle against Ottoman rule. Pelagić was, however, the author of an antisemitic tract in which he promised to inform readers of ‘the horrors that the kikes and their gospels—the Talmud, are preparing for the entire non-kike world’. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1053 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Moderate Russian nationalists in the 1990s favored turning toward Asia and Islam; Balkan independence movements expelled both Muslims and Jews as alien elements; Balkan nationalists pivoted from antisemitism to pro-Israel anti-Muslim politics — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 1083 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Balkan nationalists pivoted from antisemitism to pro-Israel anti-Muslim politics #corroborates (1.00) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1083
• A Bosnian Serb nationalist could combine philo-Islamic views with virulent antisemitism #complicates (0.85) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1053
• Antisemites have historically defined themselves against both Jews and Muslims #complicates (0.76)