Both Serb and Croat nationalists shared the view that Slavic Muslims converted from cowardice

Evidence

Not only Serb religious nationalists but Croat nationalists as well subscribed to the view of novelist No Andric that only weak and cowardly Slavs converted to Islam. Andric drew on both the nineteenth-century Christoslavism of Serbian Orthodox Bishop Petar II (Njegos), as well as an older tradition of Croat Christoslavism. In his dissertation, immediately after citing-as “the people’s” judgment-Njegos’s caricature of Slavic Muslims as greedy and cowardly, Andric cited Franciscan Friar Franjo Jukic as an exponent of the “spirit” of popular Christian perception: “They [Bosnian Muslims] sprang from bad Christians who turned Muslim because only thus could they protect their land.” — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 281

Categorization

• XREF: Extends the Christoslavism thesis from earlier chapter on Serb religious nationalism to the Croatian case — the same ideological weapon used by both sides of the ethnic conflict. — connects to: Slavic Muslims were redefined as Turkish invaders through religious nationalism — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 124

Related

• Slavic Muslims were redefined as Turkish invaders through religious nationalism (similarity 0.86)
• Bosnian Muslims suffered uniquely methodical persecution from both nationalist sides (similarity 0.85)
• Serb nationalist ideology fuses religious identity with race-traitor charges against Muslims (similarity 0.85)
• Christoslavism defined Slavic Muslims as traitors outside the nation (similarity 0.83)
• Nationalist myths coalesced into an ideology defining Slavs as innately Christian (similarity 0.82)
• Serbian nationalist ideology treats religious conversion as a change of race (similarity 0.82)
• Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims spoke one shared language despite script differences. (similarity 0.81)
• Croat and Serb nationalists coordinated attacks on Muslims while denying culpability (similarity 0.80)
• Croat and Serb militias jointly dynamited mosques across eastern Bosnia (similarity 0.79)
• Conflicting identity criteria trapped Slavic Muslims as inescapable traitors (similarity 0.79)
• The Bosnian conflict divided people on religious identity despite shared language and Slavic descent (similarity 0.79)
• Balkan nationalists long treated Muslims as a religious rather than national group (similarity 0.79)