Conflicting identity criteria trapped Slavic Muslims as inescapable traitors
Evidence
As The Mountain Wreath and the national mythology it expressed became more popular, Slavic Muslims were placed in a particularly impossible situation. By the linguistic standards of Vuk Karadkic, since the Slavic Muslims spoke South Slavic dialects Vuk Karadzic labeled Serb, they were considered Serbs. But by the standards of The Mountain Wreath, all Serbs had to be Christian, and any conversion to Islam was a betrayal of Serb blood and entailed a transformation from Slavic to Turkish blood. Slavic Muslims could not escape being considered Serb because of the Vuk Karadkic linguistic criteria, but as Serbs they had to be considered traitors according to the Njegos mythology. They were delegitimized as a group and dehumanized as individuals. — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 150
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: A double-bind theory of dehumanization: two contradictory definitions combine so a group can never satisfy either, making elimination the only ‘coherent’ resolution.
- XREF: connects to: Slavic Muslims were redefined as Turkish invaders through religious nationalism — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 124; the MOC “The Enemy-Making Machine: How Ourselves, the True, and Every Other Are Built from War”
Related
- Christoslavism defined Slavic Muslims as traitors outside the nation (similarity 0.86)
- Serbian nationalist ideology treats religious conversion as a change of race (similarity 0.82)
- Serb nationalist ideology fuses religious identity with race-traitor charges against Muslims (similarity 0.81)
- Slavic Muslims were redefined as Turkish invaders through religious nationalism (similarity 0.81)
- Both Serb and Croat nationalists shared the view that Slavic Muslims converted from cowardice (similarity 0.79)