Political crisis can convert a secular minority into a mobilized religious-civilizational bloc

Evidence

The Muslims’ shift toward civilizational consciousness was even more marked. Until the war got underway Bosnian Muslims were highly secular in their outlook, viewed themselves as Europeans, and were the strongest supporters of a multicultural Bosnian society and state. This began to change, however, as Yugoslavia broke up. Like the Croats and Serbs, in the 1990 elections the Muslims rejected the multicommunal parties, voting overwhelmingly for the Muslim Party of the Democratic Action (SDA) led by Izetbegovic. He is a devout Muslim, was imprisoned for his Islamic activism by the communist government, and in a book, The Islamic Declaration, published in 1970, argues for “the incompatibility of Islam with non-Islamic systems. There can be neither peace nor coexistence between the Islamic religion and non-Islamic social and political institutions.” When the Islamic movement is strong enough it must take power and create an Islamic republic. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 743

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth checking how Izetbegovic’s 1970 declaration actually reads — the excerpt paints him as a lifelong ideologue, so the shift may be less a conversion than a seizure of opportunity.
• XREF: connects to: Secular political movements can weaponize religious claims they do not believe. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 495; Fragmented secular revolutionary vote split the round and guaranteed an Islamist-regime runoff — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 306