The Bosnian conflict divided people on religious identity despite shared language and Slavic descent

Evidence

The word “ethnic” in “ethnic cleansing” is a euphemism. Bosnian Serbs, Croats, and Muslims all speak the same language, despite the fact that for political reasons they each call it now by a different name. They all trace their descent to tribes that migrated to the area around the sixth century and were Slavic in language and culture by the time they settled in the area. Those who have been singled out for persecution have fallen on the wrong side of a dividing line based solely on religious identity. — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 82

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes that ‘ethnic’ in ‘ethnic cleansing’ actually means religious, since the groups share language and Slavic ancestry.

Related

• Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims spoke one shared language despite script differences. (similarity 0.87)
• Bosnian ethnic identities formed through shifting, multidirectional conversions (similarity 0.85)
• Bosnian culture is multilayered across multiple religions and ethnicities (similarity 0.84)
• Bosnian Muslims suffered uniquely methodical persecution from both nationalist sides (similarity 0.84)
• Bosnian identity is civic and multi-religious, not ethnoreligious (similarity 0.83)
• The Bosnia genocide was religious in four distinct, compounding senses (similarity 0.81)
• Serb nationalist ideology fuses religious identity with race-traitor charges against Muslims (similarity 0.80)
• Nationalist terminologies impose artificial distinctions on one shared language. (similarity 0.80)
• Croat and Serb militias jointly dynamited mosques across eastern Bosnia (similarity 0.80)
• Bosnian government’s religious diversity was erased by the phrase Muslim-dominated (similarity 0.80)
• European history of cleansing predicts ghettoized Bosnian Muslims would be destroyed (similarity 0.79)
• Long-established Muslim minorities can be culturally European yet still face violent conflict (similarity 0.79)
• Serb Orthodox clergy actively supported the genocide and ethnic cleansing (similarity 0.79)
• Both Serb and Croat nationalists shared the view that Slavic Muslims converted from cowardice (similarity 0.79)
• Slavic Muslims were redefined as Turkish invaders through religious nationalism (similarity 0.78)