Identity Between Islam and Tradition: The Bosniak Dialectics of Adaptation

Abstract

This paper puts forward the question of the correlation between the religiosity of Bosniaks and their identity, which has gone through numerous phases through the centuries-long process of evolution of ethnonational collective consciousness and very often reflexively influenced the content and manifestation of the phenomenon of religiosity. From a contemporary sociological perspective, through methodologically based research, it was necessary to redefine the phenomenon of the religiosity of Bosniaks and determine its real impact on identity construction. During the research, it was determined that Islam is not a key and dominant identity basis for Bosniaks, but is selectively accepted through the traditional aspect, subjected to the process of adaptation, and used (instrumentalized) only as a cohesive and identifying tool, provided Bosniaks with the substratum of collectivity and crucial specificity of their identity.