THE BALKANS IN TRANSITION

Edited by
Neville S. Arachchige Don and Ljubisa Mitrovic

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH
FOUNDATI ON

FOR

DE VEL OPM EN T

Cambridge San Francisco

Center for Balkan Studies
Nis

 IRFD, Inc., 2007

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission o f this publication may be made
without written permission.
The views expressed in this book are those o f the authors.
International Research Foundation for Development, Inc. (IRFD)
2830 South Holly Street
Cambridge, MN 55008
United States of America
Tel: +1-763-689-2963
Fax: +1-763-689-0560
E-mail: publications@irfd.org
Website: http://www.irfd.org
In collaboration with:
Center for Balkan Studies
Oblacica Rada 24/4
Nis, Serbia
T el:+381 18 258 251
E-mail:ljmitrov@eunet.yu
Cover design by Darko Jovanovic
Formatted by Gordana Stojic
Printed in Serbia by
SVEN
Stojana Novakovica 10
Nis, 18000, Serbia

ISBN 1 0 :0 -9 7 9 2 7 6 2 -1 -7
ISBN 13: 978 - 0 - 9792762 - 1 - 7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Balkans in Transition / edited by Neville S. Arachchige Don and Ljubisa Mitrovic
Includes index.

CONTENTS

The Balkans - the Border and the Bridge o f the Peoples and Cultures
P refa ce...................................................................................................................................... 7
Contemporay Balkans in the Network
o f the Global and Regional Development Megatrends
Ljubisa M itrovic.................................................................................................................... 13
Social Development under Precarious Conditions:
The Challenge o f Accelerated Indiviudalization
Nikolai G en o v....................................................................................................................... 31
Interests and Development Strategies o f Social Actors in the Balkans
Vera Vratusa (-Z unjicj.........................................................................................................45
The Balkans between Retraditionalization and Modernization
Ljubisa M itrovic....................................................................................................................61
Religious-Ethnic Panorama o f the Balkans
Dragoljub B. Djordjevic...................................................................................................... 79
The Balkans and Regionalisation Process
Ljubica K ostovska................................................................................................................ 95
The Balkans in the Process o f its Technological Development
and Adjoining the European Union
Milorad Bozic.......................................................................................................................105
Economic Integration o f the Balkan Countries in Transition
BiljanaSekulovska-G aber................................................................................................. 117
Changes in the Scope and Structure o f the Balkan Countries Trade
in the Function o f European Integration
Ivana Bozic-M iljkovic........................................................................................................ 127
Transitional Dynamics and Development Strategies:
A Quest for an Integrated Policy-Research Framework
Neville S. Arachchige D o n .....................................................................................

141

D ragoljub B. D jordjevic

R E L IG IO U S-E T H N IC PA N O R A M A O F TH E B A L K A N S

Introduction
Every ethnicity, regardless o f its being called a people, nation, national
minority or ethnic group possesses a more or less full-fledged array o f ethnic, religious
and cultural characteristics. Taken together, they make up what we understand as the
concept o f identity. More precisely, as is generally accepted, the cultural identity o f a
nation is determined by four elements, namely, its language, faith, tradition and
cultural heritage. It is these four identity elements that make the members o f one
ethnicity, as well as the ethnicity on the whole, differ from other ethnic groups. In
these terms, Serbian national identity is differ, for instance, from Albanian, Romanian,
and Bulgarian - it has specific ethnic, religious and cultural characteristics.
Most surely there is no entirely pure identity. Two peoples may have a
similar (Serbs and Croats) or identical ethnic origin (Serbs and Montenegrins), the
same religion (Serbs and Croats) or confession (Serbs and Montenegrins), almost the
same (Serbs and Croats) or utterly identical (Serbs and Montenegrins) cultural
background in the sense o f shared language, mythology, oral and written literature,
folklore, mores and patterns o f everyday life.
Neither is there a religiously pure society. (It is said that only somewhere in
the Caribbean, at some minuscule isle, is there a small state in which all the subjects
are members o f one religion, to the last, namely, all the islanders are Adventists). Most
o f the communities are multireligious in the sense that their inhabitants are, for
instance, Muslims and Christians, Sunnites and Shiites, Orthodox, Roman Catholics
and Protestants. In other words, people observe a diversity o f religious practices in
diverse organizational forms; in the institutions we most frequently call religious
communities. Therefore, even though, to paraphrase the very well known idea by
Ernest Renan (stated in the text Q u est-ce q u une nation?), man should not be
enslaved, nor is his race nor his language, nor his religion, nor the course o f the rivers,
nor the direction o f the mountain ranges, he is often especially enslaved by his ethnos
and fa ith to such a proportion that, in his intolerance o f the ethnically and religiously
different, he goes as far as inducing an open conflict or even war. The Balkan and
Balkan peoples provide typical examples o f this.

* Prepared within the project Culture o f Peace, Identities, and Interethnic Relations in Serbia and the
Balkans in the Eurointegration Process (149014D), implemented at the Faculty o f Philosophy Nis,
and financed by the Ministry o f Science and Environmental Protection o f the Serbian Government.

79

Religious-Ethnic Panorama o f the Balkans

In Short about E thnic Panoram a

The Balkans are religiously and ethnically rich since comprising three cultural
circles, namely, The Byzantium-Orthodox as the widest one, the West European
(Catholic-Protestant) and the Ottoman-Islam one. This abundance, instead o f being
understood as a Gods gift serving as the foundation for building up a qualitative
intercultural society, turns out to be a burden carried with difficulties by the Balkan
peoples (Table l).28 That is why it was necessary that the inter-ethnic relations, most o f
all the relationships between the majority nation and the national minorities in each
Balkan state should be regulated by special laws on the protection o f national
minorities. These laws, adopted more under the pressure o f the international
community, most o f all the European Union, than on their own will, have been adopted
by Croatia (2002), the FR o f Yugoslavia (now Serbia and M ontenegro) (2002) and
Bosnia and Herzegovina (2003) while the minority protection through their
constitutions and other legal acts is also ensured in Romania, Macedonia and Bulgaria.
In that sense, only the legislatures o f Greece and Albania are lagging behind. Though
the things are still far from being completely satisfactory as stressed by G. Basic
(2003:169-170), it can be concluded that they are rapidly improving: therefore,
making efforts to create the stable conditions for the development o f a democratic
society as well as for the sake o f their timely joining the European integration
developments, the states in the region have adopted the standards and principles o f the
minorities protection. Most o f them have, at the level o f their domestic legislature,
developed the systems o f the national minorities rights protection whose common
denominators are the protection o f individual (and partly collective) rights o f the
national minorities, the recognition o f the minority communities cultural autonomies
(which most often implies the advancement o f the conditions for safeguarding and
protecting identities and culture) and the comparison o f their rights related to their
education, information and official use o f the language. Finally, the states in the region
are trying to acknowledge to the minorities their right to self-rule within the cultural
autonomy domain and to ensure the participation o f the national m inorities
representatives in the activities o f local, regional and central government authorities.

28 Showing the religious and ethic panorama o f the Balkans in this text we will analyze its
background on the example o f Serbia as paradigmatic for most o f the Balkan countries. Likewise, we
will devote a greater part o f our analysis to the religious-confessional than to the ethnic one since the
former has so far been neglected while the latter has been given an excessive attention over the last
few years due to the wars on the former Yugoslav territory.

80

Dragoljub B. Djordjevic

Table 1 Balkan Ethnic Panorama

Majority People

Minorities*

Albania1

Albanians

98.0

Greeks
Others

1.8
0.2

Bulgaria2

Bulgarians

83.93

Turks
Romas
Others

9.41
4.67
1.99

Muslims
Serbs
Croats

43.38
31.18
17.36

Yugoslavs
Others

5.52
2.56

Greeks

98.0

Turks
Others

1.3
0.7

Macedonians

66.5

Albanians
Turks
Romas
Serbs
Others

22.9
4.0
2.3
2.0
2.3

Romanians

89.5

Hungarians
Romas
Others

6.6
2.5
1.4

(Serbia)
Hungarians
Muslims/Bosnians
Romas
Yugoslavs
Others

3.91
1.82
1.44
1.08
8.89

(Montenegro)
Serbs
Muslims/Bosnians
Albanians
Romas
Croats
Others

9.34
14.57
6.57
3.42
1.00
3.24

Serbs
Others

4.54
5.83

Country

Bosnia and
Herzegovina3

Greece4

Macedonia5

Romania6

Serbia and
Montenegro
Serbia7

Montenegro8

Croatia9

Serbs

82.86

Montenegrins

61.86

Croats

89.63

Notes: We are giving data only about the minorities that exceed 1% in the population structure.

81

Religious-Ethnic Panorama o f the Balkans

Sources:
1 Basic, G. (2004), The Political and Legal Position o f the Serbian National Minority in the
Contemporary SEE and CE Europe, Teme 28(2):673-764. More numerous minorities though in
less than one percent are Romas, Macedonians, Serbs/Montenegrins and Vlachs. It should be
kept in mind that the last Population Census was long ago, in 1989, and that in the meantime the
country underwent democratization so that todays percentage would be considerably higher.
2 http://www. nsi.bg/Census/Ethnos.htm. More numerous minorities though in less than one
percent are Russians, Armenians, Vlachs, Macedonians and Greeks.
Milicevic, N. (2002), National Minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in: Democracy and
National Minorities (p. 69-115), Belgrade, Centar za istrazivanje etniciteta. More numerous
minorities though in less than one percent are Bosnians, Montenegrins and Romas. It should be
kept in mind that the last Population Census in Bosnia and Herzegovina was in 1991 which
means that, because o f the war that took place in the meantime, the country now consists o f two
entities, namely the Muslim-Croatian Federation and the Republic o f Srpska. Likewise, in the
former state there used to be no single majority nation, namely, Muslims, Serbs and Croats had
that status.
4 www.greekembassy.org. More numerous in Greece are only Albanians and Macedonians.
5 Ortakovski, V. (2002), National Minorities in the Republic o f Macedonia in: Democracy and
National Minorities (p. 187-230), Belgrade, Centar za istra'ivanje etniciteta. More numerous
minorities though in less than one percent are Muslims, Vlachs and Bulgarians.
6 Bugarski, S. (2003), National Minorities in Romania, in: Democracy and Multiculturalism in
South East Europe (pp. 221-253), Belgrade, and Ethnicity Research Center. More numerous
minorities though in less than one percent are Germans, Ukrainians, Russians, Turks, Tatarians,
Serbs and Slovaks.
7 Population. National or Ethnic Affiliation: Data by Settlements, Vol. 1, Republicki zavod za
statistiku, Belgrade 2003. More numerous minorities though in less than one percent are Croats,
Montenegrins, Albanians, Slovaks, Vlachs and Romanian
8 Basic, G. (2002), Position o f the National Minorities in the FR o f Yugoslavia in: Democracy
and National Minorities (p. 13-68), Belgrade, Centar za istrazivanje etniciteta. More numerous
minorities though in less than one percent are Hungarians, Russians, Albanians, Macedonians,
Germans and Slovaks.
9 Web site o f the State Agency fo r Statistics o f the Republic o f Croatia (www.dsz.hrl . More
numerous minorities though in less than one percent are Bosnians, Italians, Hungarians,
Albanians, Slovenians, Czechs and Romas.

On R eligious-C onfessional Panoram a

In the Balkan societies there is an uncritical identification o f ethnic and
religious affiliation, that is, the nation and the religion are identified. This produces
tensions in the inter-relations within nations and among nations so that it is
methodologically indispensable to make as a strict conceptual differentiation as
possible among the following phenomena: religion, religious confession, confessional
affiliation, mono-confessional mentality, optional religion, religion o f minorities,
minority religion and minority religious community. It can be assumed that there is
plenty o f misunderstanding when it comes to the defining the above-listed concepts,
that the major social actors understand them in a quite opposed way so that all this
directly creates the situation in which there are privileges for some and deprivation for
others, namely the former ones are favored while the latter are stigmatized. Many such
examples can be found at the Balkans.
82

Dragoljub B. Djordjevic

Religion. The majority o f people think that all is well when it comes to
religion since we all know what it is while for most o f us it is a daily care; therefore,
we are losing our precious time on marveling at it again and again. Yet, as is well
known, religion is one thing in the mind o f the scientist, another in the theologian's
formulation while a quite different thing in the official (state) conceptualization. Truly,
having in mind P. Beyers (2003) exceptionally influential tripartite typology o f the
religion conceptualizations into theological, scientific and official ones, it is easy to
spot the differences in the treatment o f religion that go so far as to deny to some o f
them that they are what they claim, sanction them legally as non-religions and drive
them away from the public scene. The official concept o f religion, freed from
theological and scientific insights while resting upon four social subsystems, namely,
the judiciary, the government, mass media and education, makes arbitrary decisions: it
acknowledges the status o f religion to some thus giving them freedom o f public actions
and support while others it stigmatizes as non-religions depriving them o f the
freedom o f public action and, thus, prosecuting them. This is something to wonder at:
one single phenomenon is at one place a religion with all due honors whereas at some
other place it is not even registered or it is prohibited or is accepted as any other
enterprise or citizens association. (For example, in Serbian schools, seven religious
communities are free to organize religious instruction while the others must not at all;
in Chinese schools Taoism is considered as a religion unlike in Taiwan; the Chinese
and Indonesian governments recognize five official religions yet all five are different;
in the USA Scientology is a religion unlike in Germany).
W e are, here, however, using a sociological definition, namely, that religion is
an organized set o f knowledge, feelings, symbols, cult actions, moral and other
regulations and beliefs related to the idea o f the O ther being.29
If it is somewhat understandable that, from the state and theological - least of
all, the scientific - angles, some religions can be denied and proclaimed as non
existent, it is much more difficult to understand the identical approach to one o f the
confessions within one single religion. In the former case, one religion rejects another,
such as, for instance, the case o f the officially defined Christianity in Germany
(Protestantism, Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy) denying scientology, an
undoubtedly religious and cultural innovation. In the latter case, however, one branch
o f some religion independently or allied with the second branch rejects the third,
namely, the officially defined Christianity in Serbia (Orthodoxy and Roman
Catholicism) eliminates Protestantism as the truly youngest Christian confession;
therefore, one strikes his brother in faith only because he differs in something, often in

29 Or: Religion can be understood as any belief in an absolute and mystical p o w er that man depends
on and that controls his life and death but that he can have an influence on if he behaves in certain
ways he can express his experience with this power in a cognitive, emotional, practical and mystical
way, that is in the form o f teaching, rituals, a community o f believers or a charismatic person; the
achievement and expression o f his experience with this power has a certain meaning for him as well
as a certain importance for the whole community since without it, his life and the life o f the
community would look quite different). (Susnjic, 2003:378)

83

Religious-Ethnic Panorama o f the Balkans

some minor detail. (Or, to use another example, in the war at the former Yugoslav
territory the warring parties were Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats).
Confession. The concept o f confession is, at least in my opinion, erroneously
identified with the word religion (Djordjevic, 2003a: 408). A concrete religion is a
wider determination and within it there are always several confessions. There is no
world, universal or open religion without confessional branches. Thus, for instance,
if we take the religions prevailing in the Balkans, Christianity diverges into Orthodox,
Roman Catholic and Protestant confessions while Islam bifurcates into Sunnite and
Shiite (Table 2). This is automatically coupled with the growth o f a confessional
culture, o f a specific confessional mentality and confessional affiliation. Any excessive
insistence on these would inevitably mean confessio-centrism with all its
accompanying troubles. The war is the most tragic product o f religio-centrism and
confessio-centrism. The last wars at the Balkans are, after all, the result o f religiocentrism and confessio-centrism.
Table 2 Balkan Religious-Confessional Panorama
Country
Albania

Religion
Islam
Christianity

%
70.0
30.0

Confession
Sunnites
Shiites
Orthodox
Roman Catholic

%
67.0
33.0
67.0
33.0

Bulgaria

Christianity
Islam

86.0
14.0

Orthodox
Other
Sunnites
Other

99.00
1.0
99.0
1.0

Bosnia and
Herzegovina

Islam
Christianity
Other
Not declared

42.7
44.9
7.3
5.0

Sunnites
Orthodox
Roman Catholic
Other

100.0
60.0
30.0
10.0

Greece

Christianity
Islam

99.0
1.0

Orthodox
Other
Sunnites

97.0
3.0
100.0

Macedonia

Christianity
Islam

75.0
25.0

Orthodox
Other
Sunnites
Shiites

99.0
1.0
99.0
1.0

Romania

Christianity
Other

99.0
1.0

Orthodox
Roman Catholic
Protestant

89.7
4.3
6.0

Serbia and
Montenegro

Christianity
Islam
Other

91.5
3.1
5.4

Orthodox
Roman Catholic
Protestant
Sunnites

92.8
5.9
1.1
100.0

Croatia

Christianity
Other

99.0
1.0

Roman Catholic
Orthodox

90.0
10.0

Source: Percentages made by looking into Miz, 2002, Cacanoska, 2003,

Population Census, 2003

84

Dragoljub B. Djordjevic

Confessional Affiliation. The religiosity o f the outer sociological shell is

often confused, though it is not identical with confessional affiliation (identification).
The confessional affiliation, as a concept wider than religiosity, can mean 1) current
adherence to a given confession, and, thus, current personal religiosity, 2) traditional
adherence to a particular confession and, due to identification o f religion and ethnos,
with no personal religiosity but with a clear consciousness about ones confessional
background, and 3) acknowledgement o f the confessional origin, religion by birth
(religion o f ancestors) despite the lack o f any rational awareness o f it and ones own
religiosity. There is also a completely opposite state, namely that o f confessionlessness
when people reject to be identified in the confessional terms or when they lack them
altogether in the psychological-cognitive sense. It is, in fact, necessary to introduce
gradation; so, when it comes to Serbs, for example, we can speak about non-religious
Serbs who are Orthodox by birth, or non-religious Serbs who are traditionally
Orthodox and religious Serbs who are Orthodox at present (of course, we should also
include those Serbs who do not recognize the Orthodox confessional background). As
in the case o f (non) religious types, it is also possible to find here many mixed types
who take the following forms among the Serbs: 1) Serbs discard their confessionless
state and move to different confessional positions, 2) piling up on the confessional
scale, the more numerous are the Serbs who occupy higher levels, and 3) more and
more Serbs are currently attached to Orthodoxy and are personally religious. This
scheme as well as the movements within it stands for any Balkan people, namely,
Croats, Romanians, Bulgarians, Macedonians, etc.
The Serbs are Orthodox, namely, their confessional origin is Orthodox
Christianity since their fathers and grandfathers, that is, fore fathers in general were
Orthodox from times immemorial. The confessional being o f the Serbian people is
Orthodox while Orthodoxy is their destined religion. They were bom in it and are
predestined by it, i. e., they did not choose it just as they did not decide upon their
biological parents.
Therefore, we have seen that a quite different thing is the way in which
individuals experience their confessional origin. There are also Serbs to whom it means
nothing or are blind for it. They are a good background for disrupting and
disintegrating the confessional mentality and the being o f the Serbian nation. It should
also be stressed that in each mono confessional community there is a certain, greater or
smaller, number o f citizens who have embraced other religions and confessions
thereby opening up an important issue of disintegration, that is, taking apart o f the
confessional being o f the ethnos. Among the Serbs as well we can find Roman
Catholics, Uniats, Protestants, Muslims and adherents o f the new religious movements.
Monoconfessional Mentality. It is said that, despite the noble aspirations o f
the Serbian Orthodox Church to preserve the ethnos integrity and even its uniconfessionality, the historic and current developments have brought the disintegration
o f the monoconfessional mentality. The process o f Islamization and Roman
Catholicizing, that took place in the past centuries when so many Serbs, either
compulsory or on their own will, converted to Islam or Roman Catholicism would not
have been considered as a calamity if this otherwise legitimate phenomenon - such as
the conversion o f individuals, groups or large segments o f one ethnos into another
85

Religious-Ethnic Panorama o f the Balkans

religion or confession - had not been turned into the overthrew o f the ethnic identity.
Namely, Serbs stopped being Serbs and became Muslims or Croats. With the change o f
religion and confession, the national affiliation also changed. (For the sake o f
comparison, let us remember that all the Germans were Roman Catholics to the last;
yet, with the coming o f Martin Luther, founding father o f Protestantism, they
converted in massive number to the new branch o f Christianity. Today there are more
Protestants than Roman Catholics in Germany; yet, they have all remained Germans
and that is why there are no clashes between them).
Todays religious conversions, regarding the fact that they are directed
towards Protestantism and that they do not result in changes o f the national identity nor can they do it, after all - are o f different character. They should be placed in the
context o f interpreting the process o f the monoconfessionality disruption. Not all the
Serbs are Orthodox any longer. On the one hand, a bipartite scheme o f nation - religion
(Serbian nation - Orthodoxy) turns into a multi-party one, namely, Serbian nation Orthodoxy - Protestantism, that is, Serbian nation - Serbian Orthodox Church - various
Protestant religious communities. On the other hand, as a more and more striking
number o f Serbs do not identify themselves in terms o f their confession, what remains
are Serbs who declare themselves, regarding their confession, as Orthodox and
Protestant, Serbs whose confession takes the coloring o f a host o f religions and
religious movements and Serbs with no confessional origin. Though any estimate of
future outcome is premature, the above-described trend could lead to overcoming the
tensions o f the confessional mentality and it is not supposed to change in any radical
way the Serbian Orthodox confessional being.
Religion o f Choice. At mass conversions in the past, for a long period o f time,
there was a dramatic and far-reaching process o f re-conversion o f Orthodox Serbs.
They, more because compelled and for the sake o f mere survival than on their own will
or because enticed by privileges, abandoned their forefathers religion and embraced,
for instance, Islam as religion and culture unfamiliar to them. O f course, no transition
from the destined religion to the religion o f choice could be mentioned here.
However, when in a modem, multicultural and multireligious society, no
matter if French or Serbian, a mature citizen freely, on his own will and openly
converts, if he is a Serb, from Orthodoxy to Protestantism or, if he is a Frenchman,
from Roman Catholicism into Orthodoxy, then this is the case that can be best
formulated in a sentence transition from the destined religion to the religion o f
choice (Djordjevic, 2003v).
For the democratic processes in every society favor renewal, development and
burgeoning o f religion and religious communities. It is even more so, though it may be
a small paradox, if democratization is carried out on the secular basis. In a civil and
democratic, secular and market society there are established rules o f conduct and
everyone is obliged to respect them. Only on his abilities, adjustability, effort and
cleverness does his success depend. This is also the case with religions and religious
institutions so that it does not come as a surprising the statement which is a very well
known in the sciences on religion and which might be contrary to our emotional
attitude that all the religious communities, to the last, are indeed put on the market and,
therefore, are a matter o f choice. They may but need not be chosen. In each o f the
86

Dragoljub B. Djordjevic

Balkan peoples there is a more or less prominent movement from the destined religion
to that o f choice.
Minority Faith. The issue is even more complicated due to the fact that in
every society, including the Balkan ones, besides the majority faith or faiths, there are
minority faiths. W hich are they? In a recent definition (Djordjevic, 2002:76), under
the minority faith, in our case, I assume all except fo r Islam religion and Orthodox and
Roman Catholic confessions. Therefore, this category comprises, first o f all, Protestant
confessions and an array o f Oriental religions, transformed in the Western societies.
In other Balkan states, the division into majority/minority can be different. W e can
point out that, for instance, in Romania, all o f the faiths, except for Orthodox and
Roman Catholic confessions, belong to the minority ones while in Albania all are
minority except for Islam and Roman Catholicism.
In the West, most o f all, American literature there is a much used phrase,
namely, religious minorities and, within it, two majority types are singled out, namely,
believing groups and ethno-religious groups. The former comprises, for example,
Jehovahs Witnesses, Mormons, Scientologists, Pentecostal Christians, members o f the
Hare Krishna movement and the Unification Church o f Reverend Moon, that is, all that
has been considered in public debates or termed in the sociological sense, often strictly
pejoratively, as a sect or cult. The latter type branches into two subtypes, namely, into
settled residents and displaced residents. The religious minorities as settled residents
are those who have been for a long time rooted communities like Tibetan Buddhists
and Uygur Muslims in China or Greek Catholics in Poland or Ukraine. The religious
minorities as displaced residents are, for instance, Turk Muslims in Europe or
communities o f Jews, Greek Orthodox and Italian Catholics in the United States
(Little, 2002). With all due respect for D. Little who is undoubtedly the leading
authority in the matters o f minorities in the religious and ecclesiastical complex, I
cannot help noticing that his typology cannot be completely applied to the Balkan
societies. The initial analysis o f our country (Serbia) shows that there are many
believing groups in addition to some ethno-religious groups/settled residents (Slovaks,
Russians) but ethno-religious groups as displaced residents are almost utterly lacking o f course, if we do not take Chinamen as such (colonies o f Chinamen in the Balkan
countries grow in number every day).
Minority Religious Community. It is the right moment to introduce the
concept o f the minority religious community. Since there is no religion without
institutions, it may be clear if we say that the majority religious groups in Serbia and
Montenegro are Islam Community, Serbian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches,
while the other religious organizations (denominations, sects and cults) are minority
ones. They are the subjects o f the most inspired writings o f R. Mehl (2003:187) who
introduces the so much needed differentiation between the numerical or quantitative
and the sociological or qualitative aspects o f the religious communities position, The
numerical minority status does not necessarily overlap with the sociological one.
Thus, despite our differentiation, R. Cacanoska (2003:445), industrious researcher o f
the religious communities in Macedonia, while taking care only about quantity and
utterly disregarding quality, classifies the Roman Catholic Church into the minority
groups. (We suppose it is just an oversight since she heavily leans on M ehls analyses
87

Religious-Ethnic Panorama o f the Balkans

and whose book, quoted here, she has translated into Macedonian). In none o f the
Balkan countries does this Church have the status o f a minority community (though it
is in all o f them, except for Croatia, truly a minority one regarding the number o f its
believers) since in the sociological sense, it is a majority one, that is, equal with Islam
communities and Orthodox Churches. This is in line with M ehPs intervention which
finally leads to the thesis that for the minority group to exist it is necessary for it to be
recognized as such by public opinion and that this recognition is openly shown or that
it is manifested in the structure o f the society through a special legal status. In other
words, it is or used to be legally below the dominant religion and religious communities
while its followers were second-rate citizens, as a rule, stigmatized and publicly
offended. Though there are opinions stating that it is not correct to identify, at once and
by definition, the minority religious community with the sect, regardless o f how it is
objectively inclined towards this status, we still claim that, at least in the Balkan
region, it is most often a cult, sect or denomination or at least it is perceived as such.
In Serbia, in the same way o f systematization that R. Cacanoska (2003:447448) has done for Macedonia, the believers o f the minority religious communities are
recruited from three sources: reproduction from the given minority religious
community that exists for quite some time (Adventists in Serbia, Methodists in
Macedonia); conversion o f members and followers o f the majority religious
orientation, namely, orthodox in both the countries; and missionary work among the
religiously syncretic ethnic minority, that is, Romas in both the cases.
It now seems that very soon some minority religious community, in Serbia,
Macedonia, Albania and the like, regardless o f where it is, in order to stop being that,
will satisfy the numerical condition, that is, will grow in number. Yet, it will remain for
long time a minority one since it will find it difficult to meet the sociological
requirements, that is, it will not be able to change, so quickly and painlessly, the
attitude o f the environment or even the state-legal treatment. There are many examples
o f stigmatization o f minority faiths and their communities in all the Balkan countries,
with no exception whatsoever.
M inorities Faith. The last issue to clear is the fa ith o f minorities. Which are
they? In their case the things are simple and there are no marked disagreements. As I
have already stated (Djordjevic, 2002), there are no border lines since the members o f
all the ethnic groups and national minorities at the Balkans are at the same time
followers o f some religion or confession, that is, members o f the majority o f the
religious communities regardless o f their being big or small (Table 2). Seen from this
angle, religions and confessions are faiths o f both ethnic majorities and ethnic
minorities. The problem lays in the way in which ethnic groups and national minorities
are, this time as religious minorities as well, accepted and treated in religions and
confessions, that is, religious organizations in which the main role is reserved for
majority nations. Thus, it may happen that, though many analysts do not worry about
it, a concrete ethnic group finds itself in a double minority position, that is, it may be
an ethnic and a religious minority at the same time.

Dragoljub B. Djordjevic

Table 3 Minority Faiths and Faith o f the Minorities at the Balkans

Country

Religion

Confession

Islam

Sunnites

Minority
Faiths

Minority
Religious
Communities

Minorities
Faith

APC

Shiites
Albania

Christianity

Roman
Catholicism

Orthodoxy

Protestant
Communities

All listed

Orthodoxy
Christianity

Roman
Catholicism

Bulgaria

Bosnia and
Herzegovina

Orthodoxy

Islam

Sunnites

Islam

Sunnites

Christianity

Roman
Catholicism

Protestants

Protestant
Communities

All listed

Protestants

Protestant
Communities

All listed

Orthodoxy
Protestants
Greece

Christianity

Christianity

Orthodoxy

Islam

Christianity

Christianity
Serbia and
Montenegro

Croatia

Roman
Catholicism

Christianity

Protestants

Protestant
Communities

Protestants

Protestant
Communities

Islam

Islam
Community

All listed

All listed

All listed

Orthodoxy
Roman
Catholicism

Islam

Islam

Islam
Community

Sunnites
Orthodoxy

Romania

Protestant
Communities

Orthodoxy
Roman
Catholicism

Macedonia

Roman
Catholicism

Protestants

Protestant
Communities

All listed

Sunnites

Roman
Catholicism

Orthodoxy

SOC

Protestants

Protestant
Communities

Islam

All listed

Islam
Community

89

Religious-Ethnic Panorama o f the Balkans

The Roma are a typical example o f this double ethnic and religious minority
status; it is no wonder that they are a subject o f an increasing interest o f minority faiths
and minority religious communities. New Protestantism is especially interested in them
(Djordjevic, 2004a). The reasons for this is that the Romas are a source o f planting,
survival and growth o f minority religious communities, that is, they are a religiousconfessional reservoir o f Protestantization due to their being liable to 1) missionary
work, 2) conversion, and 3) taking over, that is, proselytism.
C onclusion
It is clear that religious minoritism - whether we call it a minority faith, or a
religious minority, a believing group, an ethno-religious group or a minority religious
community - more than suffers the pressure from the majority, that is, official national
religion. Yet, it should not do so since this is absolutely opposed to the very essence o f
religion and it causes damage to the democratic development o f our countries.
It is also evident that some religious minoritism, especially o f Protestant
origin, no matter if we call it, sociologically speaking, a cult, a sect or denomination, is
practicing some unfitting missionaring, converting and taking over o f the majority
believers, most o f all those from the official national faith.
It is understandable then that the stability and development o f the civil society
in the Balkan countries are not possible unless something is done to correct a) the
attitude o f the majority religious population towards the minorities fa ith s and b)
towards the minority faiths. That is why their orthodox churches, the Roman Catholic
Church and Islam communities are assigned a task to ingrain in their most numerous
followers the idea o f religious co-existence with minority religious like-minded
persons or adherents to other faiths.
Yet, the stability and development o f the civic society in the Balkan states are
not possible unless something is done to correct the attitude o f the religious minorities
towards the majority religions, especially in the sense o f giving up proselytism: The
only way o f properly approaching the problem o f proselytism is to conclude an
agreement among the religious groups themselves. In this agreement they can freely
decide, out o f respect for other religions, not to practice all aspects o f religious
freedoms that are otherwise legally assigned to them. (Torfs, 2004:21).
It was only then that religious tolerance would become a model o f ethnic
tolerance and wider intercultural practice in the other social subsystems. Yet, the
Balkan peoples would have to discard their attitude stating that each o f them plays
some kind o f the shield against the onrush o f a foreign enemy. Generally speaking, this
is, in some cases, either Islam embodied in Turks, Bosnians or Albanians or, some
other time, it is Christianity embodied in Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians or Croats whereas
all the while this role is experienced as a condition for survival o f the given nation.
Indeed, as I. Paic (1995) shows for Croats in the most sophisticated way, there are
three ways in which the before-the-wall consciousness o f the national survival exists,
namely, to be in-between, to be neither here nor there and to be here fo r one's own
sake. He shows - and we agree - that the playing o f the role o f to be in-between and
to be neither here nor there has caused so much evil to the Balkan peoples since it
90

Dragoljub B. Djordjevic

has always assumed sacrificing oneself for others or being used by others. To be here
for ones own sake, which implies that others who are with us and next to us should
be here by the same principle would offer a possibility o f alleviating the sharp
divisions as well as the revival o f interculturality. In a word, here we are, all o f us, at
the Balkans, fo r our own sake.

References
Albanese, C. L. (2004) Amerika, religije i religija (America, Religions and Religion),
Sarajevo, Office of Public Affairs Embassy of the United States of America
Basic, G. (2002) Polozaj nacionalnih manjina u SR Jugoslaviji (Position o f the National
Minorities in the FR o f Yugoslavia) in: Demokratija i nacionalne manjine
(Democracy and National Minorities) (p. 13-68), Belgrade, Centar za istrazivanje
etniciteta
Basic, G. (2003) Standards of the Protection of National Minorities in Contemporary
Europe in: Democracy and Multiculturalism in South East Europe (pp. 157-183),
Belgrade, Ethnicity Research Center
Basic, G. (2004) Political and Legal Position o f the Serbian National Minority in
Contemporary SEE and Central Europe, Teme, 28(2):673-764
Beyer, P. (2003) Conceptions of Religion: On Distinguishing Scientific, Theological, and
Official Meanings, Social Compass, Louvain, 2, 141-460
Bugarski, S. (2003) National Minorities in Romania, in: Democracy and Multiculturalism
in South East Europe (pp. 221-253), Belgrade, Ethnicity Research Center
Cacanoska, R. (2003) Protestantizmot vo Makedonija i sovremenoto malcinsko-hristijansko
versko struktuirenje (Protestantism in Macedonia and Contemporary Minority
Christian Religious Structuring), Teme, 27(3):437-449
Cacanoska, R. (2003a) Manjinske hriscanske verske zajednice u Makedoniji internacionalna okvima odrednica (Minority Christian Religious Communities in
Macedonia - International Framework) in Kultura u procesima razvoja,
regionalizacije i evrointegracije Balkana (Culture in the Processes o f Development,
Regionalization and Euro Integration o f the Balkans) (p. 337-343), Nis, Filozofski
fakultet, Sven
Daftary, F. And F. Grin (ed) (2003) Nation-Building, Ethnicity and Language Politics in
Transition Countries, Budapest, Open Society Institute
Danchin, P. G. (2002) Religion, Religious Minorities and Human Rights: An Introduction,
In: Protecting the Human Rights o f Religious Minorities in Eastern Europe (pp. 1-29),
New York, Columbia University Press
Danchin, P. G. and E. A. Cole (ed.) (2002) Protecting the Human Rights o f Religious
Minorities in Eastern Europe, New York, Columbia University Press
Devetak, S., Kalcina, L. and M. F. Polzer (ed) (2004) Legal Position o f Churches and
Religious Communities in South-Eastern Europe, Ljubljana, Maribor, Vienna,
ISCOMET et all
Djordjevic, D. B. (1997) Religijske i konfesionalne granice na Balkanu: izazov
interkulturalnosti (Religious and Confessional Borders at the Balkans: Challenge of
Interculturality), in: Granice: izazov interkulturalnosti (Borders: Challenge o f
Intercutlurality), Belgrade, Forum za etnicke odnose
91

Religious-Ethnic Panorama o f the Balkans

Djordjevic, D. B. (1998) Serbian Orthodox Church, the Disintegration of the Second

Yugoslavia, and the War in B&H, in: Religion and the War in Bosnia, Atlanta,
Scholars Press
Djordjevic, D. B. (2002) Vere manjina i manjinske vere (Faiths of Minorities and Minority
Faiths),
in: Romi na raskrscu (Romas at the
Crossroads), Nis,
Punta/DDA/KSS/Bahtalo drom
Djordjevic, D. B. (2003) Interrelationships among the Churches, that is, Religious
Communities and the Protection of Small Religious Communities, In: Democracy and
Religion, Belgrade, Center for Ethnicity Research
Djordjevic, D. B. (2003a) Veroispovest (Confession), Teme, 27(3):408
Djordjevic, D. B. (2003b), Roma Religious Culture, Nis, YUNIR
Djordjevic, D. B. (2004) Evangelization, Conversion, Proselytism: Example o f Romas
Protestantization, In: Evangelization, Conversion, Proselytism (pp. 75-82), Nis,
YUNIR, Punta
Djordjevic, D. B. (2004a) O protestantizaciji Roma Srbije - uvodna rasprava (On
Protestantization of the Serbian Romas - Introductory Debate) in Religija i tolerancija
(Religion and Tolerance), Novi Sad, 1, 103-112
Djordjevic, D. B., J. Zivkovic and V. Jovanovic (2004) Serbs, Albanians and the Fate of the
Romas, Theoretical Perspectives, Dhaka, 11, 103-128
Djordjevic, D. B. and M. Filipovic (2004) Serbian and Albanian Youth from Presevo
Valley on the Roma People, in: Towards Non-violence & Dialogue Culture in South
East Europe (pp. 183-210), Institute for Social Values and Structures Ivan Hadjysky,
Sofia
Djordjevic, D. B. and D. Todorovic (2001) Religijska vecina o religijskoj manjini: stavovi
Srba o Romima kao vemicima (Religious Majority on the Religious Minority: Serbs
Attitudes about Romas as Believers), in: Interreligijski dijalog kao vid pomirenja u
Jugoistocnoj Evropi (Interreligious Dialogue as a Form o f Reconciliation in SEE
Europe) (p. 153-178), Belgrade, Fond Demokratski centar
Djordjevic, D. B., D. Todorovic and L. Milosevic (2004) Romas and Others - Others and
Romas: The Social Distance, Institute for Social Values and Structures Ivan
Hadjysky, Sofia
Djordjevic, D. B. and J. Zivkovic (2001) Vere manjina i manjinske vere (Minority Faiths
and Faiths o f Minorities), Nis, JUNIR, Zograf
Filipovic, M. and D. B. Djordjevic (2003) Ethnic Minorities about Religious Minority:
Hungarians and Muslims about Roma as Believers, In: Roma Religious Culture (pp.
31-36), Nis, YUNIR, YURom centar, Punta
Little, D. (2002) Religious Minorities and Religious Freedom: An Overview, In: Protecting
the Human Rights o f Religious Minorities in Eastern Europe (pp. 33-57), New York,
Columbia University Press
Mel. R. (2003) Sociologija na protestantizmot (Macedonian translation by Ruzica
Cacanoska o f Roger Mehls The Sociology o f Protestantism, Philadelphia, The
Vestminster Press, 1970), Skopje
Milicevic, N. (2002) Nacionalne manjine u Bosni i Hercegovini (National Minorities in
Bosnia and Herzegovina), in: Demokratija i nacionalne manjine (Democracy and
National Minorities) (p. 69-115), Belgrade, Centar za istrazivanje etniciteta
Miz, R. (2002), Religijska slika Evrope (Religious Image o f Europe), Novi Sad, EHO
92

Dragoljub B. Djordjevic

Musteata, S. (ed.) (2001) Religion, Society and Education in Post-Totalitarian Societies o f

Central and South Eastern Europe, Chisinau, ARC
Ortakovski, V. (2002) National Minorities in the Republic of Macedonia in: Democracy
and National Minorities (p. 187-230), Belgrade, Centar za istrazivanje etniciteta
Paic, I. (1995) Obrisi hermeneutike predzidja (Outline of the Before-the-Wall Hermene
utics), Drustvena istrazivanja 4(2-3): 199-230
Population Census (2003) Religious Confession, Native Tongue and National or Ethnic
Affiliation According to Age and Gender, Belgrade, Republicki zavod za statistiku
Religions of Ethnic Minorities in the USA (2004) Social Compass, Louvain, 3, 299-401
Robotin, M. and L. Salat (ed) (2003) A New Balance: Democracy and Minorities in PostCommunist Europe, Budapest, Open Society Institute
Sikimic, B. (ed.) Skrivene manjine na Balkanu (.Hidden Minorities at the Balkans),
Balkanoloski institut, Belgrade, SANU
Stojkovic, B. et al. (2004) Cultural Policy and Cultural Diversity - Serbia (Transversal
Study), Beograd, Zavod za proucavanje kultumog razvitka
Susnjic, Dj. (2003) Religija (Religion), Teme 27(3):375-378
Tanner, A. (ed) (2004) The Forgotten Minorities o f Eastern Europe, Helsinki, East-West Books
Todorovic, D. (ed.) (2004) Evangelization, Conversion, Proselytism, Nis, JUNIR, Punta
Torfs, R. (2004) Experiences of Western Democracies in Dealing with the Legal Position
of Churches and Religious Communities, In: Legal Position o f Churches and
Religious Communities in South-Eastern Europe (pp. 19-25), Ljubljana, Maribor,
Vienna, 1SCOMET et al

93