djordjevic - religious-ethnic panorama of the balkans

THE BALKANS IN TRANSITION

Edited byNeville S. Arachchige Don and Ljubisa Mitrovic

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCHF O U N D A T I O N F O R D E V E L O P M E N T

Cambridge San Francisco

Center for Balkan Studies Nis

IRFD, Inc., 2007

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

The views expressed in this book are those of the authors.

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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 of the Peoples and CulturesP reface ...................................................................................................................................... 7

Contemporay Balkans in the Networkof the Global and Regional Development Megatrends

Ljubisa M itrovic.................................................................................................................... 13

Social Development under Precarious Conditions:The Challenge o f Accelerated Indiviudalization

Nikolai G enov ....................................................................................................................... 31

Interests and Development Strategies o f Social Actors in the BalkansVera Vratusa (-Zunjicj.........................................................................................................45

The Balkans between Retraditionalization and ModernizationLjubisa M itrovic ....................................................................................................................61

Religious-Ethnic Panorama o f the BalkansDragoljub B. Djordjevic...................................................................................................... 79

The Balkans and Regionalisation ProcessLjubica Kostovska ................................................................................................................ 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 TransitionBiljanaSekulovska-Gaber................................................................................................. 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 on ..................................................................................... 141

Dragoljub B. Djordjevic

RELIGIOUS-ETHNIC PANORAM A OF THE BALKANS

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 uest-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 faith to such a proportion that, in his intolerance of 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 of 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.

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Religious-Ethnic Panorama o f the Balkans

In Short about Ethnic Panorama

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 of 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 Montenegro) (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 of 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 of 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 of 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 minorities representatives in the activities o f local, regional and central government authorities.

28 Showing the religious and ethic panorama of 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


Table 1 Balkan Ethnic Panorama

Country Majority People % Minorities* %

Albania1 Albanians 98.0 Greeks 1.8Others 0.2

Turks 9.41Bulgaria2 Bulgarians 83.93 Romas 4.67

Others 1.99

Bosnia and Muslims 43.38 Yugoslavs 5.52Herzegovina3 Serbs 31.18 Others 2.56

Croats 17.36

Greece4 Greeks 98.0 Turks 1.3Others 0.7

Albanians 22.9Turks 4.0

Macedonia5 Macedonians 66.5 Romas 2.3Serbs 2.0

Others 2.3

Hungarians 6.6Romania6 Romanians 89.5 Romas 2.5

Others 1.4

Serbia andMontenegroSerbia7 Serbs

(Serbia)82.86 Hungarians 3.91

Muslims/Bosnians 1.82Romas 1.44

Yugoslavs 1.08Others 8.89

Montenegro8 (Montenegro)Montenegrins 61.86 Serbs 9.34

Muslims/Bosnians 14.57Albanians 6.57

Romas 3.42Croats 1.00Others 3.24

Croatia9 Croats 89.63 Serbs 4.54Others 5.83

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

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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 Romanian8 Basic, G. (2002), Position o f the National Minorities in the FR of 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 Religious-Confessional Panorama

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.

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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 of 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).

We 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 Other 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 nonexistent, it is much more difficult to understand the identical approach to one of 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 pow 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)

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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 religio- centrism and confessio-centrism.

Table 2 Balkan Religious-Confessional Panorama

Country Religion % Confession %Albania Islam 70.0 Sunnites 67.0

Christianity 30.0 Shiites 33.0Orthodox 67.0

Roman Catholic 33.0

Bulgaria Christianity 86.0 Orthodox 99.00Islam 14.0 Other 1.0

Sunnites 99.0Other 1.0

Bosnia and Islam 42.7 Sunnites 100.0Herzegovina Christianity 44.9 Orthodox 60.0

Other 7.3 Roman Catholic 30.0Not declared 5.0 Other 10.0

Greece Christianity 99.0 Orthodox 97.0Islam 1.0 Other 3.0

Sunnites 100.0

Macedonia Christianity 75.0 Orthodox 99.0Islam 25.0 Other 1.0

Sunnites 99.0Shiites 1.0

Romania Christianity 99.0 Orthodox 89.7Other 1.0 Roman Catholic 4.3

Protestant 6.0

Serbia and Christianity 91.5 Orthodox 92.8Montenegro Islam 3.1 Roman Catholic 5.9

Other 5.4 Protestant 1.1Sunnites 100.0

Croatia Christianity 99.0 Roman Catholic 90.0Other 1.0 Orthodox 10.0

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

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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 of the confessional origin, religion by birth (religion o f ancestors) despite the lack of 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 of the Serbian Orthodox Church to preserve the ethnos integrity and even its uni- confessionality, 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 of one ethnos into another

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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 of 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 of 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 of 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 of re-conversion o f Orthodox Serbs. They, more because compelled and for the sake of 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


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. Which 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. We 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 of 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 of 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 of R. Mehl (2003:187) who introduces the so much needed differentiation between the numerical or quantitative and the sociological or qualitative aspects of 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 of 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 Mehls analyses

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and whose book, quoted here, she has translated into Macedonian). In none o f the Balkan countries does this Church have the status of 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 MehPs 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 (2003:447- 448) 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.

Minorities 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 of 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 of the majority of 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.


Table 3 Minority Faiths and Faith of the Minorities at the Balkans

Country Religion ConfessionMinority

Faiths

MinorityReligious

Communities

MinoritiesFaith

Albania

Islam

Christianity

SunnitesShiitesRoman

Catholicism

Orthodoxy

Orthodoxy

APC

ProtestantCommunities

All listed

Bulgaria

Christianity

Islam

Orthodoxy

RomanCatholicismSunnites

ProtestantsProtestant

Communities All listed

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Islam

Christianity

Sunnites

RomanCatholicism

Orthodoxy

ProtestantsProtestant

Communities All listed

Greece Christianity Orthodoxy

ProtestantsRoman

Catholicism

Islam


IslamCommunity

All listed

Macedonia

Christianity

Islam

Orthodoxy

RomanCatholicism

Sunnites

Protestants ProtestantCommunities

All listed

Romania ChristianityOrthodoxy

RomanCatholicism

Protestants

Islam


IslamCommunity

All listed

Serbia and Montenegro

Christianity

Islam

OrthodoxyRoman

CatholicismSunnites

Protestants ProtestantCommunities

All listed

Croatia ChristianityRoman

Catholicism

Orthodoxy

Protestants

Islam

SOCProtestant

Communities

IslamCommunity

All listed

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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 religious- confessional reservoir o f Protestantization due to their being liable to 1) missionary work, 2) conversion, and 3) taking over, that is, proselytism.

Conclusion

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 of 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 iths 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 of 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 of 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


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.

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