Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Islam was first introduced to the Balkans on a large scale by the Ottomans in the mid-to-late 15th century who gained control of most of Bosnia in 1463, and seized Herzegovina in the 1480s. Over the next century, the Bosnians – composed of dualists and Slavic tribes living in the Bosnian kingdom under the name of Bošnjani[5] – embraced Islam in great numbers under Ottoman rule. During the Ottoman era the name Bošnjanin was definitely transformed into the current Bošnjak ('Bosniak'), with the suffix -ak replacing the traditional -anin. By the early 1600s, approximately two thirds of the population of Bosnia were Muslim.[6] Bosnia and Herzegovina remained a province in the Ottoman Empire and gained autonomy after the Bosnian uprising in 1831.

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  Fethija mosque (Bihać), former church of St. Anthony, 1266
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  Muslihudin Čekrekčija Mosque, Sarajevo, 1526
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  Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, Sarajevo, 1532
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  Karađoz Bey Mosque, Mostar, 1557
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  Ali Pasha Mosque (Sarajevo), 1560
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  Baščaršija Mosque, Sarajevo, 1561
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  Mosque, Počitelj, 1561
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  Čobanija Mosque, before 1565
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  Emperor's Mosque, Sarajevo, rebuilt 1565
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  Hadzi Ahmeta Dukatar's Mosque, Livno, 1574
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  Ferhadija Mosque in Sarajevo
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  Ferhat Pasha Mosque in Banja Luka, 1579 (rebuilt 2016)
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  Mosque, Mostar, 1617
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  Wooden mosque, Tuzla, from the 18th century

After the 1878 Congress of Berlin, Bosnia and Herzegovina came under the control of Austria-Hungary. In 1908, Austria-Hungary formally annexed the region. Unlike post-Reconquista Spain, the Austro-Hungarian authorities were no longer interested in Christianization and made no attempt to convert the citizens of this newly-acquired territory as the December Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, and so Bosnia and Herzegovina remained Muslim.

Bosnia, along with Albania and Kosovo were the only parts of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans where large numbers of people were converted to Islam, and remained there after independence. In other areas of the former Ottoman Empire where Muslims formed the majority or started to form the majority, those Muslims were either expelled, assimilated/Christianized, massacred, or fled elsewhere (Muhajirs).

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  Mosque, Travnik, constructed 1815
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  Bosnian Madrasa ca. 1906
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  Mosque, Cazin, ca. 1906
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  Bosniak military imam in the Austro-Hungarian Army

Constructed in 1579, the Ferhadija mosque in Banja Luka was razed to the ground by Serb extremists during the war. It was rebuilt and opened on 7 May 2016.

The ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims during the Bosnian war caused a profound internal displacement of their population within Bosnia-Herzegovina, resulting in the almost complete segregation of the country's religious communities into separate ethno-religious areas. The rate of returning refugees was markedly slowed down by 2003–2004, leaving the majority of Serbian Orthodox adherents living in the Republika Srpska and the majority of Muslims and Catholics still living in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Within the Federation, distinct Muslim and Catholic majority areas remain. However, the return of Serbian Orthodox adherents and Muslims to their prewar homes in Western Bosnia Canton and Muslims to their prewar homes in eastern Bosnia near Srebrenica have shifted the ethno-religious composition in both areas.
Throughout Bosnia, mosques were systematically destroyed by Serb and Croat armed forces in the Bosnian War during the 90s. Many buildings were damaged or destroyed, with up to 80% of well-over 4000 different pre-war Islamic buildings.[7]
Among the most important losses were two mosques in Banja Luka, Arnaudija and Ferhadija mosque, which were on the UNESCO register of world cultural monuments. Today they are, along with many other, protected heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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  Mosque destroyed during the Ahmići massacre 1993
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  Muslim gravestones at the Potočari genocide memorial near Srebrenica
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  Gravemarker of a 13-year-old Muslim boy killed in the Srebrenica massacre 1995
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  Muslim cemetery, Sarajevo

Many Islamic religious buildings were damaged or destroyed in the Bosnian War during the 90s, with up to 80% of well-over 4000 different buildings,[7] and several mosques were rebuilt with the aid of funds from Saudi Arabia and other countries from the Middle and far East.

Historically, Bosnian Muslims had always practiced a form of Islam that is strongly influenced by Sufism. Since the Bosnian War, however, some remnants of groups of foreign fighters from the Middle East fighting on the side of Bosnian Army, remained for some time and attempted to spread Wahhabism among locals. With very limited success these foreigners only created friction between local Muslim population, steeped in their own traditional practice of the faith, and without any previous contact with this strain in Islam, and themselves.[8]
Although these communities were relatively small and peaceful, restricted to a certain number of villages around central and northern Bosnia, the issue was highly politicized by local nationalists and officials, as well as officials and diplomats from countries like Croatia, Czech Republic and Serbia, to the point of outright fiction.[9][10] Security Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time, Dragan Mektić of SDS, reacted strongly on such falsehoods by pointing on seriousness of such conspiratorial claims, and warned on possibility of further dangerous politicization and even acts of violence with an aim of labeling Bosnian Muslims as radicals.[9][11]

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  King Fahd Mosque in Sarajevo (2000)
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  Istiklal Mosque in Otoka, Sarajevo (2001)
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  Post-war Islamic centre and mosque, Bugojno
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  New mosque of Kakanj
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  New mosque, Orašje Planje, 2011
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  Old mosque of Jajce under reconstruction (2008)
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  Ferhat Pasha Mosque in Banja Luka, 1579 (rebuilt 2016)