Rose of Sarajevo

by Ayşe Kulin

“Up until the time of Tito, Bosnian Muslims were called Bosniaks. Being a Muslim is one thing, being a Bosniak another. Muslims live all over the world. Turks, Iranians, Arabs, Indonesians, and many, many others are Muslim, just like us. Why do they insist on calling us ‘Muslims’? The Croats aren’t called ‘Catholics,’ and the Serbs aren’t called ‘Orthodox Christians.’” “It’s perfectly obvious,” Burhan said. “They’re changing the definition of the word ‘Bosniak’ slowly and stealthily. They want to eliminate our ethnic identity so that we’re left with only our religious identity. That way they can claim the homeland we’ve lived in for nine centuries. Once we’re branded ‘Muslims,’ it will be easier to kick us out of Europe.”