{"id":51902,"date":"2026-03-13T23:38:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T23:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=51902"},"modified":"2026-03-13T23:38:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T23:38:46","slug":"harun-karcic-balkan-muslims-and-the-middle-east-the-influence-of-the-arab-world-on-the-islamic-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=51902","title":{"rendered":"Harun Karcic, \u201eBalkan Muslims and the Middle East: The Influence of the Arab World on the Islamic Revival\u201c"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The current revival of Islam among Balkan Muslims did not simply start when war broke out in Bosnia in 1992. It is part of a much longer history of contact with the Middle East.<\/strong><br><br>This book is the first to examine the evolving relationship between the Balkans and the Middle East covering three phases: the establishment of communist Yugoslavia in 1946, the period of its violent collapse, and during its uneasy post-war and post-Yugoslav independence. Haruc Karcic identifies how official links with the Middle East sparked an Islamic revival. Particularly significant were the large-scale student exchanges between Yugoslavia and the Middle East, and Yugoslavia&#8217;s export of its military and technological knowledge to the Middle East. The book reveals that Yugoslavia realized it could use its Muslim population as &#8216;gate openers&#8217; in winning lucrative business deals in the Arab world. Furthermore, the visibility and increasing number of Yugoslav Muslims in the Middle East were used for their Arabic skills to lobby for support when the war broke out.<br><br>The book uncovers how Balkan Muslims have survived and adapted to their turbulent history and what contact with Muslim-majority states meant to them. It is based on empirical research and primary sources including interviews, the archives of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, and articles and reports published in the journals &#8216;Glasnik&#8217; and &#8216;Takvim&#8217;, and the newspapers &#8216;Preporod&#8217; and &#8216;Oslobodjenje&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Introduction<br>1. Balkan Muslims after the Ottoman Retreat<br>2. Islam under Communism<br>3. Tito&#8217;s Arab Friends<br>4. Collapse of Communism, War and Genocide<br>5. Arab Mujahedeen, Islamic Charities and Scholarships<br>6. Islamic Soft Power: Turkish, Saudi and Iranian Influence<br>7. Wrestling back &#8216;Bosnian Islam&#8217;<br>Conclusion<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Harun Karcic<\/strong> is a journalist, political analyst, and commentator specializing in the Balkans, foreign influence operations, and Islamic affairs. For over 15 years, he has reported on geopolitics, religion, and security for Al Jazeera and other international outlets. Karcic has authored numerous policy papers and opinion pieces for think tanks and global media. He is currently Vice Chairman of the Sarajevo Security Conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Product details<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Published 11 Dec 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Format Hardback<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Edition 1st<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Extent &nbsp; 248<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ISBN 9780755646845<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Imprint I.B. Tauris<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dimensions 234 x 156 mm<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/uk\/balkan-muslims-and-the-middle-east-9780755646845\">https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/uk\/balkan-muslims-and-the-middle-east-9780755646845<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knjige","category-novosti"],"acf":{"facebook_opis":""},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Karcic.jpg?fit=540%2C810&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":52688,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52688","url_meta":{"origin":51902,"position":0},"title":"Eleonora Naxidou and Yura Konstantinova \u201eBalkan Perspectives of Europe: Between East and West\u201c","author":"Filip \u0160imunjak","date":"28. travnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Through the lens of the Balkan nations, this volume makes a valuable and significant contribution to the fields of European and Southeast European studies by reconsidering the East\/West dichotomy \u2013 both in terms of the Orient\u2013Occident divide and the Eastern\u2013Western Europe binary. Balkan Perspectives of Europe focuses on concepts of\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Knjige&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Knjige","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Balkan-Perspectives-of-Europe-Between-East-and-West.jpg?fit=350%2C525&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":55443,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=55443","url_meta":{"origin":51902,"position":1},"title":"Ivan Simic, &#8220;Sickle and Veil: Communist Gender and Policies towards Muslim Minorities in Eastern Europe&#8221;","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"24. rujna 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Communist gender policies were often violent, placing many people, particularly women, in difficult and marginalized positions. Targeted individuals were rarely consulted, yet their clothing and bodily practices were consistently policed and politicized. Across Central Asia, veils, the fez, shalvari, circumcision, and even Muslim names were banned or stigmatized. Sickle and\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Knjige&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Knjige","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Simic-scaled.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Simic-scaled.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Simic-scaled.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Simic-scaled.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52580,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52580","url_meta":{"origin":51902,"position":2},"title":"Conference &#8220;Living in the aftermaths: Trauma, politics and survival in Yugoslavia and successor states, 1945 \u2013 present&#8221;","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"21. travnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"The conference aims to explore how war-related psychological distress was experienced, narrated, debated and reframed in Yugoslavia in the second half of the twentieth century. It asks how the theme of wounded psyche and wartime suffering was addressed and acknowledged in political, psychiatric and broader cultural discourses of socialist Yugoslavia,\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Novosti&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Battle_of_Neretva_Picasso_poster-Conference-Living-in-the-aftermaths.webp?fit=564%2C954&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Battle_of_Neretva_Picasso_poster-Conference-Living-in-the-aftermaths.webp?fit=564%2C954&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Battle_of_Neretva_Picasso_poster-Conference-Living-in-the-aftermaths.webp?fit=564%2C954&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54337,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=54337","url_meta":{"origin":51902,"position":3},"title":"Online-Lecture by Sophie Momzikoff: The Yugoslav Crisis and the Russian Place in the New European Architecture","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"26. lipnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"01.07.2026 16:00 Uhr The aim of this presentation is to show how the Yugoslav crisis served as a test for Russia\u2019s place in the post-Cold War European order. 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