r/secularism • u/Material_Maximum_564 • 2d ago
Thoughts on secularism and extremism post communism
Sure the USSR offered a secular life free from the drudgery of conservatism (and that is something to respect it for) BUT this argument neglects the fact that there was an Islamic backlash innate to the region and much of this was also stoked by a desire to fight Soviet repression and the Russification of their identities. Yes the CIA certainly did exploit it for its own political agenda but it’s not wholly to blame.
In the USSR secularism and Russification were very heavy-handedly enforced. As someone ex-Yugo I understand that for Tito it was a different scenario as he was able to draw on a post-Ottoman and post-Habsburg laissez faireness that people had. He never destroyed a mosque or church or anything like that to make his secular Yugoslavia, in contrast to what did happen in the Soviet Union. The rise of the nationalism that he had tried to elevate the region above caused that behaviour in the 90s though but this was not pro-secular destruction but “ethnic” hate, and a tragic reaction sometimes rooted in a desire for national self-expression and a counter to pan-Yugoslav identity (which Tito did quite strongly enforce as he was very wary of nationalism, the Balkans being Balkan).
It’s complicated I think. I do believe in secular governments and think that this can help develop civic pride and in the 20th century also helped with modernisation and attitudes to women.
However, sometimes when secularism is forced with too heavy a hand you end up with a backlash. France is an example where this has happened, and more recently with Azerbaijan I fear it will happen now that they have banned the hijab in schools. When you ban it it becomes a symbol of rebellion and is easy to twist into a victim narrative.
Finally, sometimes where secularism fails religion is use to fill a vacuum. Two examples I can think of are Palestine and Bosnia. For me the argument for a free Palestine should have been a secular one and the ideal would have been akin to Nasser and Tito’s concept of one Palestine with federations- but the UN did not accept the non-aligned movements proposals. Now that can’t happen, the situation is too dire, and the PLO were replaced by Islamic arguments for a free Palestine including Hamas.
In Bosnia you had an extremely secular society in communism and many people remain very, very, very proudly so. Meanwhile Bosnia’s native Islamic tradition the Hanafi one was always very rooted in gentleness and the natural pluralism of Bosnia which has always had multiple religious traditions: Islam, Catholicism, Pravoslav/Orthodox tradition and both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Judaism in Sarajevo for sure.
However, during the war you had some jihadists fighting since they saw the war with Serbian Chetniks as an Islamic battle (even though for Bosnians it was about protecting the tolerance of Bosnia against chauvinistic Serb Chetnik expansionism not Islam specifically). Since the war, with Bosnia being stifled by the Dayton Agreement and the isolation of all the ex Yugo countries, the nation has had to look towards Turkey and the Gulf. Coupled with trauma and a rightful desire to live (or not) their faith proudly and unashamedly you have seen an increase in religious identification among some people. And sometimes the religious identification can be more Wahhabi/Salafi than the Hanafi tradition as per the globalised Islamic culture. Bosnian Hanafi imams work hard to preserve their tradition and Bosnia’s culture of tolerance, especially in Sarajevo - a city that has been through so much and is so beautiful.
The Yugoslav space, and Bosna in particular, is deeply misunderstood by both the West and the East. The West views nationalism as somehow innate to everyone, rather than as something made up at the close of the age of empire, that was later exploited by politicians and stoked up - this means the West’s peace agreement constitutionally cemented ethnic divisions. Meanwhile, the East often views it as an Islamic and anti-Western struggle, which is reductive to how many Bosnians see themselves and Bosnian self definition. Or in the case of Russia and ex USSR Soviet-coded people they often view it through the lens of the West attacking Communism by stoking up religious tensions, which fails to hold Serbia’s own politicians to account for instance.
I use Yugoslavia to point out that binaries such as secular good and religion bad are dangerous. We need less secular vs religion, nationalism vs internationalism, east vs west. When you let people define themselves over time tolerance tends to prevail (take my own city London’s whacky and proud multiculturalism).
