EDUCATION AND NATIONAL IDENTITY OF BOSNIAKS

Abstract

The identification as a belonging of a person to the territory, people, culture, religion becomes one’s authentic property, identity. National identity includes territorial and ethnic type. The basic integrating element is religion, the holder of ethnic values and the development of national consciousness. Bosniak nationality is determined by birth and practice of Islam. Education is a reflection of the social system, foundation of the emancipation of man, an instrument for achieving an individual‘s identity, social prestige, authority and power. After World War II mandatory education contributes to personal and social emancipation of Bosniaks. Contemporary Muslim identity crisis marked with dilemma Ummah or secular nationalism has been brought through ignoring, over a national name Muslim, to an authentic name Bosniak by educationally emancipated Bosniak intelligence. Through liberalization and transformation of relations with the country, the Islamic community, as a substitute for national institutions of Bosniaks, renews its formal and informal educational activities. New educational institutions have been opened and the existing ones have been reformed, and Islamic religious education under the auspices of national subjects has been returned to the public school system, closing the impact of educational emancipation as an instrument of constituting national identity. Keywords: identity, national identity, Ummah, Bosniak, education