(iPoster) Beyond Confessional Lines: Secular Albanian and Religious Balkan Nationalisms

• In Event: Poster Sessions: Religion and Politics & Politics of Communist and Former Communist Countries (Post-Soviet)
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Religion and Politics

Abstract

While modernist scholars of nationalism have long conceptualized nationalism as a predominantly secular phenomenon, later literature has emphasized its deep historical relation with religion, both in its origins and in early modern transformations. The formation of the first nation-states in Western Europe, such as England, France, and Spain, was accompanied by processes of religious homogenization that excluded, respectively, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, and Jews in the pursuit of national unity. This reveals that the exclusivity of nationalism has never been limited solely to race, gender, and class, but also extended to religion. When we consider Calvinist Netherlands, Lutheran Sweden, and Catholic Portugal, states that were also central actors in colonial expansion, it becomes evident that exclusionary nation-building was not only a European pattern but a global one, replicated across the colonies of Africa, America, and Asia.
This phenomenon was later mirrored in the nationalisms of Southeastern Europe, where nation-building followed religious lines: Orthodox-based mobilization in Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia; Catholic-based nationalism in Croatia and Poland; and Muslim-based mobilization in Bosnia and Turkey. In contrast, Albania’s nationalist movement stands out as a secular project that, while sharing many structural similarities with its regional counterparts, diverged sharply in its approach to religion and identity formation.
Despite recent scholarship on nationalism and religion being largely confined to the dichotomy between secular/civic and religious/ethnic nationalisms, such distinctions fail to capture the historical fluidity of nation-formation. The religious origins of a national movement do not necessarily determine its later character as either religious or secular. Moving beyond this dichotomy, this study demonstrates how most Balkan nations drew their national boundaries along confessional lines, whereas Albania did not.
I will explain how and why Albania diverged from the broader pattern of religiously defined nationalisms in Southeastern Europe by successfully mobilizing Sunni and Bektashi Muslims, as well as Catholic and Orthodox Christians, into a unified national identity within a Muslim-majority society. Instead of pursuing eradication or assimilation, it fostered a cross-religious solidarity that transcended sectarian divisions and defined the nation in civic, cultural, and linguistic rather than religious terms.
This paper examines the emergence of Albanian secular nationalism from a comparative historical perspective, identifying the causal mechanisms that explain its divergence from broader Balkan trends. I argue that the diffusion of nationalist ideas among Albanian elites was facilitated by Protestant missionary translation efforts, which played a pivotal role in reviving Albanian as a written language. This linguistic revival empowered Christian intellectuals in a Muslim-majority context to articulate claims for cultural and national recognition. Simultaneously, external threats, from imperial repression and neighboring nationalist movements, compelled Albanian elites of diverse religious backgrounds to cooperate in pursuit of national independence. Finally, the Ottoman Empire’s early twentieth-century shift toward Turkish nationalism and centralization acted as a critical catalyst, accelerating the consolidation of a secular Albanian nationalism. Moreover, by comparing Albania’s secular nationalism with the religious nationalisms of its Balkan neighbors, this study illuminates the contingent and context-dependent relationship between religion and nation-building, challenging the prevailing binary frameworks in nationalism studies.

Author

• Mehmet Yasin Bozkus, American University