How did they become "them"?
Islam in Bosnia and HerzegovinaFor many Serbs (Orthodox Christians),
they became "them" when Islam was introduced on a larger scale in the mid to late 15th century during the Ottoman occupation. The
Srebrenica Massacre (disputed by some Serbs) and the
Kosovo War are perhaps the two most well-known events in
recent history that underscore the degree of the enmity between Serbs and Balkan Muslims. As for jihadist, radical Muslims, see Slobodan's earlier link to the article outlining Saudi funding in Kosovo for the promotion of militant ideology; this was begun in earnest after the "ethnic wars" in the 1990's.
Serbs and the predominantly
Catholic Croats also have a mutual, historical enmity. During WWII, the pro-Axis Ustaša movement sought to "ethnically cleanse" Serbs, Jews and Roma from their "claimed" Independent State of Croatia. An estimated 100,000 perished. During the conflicts of the 1990's Serbs and Croats routinely accused each other of acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Both groups also fought the (majority-Muslim) Bosniaks, of course, and have been accused of war crimes against them. [Edit: war crime charges were also brought against some Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo Albanians.]
I worked for a second-generation Canadian-Serb in the 1970's. Her father never talked about Muslims or Islam. For him, "them" meant the papist Croats and the communists. Until he got too old to travel, he and some old buddies would get together in a US border town once a year and make plans to "go back and fight". Of course, they never did. My boss characterized it as a reunion of old men drinking too much, reliving old hostilities, and mixing up their dentures in the cheap hotel room's only glass. Though she knew the history, she never developed a concept of "them" (much to her father's dismay).
