Sorta, Kinda Muslim: The Impact of Western Hegemony on Muslim Identity Negotiation in Kosovo

This paper seeks to engage with the real-world implications of Western Islamophobia in the context of Kosovo. Before the Kosovo War, Kosovar Albanians fell under both Ottoman and Yugoslav imperialism. After the war ended, a new type of imperialism entered, Western neo-imperialism. After 9/11, Islamophobia became an important component of Western neo-imperialistic hegemony. Kosovar elites help transmit this Islamophobia to the general population by enshrouding it in Albanian nationalism. Although Western hegemony pressures Kosovar Albanians to negotiate Muslim identity within the Islam-versus-the-West binary, the complexity of identity makes this unfeasible. Nevertheless, Kosovar Albanians must navigate this hegemony when trying to negotiate and define their unique identities.