page_title: Bosniaks of Slovenia
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bosniaks of Slovenia / History
caption_attribution_description: The first (and for now the last) mosque in Slovenia, built probably in autumn 1916, pulled down after World War 1.
context_page_description: Bosniaks are an ethnic group living in Slovenia. According to the last census from 2002, the total number of Bosniaks in Slovenia was 32,009 as they comprised 1.6% of the total population of Slovenia. According to the last census, they are the third largest minority ethnic group in Slovenia, after Serbs and Croats.
context_section_description: During the First World War, a Bosniak regiment made up primarily of Bosnian Muslims were sent to fight on the Italian front. One of the soldiers who fought there was a boy called Elez Dervišević, the youngest soldier to fight in the Soca battle in World War I. Elez was 11 years old when he served in the Austro-Hungarian Army. In Log pod Mangartom there is a statue of Elez's father dedicated to him.
  Many Bosniaks have emigrated to Slovenia from their native Bosnia since the 1960s, primarily due to economic factors and chances for better employment. At the time, it was noted that most of the general Slovenian population looked down on their neighbors from other Yugoslav republics, but among others, Bosniaks and Serbs were the most disliked and unwelcomed. This mindset would continue well after the break-up of Yugoslavia, as Slovenia was the only member-country of the EU to oppose Croatia's EU bid, despite of the fact that Croats and Slovenes have historically shared the most cultural and traditional values than any other southern Slavic nations (such as the fact that they were the only predominant Catholic nations in the former Yugoslavia). Slovenians grouped Bosniaks with Serbians, Croatians and Macedonians. These groups were often called južnjaki (southerners), ta spodni (those from down there), čefurj and Švedi (Swedes), all had negative connotations.
caption: The first Bosniak mosque in Slovenia was built in 1916 in Log pod Mangartom on the slopes of the Alps.
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