Macedonia: Talking About Religious Sterotypes

During last the few weeks, political parties used a series of violent incidents in South-West Macedonia for political mobilization, increasing religious & ethnic tensions.

Media expert Roberto Belichanec blogged about stereotyping [mk] as a process of avoiding the labor of thinking in concrete terms through bunching people with group traits, reinforced by the media. According to him, religious stereotypes in the Balkans are not necessarily negative, but are “used to underline national stereotypes and confirm national rivalry… Faith functions at the level of group membership, not as a religion with its inner values. Appearances and declarations are considered important, not the spiritual aspect.”