Mile and Miro from Foca are workers who work on the reconstruction of the Aladza Mosque in the same city. When asked whether the divisions between people can be felt in their town, Miro says:
“Media are the greatest evil in the world! They are those who send out the wrong image about the world, fill people’s heads with divisions, when the truth should be said. These politicians now, they are those who create divisions. Their aim was always to mislead and then rule. Media are the same, because they live of lies. Low people never divided among themselves.”
His colleague Mile adds:
“Ordinary people never divided. Ordinary people always lived together. What matters is to be human”.
Miro says he was born in Foča and he still maintains contact with his friend Enes from Sweden.
“I am a Serb, but I build this mosque, what is the problem there? Why would that bother me? Should I care about anyone’s religion, what is in there for me? Let us work.”
Investor of the project is the Islamic Community in BiH, the Mufti Office of Gorazde, the Majlis of Islamic Community Foca.
Faruk Dzankic, Secretary of the Majlis Islamic Community Foča, stated that they hope for coexistence in Foca, especially after the reconstruction of Aladža that used to be the symbol of the former Foča.
“When you say Foca, you would automatically think of Aladža, it was the symbol of Foca. While talking to our neighbors, we find out that 99 percent of them believe that it should have never been demolished. That is the healthy, inter-neighborly and interreligious thinking and in this context we should work and move forward and create coexistence,” Džankić said.
Aladža Mosque was built in 1549 in Foca. It was one of the larger mosques and the first mosque in BiH built in the classic Ottoman style. It was built by the close associate of Mimar Sinan and its greatest value is that all later mosques were built based on the idea of the Aladza Mosque.
At the opening ceremony of the reconstructed Aladza mosque in Foca, on Saturday, May 4th, some 10,000 people are expected, was stated at the conference of the Organizing Committee.
The opening of Aladza Mosque is a central event in the framework of marking the Day of the Mosque in BiH.
The Mufti of Gorazde Remzija ef. Pitic emphasized that the opening of Aladza Mosque is one of the most important events, recalling that its reconstruction was completed at the 470th anniversary of its construction.
Pitic said that he hopes the upgrading of the mosque will uphold all people in every respect, religious, spiritual, cultural, civilized, and political.
Aladza Mosque was entirely demolished by Serb authorities in August 1992. Its reconstruction started on December 12, 2004.
