There were many reactions yesterday after Mladen Grujicic, the mayor of Srebrenica municipality, ordered the removal of the banner by which the Majlis of the Islamic Community in Srebrenica congratulates all Muslims on the occasion of Eid al-Adha. The Majlis of the Islamic Community in Srebrenica accuses the mayor of this act, while Mayor Grujicic stated that they are trying to create a problem that could be solved in time.
To recall, every year during religious holidays, municipal banners are placed all over the city, on which all citizens are officially congratulated on religious holidays. These banners were left to religious organizations so they could put them up at the appropriate time each year, but this year, that was not the case.
Namely, the banners were placed two hours before the upcoming Muslim holiday, but the mayor of Srebrenica, Mladen Grujicic, ordered the members of the Srebrenica Territorial Fire Brigade to remove them. This time the banners were not like the ones before, municipal, but with the logo of the Islamic Community.
The chief imam of Srebrenica, Damir ef. Pestalic in one interview confirmed that the banner with the Eid greeting was removed.
“For years (Mayor Grujicic) has been congratulating Eidthrough banners made during the mandate of Abdurahman Malkic on behalf of the Municipality of Srebrenica. They have the Srebrenica logo. For the past few years, these banners were in the premises of the Islamic Community, so the Municipality took them from us during the holidays and placed them. When they were placed during the last Eid, we noticed that they were cracked, faded, so we decided to make the banners of the Islamic Community and to place them this Eid. Just this sentence is written on them: Bajram Serif Mubarek Olsun. So, it is an official greeting, ” noted ef. Pestalic.
We called firefighters who went out on the field and put up banners. But, the mayor was bothered by that, he understood it as a provocation since there is no logo of the Municipality of Srebrenica on them. I don’t know why would Islamic Community of BiH put the logo of the Municipality!? Of course, the Municipality of Srebrenica and any other institution can congratulate on their own behalf, on their banner, it is not an issue… He removed it. We will place banners on our premises. After Eid, we will fight legally to see what the problem is. Why are Bosniaks not allowed to use the public space of this city ?! Are we second-class citizens, does this mean we don’t belong to this city, what is the problem here? This is an ugly message and it is just a continuity of everything he (Mladen Grujicic) is doing, by showing the whole world how fascist he is. Unfortunately, no one competent noticed it and reacted in a dignified way “, concluded ef. Pestalic.
Grujicic claims that everything could have been resolved in time
The mayor of Srebrenica also spoke up and told that all this could be resolved in time.
Official banners were made a long time ago and used to congratulate every religious holiday. We have distributed these banners to religious communities and they are with them, these are the banners that are being placed every year. This year, however, the Islamic Community did not want to place theofficial banners.
When asked to comment on the allegations that the banners were “cracked, faded”, he emphasized that everything could have been resolved in time.
They could have called us, made a request earlier so that we could check if they are really frayed so we can fix it in time. We asked for the return of the municipal banners, but the Islamic Community won’t do it in order to stage the scandal, BHRT writes.
E.Dz.
