The Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Mostar gave up the organization of the summer school “Methodology of Political Science: New Issues and Trends”, and in an official statement they explained their decision.
Namely, the organization of the summer school at this faculty came into the spotlight because of an advertising poster on which the minarets were not clearly painted.
In the meantime, after a flurry of reactions, the faculty canceled the organization of the summer school altogether, considering that the various reactions created a security problem.
“The number of threats of death and destruction of the faculty, hate speech and contamination of public space pushed this event out of the academic sphere and created not only a political, but also a security problem. With this act, we want to protect all professors who were supposed to participate in the summer school, potential students who had the intention of coming to Mostar, but to prevent negative publicity that was imposed on both the Faculty of Philosophy and IPSA”, they announced for the Faculty of Mostar.
They also emphasized once again that the poster was created by artificial intelligence.
“Given that the summer school poster caused a lot of misinformation, misinterpretations, and very malicious comments, we draw attention once again to the fact that it is a poster generated by artificial intelligence that we downloaded from Freepik.com, which everyone can see for themselves “, they state from the Faculty of Philosophy and continue:
“To make the whole story even more grotesque, in the very name of the original template, ‘Koski Mehmed Pasha’s mosque’ was highlighted. So, of all the possible religious landmarks in the city of Mostar, the minaret is highlighted on the poster. So much for exclusivity, intolerance and Islamophobia”, is stated also in a statement on their official site.
They believe that the “hate promoters” have further ignited the atmosphere of fear in Mostar.
“The promoters of hatred who started this chase additionally incited an atmosphere of fear, mistrust and intolerance among the citizens, and the city of Mostar and the country they swear by so much, preemptively ‘broke out’ one, in every segment, a commendable and academically excellent global event”, they say.
Finally, the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Mostar says that regardless of everything, it will continue its mission of internationalizing education, promoting intercultural dialogue and coexistence, and raising the quality of science and higher education in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
