When a state is secular, religion and politics should be clearly separated. This is the idea that religion must not influence politics and vice versa.
However, that is clearly not the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina(BiH), as is evident in churches and mosques across our country. Politicians are often in the front rows with religious leaders who grant them this privilege to present them as the “better part of society” and perhaps as “better believers.” Yet, no religion either recommends or recognizes such a thing.
Politicians frequently abuse their position in society, taking advantage of benefits at the expense of citizens, and this often extends to having a special status compared to other believers in places of worship.
We may recall how a traffic lane on the main street in Sarajevo was blocked when Elmedin Konakovic went to Friday prayers.
The latest example comes from the Eid prayer when SDA leader Bakir Izetbegovic was “behind the rope” that separates worshippers from the imams leading prayers at the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque.
This raises the question: why should any politician have an exclusive status compared to everyone else, for example, in a mosque? Why should they have or be given a place in the first row, and why should someone allow them to be separated from other believers when that is not the essence of faith?
Yet, it is evidently permitted with the approval of religious officials who, in this particular case, believe that Bakir Izetbegovic should be closer to the imams than all the other worshippers who may come to this very mosque five times a day.
The situation is no better in Catholic and Orthodox churches, where we often see politicians of lower or higher rank visiting places of worship, in the presence of cameras, praying in the front row, and being “revered” by priests and clergy, Klix.ba writes.
