The central religiopolitical topic of the past few days in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has been the initiation of investigative proceedings against imams in Kozarac and Bihac, for “incitement to violence and hatred”. First, the religious ceremony in Kozarac on Savindan (St. Sava’s Day) ended with the qualification of the Serbian Orthodox Church as a sect by the chief imam of the Majlis of the Kozarac Islamic Community, Amir Mahic. After that, imam Muharem Stulanovic, a professor at the Faculty of Islamic Pedagogy in Bihac, called the Republika Srpska (RS) “a genocidal creation that appeared on January 9th“. The police of RS initiated investigative proceedings against both of them, and the imam from Kozarac was questioned.
“These cases will not be solved by the police and the prosecution. The spreading of such hatred by religious officials also has a political dimension. I have no doubt that when religious officials speak in such a way, and I have the feeling that they want it to go public, they are consciously creating a climate of mistrust and a bad security situation,” said RS Police Minister Sinisa Karan, who expects that the religious leaders of such persons need to speak with them, and only then the institutions.
”Serbian Orthodox Sect”
“On the other side, from the point of view of the Orthodox from other parts of the world, what is that man? He is a man on whose teachings and ideology a sect was conceived, which we know well here. It is the Serbian Orthodox sect. It is basically a sectarian teaching of Orthodoxy which does not have the basic link with the original Christian and Orthodox teaching that it should have…” said Mahic during the sermon in Kozarac on Savindan. His later apology did not help calm the situation either.
”We believe that there is no basis for initiating such a procedure, especially if you take into account that Effendi Mahicapologized to all those who felt offended, and that apology was made from this very place from which those views were expressed,“ said Mahic‘s lawyer, Emir Kovacevic.
While waiting for the outcome of the events in both cases, the reactions on both political and religious fronts are not slowing down, where everyone is defending their own. This attempt to defend “only one’s group” also led to a split in the Interreligious Council of BiH (IRV), a body that was created in 1997 at the initiative of the heads of four religious communities in BiH. The idea behind its creation was reconciliation between the peoples of BiH, and that was only two years after the war.
Metropolitan Chrysostom of Dabro-Bosnia, who represented the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Inter-Religious Council, said that the imam from Kozarac, with his speech in which he attributed fascism to St. Sava, “spilled poison in the public space”.
“That’s why we already left the Interreligious Council, because we can no longer be in the community with such people. We must be clear that we will no longer tolerate such insults and such poisoning of the space where young people move,” said Chrysostom, calling on the Islamic community to declare whether it stands behind such words.
Immediately after the event, the Rijaset of the Islamic Community in BiH rejected all insinuations by which this event was presented as “part of the planned activities of both the religious and political leadership of the Bosniak people.” It is exclusively about a personal position that is not supported by the Islamic Community and its official bodies, it was announced from Rijaset. A few days later, Kozarac also visited the reisul-ulema of the Islamic Community, Husein Kavazovic, who spoke with Mahic, telling him that the Islamic Community always stands by its imams.
“The imam was carrying out a mission and he clearly admitted his mistake. This is not common in this society, not even in religious communities. With that act, he showed his consistency, just as the Islamic community showed that it firmly adheres to the principles it has built and nurtured over the years. We also expect others to adhere to the principles they publicly promote,” Kavazovic said.
Will Interreligious Council stop working?
Abazovic says that the exit of the Serbian Orthodox Churchfrom the Interreligious Council, if it happens, is not a good path: “But if this is an attitude, then those who adopt it are aware of the responsibility for such actions”, DW reports.
E.Dz.
