Marie-Janine Calic, historian and professor at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, has examined the multireligious and multiethnic tradition of Sarajevo in her latest article for Zeit Geschichte, the historical magazine of the left-liberal weekly Die Zeit, Deutsche Welle reports.
In her overview of the history of today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina, Calic focuses primarily on relations between religious communities and their relationship with the state.
She concludes that Sarajevo is bidding farewell to its multireligious tradition, which will soon remain visible only through its monuments.
“In Yugoslavia, women were not allowed to wear veils”
In the article titled Yugoslavia’s Broken Heart, referring to Sarajevo, Calic – considered one of Germany’s leading experts on the history of the Yugoslav region – also highlights the position of Islam in Yugoslavia.
“Yugoslavia guaranteed religious freedom; however, the veiling of women – as in Turkey – was forbidden. As long as the Islamic Community remained loyal to the state, it was allowed to develop freely, like all other religious communities,” the article notes.
The war in the 1990s marked a historic turning point, but Calic also points out that pro-Islamic political tendencies existed well before the outbreak of the conflict, along with the activism of individuals who worked in that direction.
“One of them, lawyer Alija Izetbegović, drafted the secret ‘Islamic Declaration’ in 1970, calling for a centrally governed pan-Islamic state ‘from Morocco to Indonesia, from Africa to Central Asia’, ruled by an ‘Islamic order and way of life’.”
In 1983, Izetbegović and his associates were sentenced to several years in prison. Judges ruled that demands for the introduction of Sharia law, the veiling of women and the prohibition of “mixed religious marriages” constituted an attack on the principle of “brotherhood and unity”.
Calic also recalls that Izetbegović maintained contacts with the Iranian regime of Ayatollah Khomeini.
The role of the SDA
At the start of the 1990s and the breakup of Yugoslavia, Izetbegović founded a party that won the first elections and strengthened the role of Islam in the country.
“The Party of Democratic Action (SDA) maintained close ties with the Islamic Community. Both sought to strengthen the Bosniak nation through re-Islamisation. Muslim religious officials preached that believers must observe Ramadan fasting, the ban on alcohol, the reading of the Quran and religious education. They also demanded that women be veiled and prohibited ‘mixed religious marriages’,” Calic writes.
When the Islamic Community, with the help of the SDA, consecrated the Aivaz-dede (Ajvatovica) pilgrimage site in 1990, green flags with Arabic inscriptions and fully veiled women were present. Ajvatovica is today the largest Muslim pilgrimage site in Europe, Calic notes.
She goes on to describe the growing influence of foreign Islamic currents in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which continued their internal rivalries within the country.
The death of Sarajevo’s diversity
Calic concludes that the “diversity and tolerance” of Sarajevo were lost during the war, when most Serb and Croat residents fled the city during or after the fighting.
“Sarajevo is being nationalised in the Bosniak-Muslim sense. The violence of the past has made people more aware of their ethno-religious identity, or it imposed such an identity on them in the first place. Today, most residents move almost exclusively within their own ethnic circle. The everyday traditions of shared coexistence and neighbourly interaction have diminished. Only a minority still visits neighbours of another faith during their holidays,” she writes.
Calic notes that public expressions of Islamic identity and religious practice now play a major role, and that the “Islamic Declaration” has been republished “with the help of taxpayers’ money”, something many secular-minded Bosniaks disapprove of.
This environment, she adds, attracts investors from Islamic countries who view the rise of Islam as a business model. She mentions events such as the “Halal Expo Sarajevo” international food fair.
Her conclusion is stark:
“Sarajevo is on its way to becoming a Bosniak-Muslim city with a pan-Islamic undertone. Its once multireligious character will soon be recognisable only in its historical cultural heritage,” Calic writes in Die Zeit.
Source: RTRS
