Mustafa Cerić, an advocate of the most radical anti-Serb positions, has embarked on a dangerous venture by promoting the revival of a so-called “Bosnian” Orthodox Church—something many others attempted in the darkest periods of European history, said constitutional law professor Siniša Karan.
In a statement to Srna, Karan recalled that during World War II, with the support of Džafer Kulenović as deputy to Ante Pavelić, there was an attempt to create the Ustasha “Croatian Orthodox Church” with the aim of completely erasing Serbs—eliminating the Serb name, Serb nationality, and Serb faith, and turning the Serb people into a faceless mass suitable for assimilation and persecution.
What Mustafa Cerić is saying today, Karan noted, is not any “idea of peace,” nor is it happening by chance at a time when Serbs are celebrating Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, patron saint days, and the Orthodox New Year.
“This is a direct attack on the Serbian Orthodox Church and, consequently, on the Serb people. It is an attempt to strike at identity through religion, because it is clear that without the Serbian Orthodox Church there is neither historical memory nor spiritual continuity of the Serb people in these lands,” Karan emphasized.
He stated that the remarks by the former head of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mustafa Cerić, about the so-called “Bosnian Orthodox Church” are neither an isolated incident nor a personal opinion to be ignored.
“They are part of a broader, dangerous, and systemic political project that is being promoted ever more openly in Sarajevo, and which was most directly defined several weeks ago by the statement that Bosniaks ‘need five Serbs’ in Sarajevo and one in Banja Luka in order to govern the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“That is the essence of a policy which for decades has sought to nullify everything the Serb people have been and remain through history—a constituent people, a people with their own identity, culture, faith, institutions, and the right to decide for themselves,” Karan explained.
He added that the Serb people and Republika Srpska, along with all of its institutions, are fully aware of the context in which these statements are being made.
“We are aware of increasingly open efforts to decide about Serbs without Serbs, to relativize their rights, to portray the institutions of Republika Srpska as an obstacle, and to depict Serb identity as something that must be ‘re-educated,’ ‘reshaped,’ or banned.
“But one thing must be clear: Republika Srpska will not accept humiliation, outvoting, or the erasure of identity. As at every point in history, such policies will be defeated by what has always been our greatest strength—unity, determination, and loyalty to our institutions, whether the institutions of Republika Srpska or the Serbian Orthodox Church, as proof of our long endurance, resilience, and faith through a thousand years of history,” Professor Karan said.
Source: RTRS
