SHAFAQNA- Islamophobic rhetoric at the political level, which at its peak in the 1990s Bosnian War played a significant role in the massacre of thousands of Bosniak Muslims, is once again being used by Serbian and Croatian politicians – including those of Bosnian background – with dangerous aims.
According to the European Islamophobia Report 2018, which was published by the Ankara-based Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research think tank on Friday, politicians and some sections of the media are today attempting to falsely present Bosnia as a “radical Muslim haven” in order to undermine the country – again with the aim of dividing it territorially.
The year 2018 saw a large increase in anti-Bosnian and anti-Muslim bigotry by the Bosnian Croat and Croatian political establishments and also by regional political actors. These actors continue to present Bosnia and Herzegovina as a failed state which is harbouring extremists and which needs to be territorially divided in order to secure peace and security
“In 2018, Milorad Dodik, the Bosnian Serb leader and newly elected Serb member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina presidency, dehumanised Bosniak Muslims by referring to adhan (call to prayer) as ‘howling’ on a show on public Serbian television,” wrote Hikmet Karcic, a researcher at the Institute for Islamic Tradition of Bosniaks .
Abdussamed Podojak, 24, from Sarajevo told Al Jazeera that the rhetoric was being used to score political points.
“Because of all these [Islamophobic] statements and opinions [by politicians], I know a lot of people who don’t feel safe to go to another part of our country, which is absurd … the rhetoric promoting Islamophobia is more than a catastrophe.”
In this regard, warnings of a Muslim demographic threat have become pervasive.
According to Bosnia’s latest census from 2013, Muslims comprise 50.11 percent of the population, Orthodox Christians make up 31 percent and Catholics form 15 percent.
Dodik, who has consistently claimed that Bosniaks are planning to create an Islamic state, has accused Bosniak politicians of planning to give 150,000 Muslim migrants citizenship, thereby changing the country’s ethnic composition.
In late July, the Jerusalem Post reported that during Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic’s meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem, Grabar-Kitarovic claimed that Bosnia is under the control of “militant Islam” due to the refugee and migrant situation.
If such abhorrent views go unchecked in the media, and indeed within mainstream political discourse and institutions, minority communities of all descriptions will continue to face increasing threats of persecution around the world, theguardian.