A DISPUTE OVER THE "FOURTH NATION"

Sarajevo Jul 7, 1994

Strife Between the Media in B&H

Summary: Two newspapers from Bosnia-Herzegovina "Oslobdjenje" and "Ljiljan", published in Ljubljana, argue over mixed marriages.While "Ljiljan", on the one hand, claims that the Muslims have lost hundreds of homes because of mixed marriages, "Oslobodjenje" qualifies the author as a "little Zhirinovski with racist and facsist ideas." In the debate with "Ljiljan", the author of the text calls on Bosnian officials and intellectuals to openly opposed such views and thereby publicly demostrate that they do not uphold such ideas. In a critically intoned overview of recent developments in Bosnia, "Oslobodjenje" indicates various religious manifestations and rituals which are alien to the Bosnian mentality and which are now being promoted as national holidays. The author most probably had in mind Izetbegovic's pilgrimage to Mecca, the increasing number of women with covered faces, the Islamization of various institution, from humanitarian ones to the army and police... Advocating the need of a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural B&H, Prime Minister Siljadzic indirectly gave his support to "Oslobodjenje" , disassociating himself, for the first, time from the extreme wing of the SDA. This controversy over ethnically mixed marriages is an illustration of two existing concepts of future Bosnia, as an Islamic or civil state.


In the last few days, both Ljubljana and Sarajevo are being shaken by a bitter media dispute, the fiercest since the beginning of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The fifty-one-year old B&H daily paper "Oslobodjenje" and the three-year old national weekly "Ljiljan" (both have foreign editorial offices in Ljubljana and both are published in the Delo printing house) are at each other's throats because of ethnically mixed marriages. The political, philosophical and conceptual differences of these two leading papers in the country and among the scattered Bosnians all over the world, have mushroomed into an open war, the substance of which remains for the time being covered by an avalanche of harsh words and ping-ponging of arguments and counter-arguments.

The first to "draw" was "Oslobodjenje's columnist, Slavko Santic who was set off by the views of the editor-in-chief of " Ljiljan", Dzmealudin Latic, put forward in an article on ethnically mixed marriages published in his magazine on June 10, 1994. Latic is convinced that the "present day insisting on mixed marriages represents a red rag for our democracy... In the long-run, it is a dangerous road leading to common life, owing to which the Communists have mentally destroyed much larger number than 200,000 Muslims during the five decades of totaliarianism". According to Latic, who ever believes that common life will be build by " a fourth nation" made up of the extracts of the mentioned specific traits, will " lead us once again into deception, an Utopia, a society based on atheism. And as experience has shown, atheism leads to totalirianism." Mixed marriages are, according to the editor-in-chief of "Ljiljan" the main reason why the " Muslims have lost hundres of homes...

In a situation when the shadows of a distaster are overcasting them, they have to stop and think how to deserve Allah's grace". Having made public such views regarding mixed marriages, of which only in Sarajevo there are about 120,000, " Oslobodjenje's" columnist Slavko Santic qualified the author as the " little Zhirinowsky with his racist and facist ideas is already here among us." Santic believes such phenomena should be" cut at their roots and at once. This has to be done, before all, by the Bosnian Muslim politicians, religious and academic leaders. If they do not do so, then it is to be assumed that they support such ideas, namely that they themselves have created them.

Santic goes on to say that "the idea of the possibility of creating an Islamic state on this soil which has already been launched at one time by the Bosnian politicians and religious leaders,generated among European and world pollitical circles a distrust in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a multi-ethnic, mutli-religious, civic and secular state... Particularly irritating are the various religious manifestations, frequently absolutely unknown and unnatural to the domestic Bosnian identity, but nevertheless pompously promoted into even official state holidays!" This was the first time such a harsh criticism was addressed to a B&H media.

Evidently, the article does not precisely identify the "irritating" phenomena and manifestations. Could one of them be Izetbegovic's recent pilgrimage to Mecca and the whole accompanying ritual? Or perhaps the growing number of women with covered faces on the streets of Sarajevo, Zenica,Bihac and other cities as well as the increased degree of Islamization of Bosnian institutions, from various humanitarian ones to the army and police?...? However, from current developments that are taking place, one can assume that this bitter journalist duel is not only the consequence lexical imprecision or the result of the rashness of the polemicists who are measuring out the "force" of their pens, each through his own paper.

Quite unexpectedly and very well prepared, the B&H Minister of Science, Education and Technology, Dr. Enes Karic, jumped into the "ring". In "Ljiljan", professor Karic advocates common life after the model "everyone in Bosnia should have their own garden and pick their own vegetables in it." Until recently, during the entire duration of the war, the reflections of this distinguished professor of theology were completely different. They were mature, deeply thought out and universal. Judging by his most recent thoughts and ideas, it seems the minister also renounced the fundamental programme principles of the Bosnian state policy, promoted most loudly by Alija Izetbegovic, and as of late, even more precisely by the Prime Minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Dr. Haris Silajdzic. He recently said:

" We are a monument of common life, and everybody else can learn from us how to life with others... This country and its government will not be in a position to provide a high standard of living to its people or speedy industrial and economic development. It will, however, offer them the opportunity to join the all-national front of the revival of the Bosnian spirit. Bosnia was not destroyed by those who believed in God or who were true unbelievers. This country was was not destroyed by those who were hungry. It was destroyed by those who were spiritually hungry. For that reason we must give Bosnian children, schools, mosques and churces - and the freedom to make their own choice." The speech the Bosnian Prime Minister delivered in Parliament, was characterized by the media in B&H as an authentic political platform, as a programme speech exceptionally well received both by the domestic and foreign public.

Many believe that such a public statement given by Silajdzic is actually the first more direct response to the radical Muslim faction within the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), whose one of the high officials he himself is. It is also considered to be an answer to the "hawks" and those religious officials who have initiated a open offensive aimed at "bringing back to reason" the Bosnian people and reviving its ethnic and religious "cleanliness". It is possible that among the methods of such a campaign is the redefining of the sociological, philosophicac and teological idea of "mixed marriage." Is the confrontation between the journalists of "Oslobodjenje" and "Ljiljan" a product of the necessary commercial competition for every reader, or are substantial polticial differences within the Bosnian-Muslim national corps at stake?

The answer can be surmised from the fact that "Oslobodjenje" supports more openly the stands and ideas of Prime Minister Silajdzic.In his last speech in the Assembly too, the Prime Minister has unequivocally opted for the "revival of the Bosnian spirit" and for "life with others in Bosnia and Herzegovina", since Bosnia is "an unique monument of common life." In Bosnia, ethnically mixed marriages are a component part of common life. At present it would be best for Bosnia and Herzegovina if the "colourless" individuals from mixed marriages were, after all, only an awkwardly chosen cause for achieving a democratic principle which is ever so necessary and which is called in the Western world pluralism of (public) opinion. On the other hand, everything indicates that two completely opposed concepts of future Bosnia and Herzegovina are at stake - a civil and an Islamic one. Regardless of the final outcome of the current dispute, Bosnia will continue to live. And if it should ever experience to have its Willie Brandt, then hundreds of "colourless" children will live to hear words of apology for the grievous affront they experienced. Without any blame, since their parents could not choose. Not even a homeland.

Zekerijah Smajic,AIM