So says an "Islamic sciences" professor in this article, which discusses the tension present in Bosnia over the display of religious items such as the headscarf. In Europe and other parts of the world, the increase in veiling has served as one of the most obvious outward signs of radicalization, and often the influence of Saudi religious literature and funding. While the article focuses on "ethnic" animosities (though being Muslim is not an ethnicity), and the suppression of religious expression under communism, what is memorable is the sense of entitlement and lack of reciprocity expressed by that professor, which will follow the Islamic headscarf (and niqab) wherever it gains a foothold in Europe.
Sharia Alert. "Islamic headscarf's comeback reveals Bosnian divisions," by Rusmir Smajilhodzic for Agence France-Presse:
SARAJEVO (AFP) - After being banned for decades by Yugoslav communist rulers, the Islamic headscarf is making a comeback to the streets of post-war Bosnia, exposing deep ethnic divisions.
Although still a minority in Bosnian society, women choosing to don the headscarf have become a common sight on the streets of the capital Sarajevo, unlike before the 1992-1995 war when it was a rarity.
Headscarves in the former communist Yugoslavia, of which Bosnia was a part, were worn almost exclusively by elderly women in rural areas, more out of respect for tradition than as a sign of religious feeling.
However, today in regions mainly populated by Christian Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats, the wearing of headscarves is still frowned upon as it was in the communist era when displays of religious symbols were unwelcome.
"It's the principle of the majority people: one religion on one territory," complained Sarajevo professor Nermina Sacic, arguing for secular traditions to prevail in Bosnia's different ethnic regions.
Sarajevo, where she is professor at the Political Science Faculty, has had a strong Muslim majority since the Bosnian war.
Out of Bosnia's 3.8 million inhabitants, some 40 percent are Muslims, 31 percent Orthodox Christians and 10 percent Catholics.
In other Muslim-populated parts of the former Yugoslavia, notably in Kosovo and southern Serbia, there is a relatively relaxed approach toward the issue of religious clothing.
Perhaps to Muslim religious clothing.
However in Bosnia, especially in areas where ethnic groups are forced to live in close quarters, the issue has caused tensions in recent months.
In one case, in the ethnically divided northern town of Brcko, issues of secularism and freedom of choice surfaced in a conflict between a Serb teacher and a headscarved Muslim psychologist in an elementary school.
"My colleague refused my regular visit to his class because of my headscarf," said psychologist Semsa Ahmetspahic.
"I didn't insist on it because Brcko has a specific environment. We try to avoid situations which could lead to conflict," she said.
Brcko and its surrounding region populated by Muslims, Serbs and Croats was proclaimed a special district in 2000 by the international community overseeing peace in Bosnia.
It is autonomous from the country's two semi-independent entities -- Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation -- and is ruled by its own multi-ethnic institutions.
The dispute was debated at the city's council where a Serb deputy, Milan Puric, called for regulations banning the Islamic headscarf in public institutions.
He said that Muslim deputies had already stated they "would do everything possible to ensure that in the future there would be even more headscarved women in institutions."
Angered by their attitudes, Puric stressed the issue "once again highlighted ethnic divisions" in the country.
"We haven't reached that level of tolerance yet," Puric told AFP.
"But if I'm wrong, then it should be all or nothing, without any discrimination," Puric said, adding that would mean Orthodox Church icons and crosses should also be allowed into classrooms.
In Brcko schools, only Bosnia's coat of arms is displayed, unlike other parts of the country where religious symbols are displayed in many classrooms.
This, despite all ethnic and religious symbols being banned from public institutions under Bosnian law, which also prescribes no specific dress code.
"The fact that girls wear mini-skirts does not bother me, but I expect that people have respect for me," said Alma, a 25-year-old wearing a maroon headscarf and a long black dress.
Walking through Sarajevo's Political Science Faculty, where most students are dressed in western-style clothes and there are only a few headscarved women, Alma stressed that for her to be able to observe the Islamic dress code at the university represented no more than "respect for human rights."
"Being headscarved, I could not study in France, where basic rights are being violated, while here it is possible and normal," she added.
In 2004, France banned the wearing of headscarves and other religious symbols at its schools.
Her professor, Sacic, agreed that "bans never lead to any good," but added that the application of secular principles would be positive.
"It would be so because of everything that happened here" during the war, Sacic said.
[...]
A professor at the Faculty of Islamic Sciences, Adnan Silajdzic, disagreed with Sacic, stressing "the principle of secularism cannot be applied on Bosnia because Muslims are not a minority."
"Bosnian people... are modern but they care about their spiritual traditions and have a strong religious spirit," said Silajdzic.
"Is it good or bad? We could discuss that. But as long as it is like that, the reality should be respected."
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The girls wearing mini-skirts at the university, or were they just 'street' length skirts and not burqas, did not offend the Muslim student, Alma, who wore a maroon headscarf and long black dress. She just wanted the right to wear what she felt expressed her beliefs. She wanted religious tolerance. The problem with Alma, and her ilk in Bosnia and throughout the world, is that their tolerance only exists until they reveal their true motives through majority numbers and threats of violence. Then, Muslim dress will be required for all females, regardless of their beliefs or non-beliefs. The secularists and non-Muslims in Bosnia know this pattern. They are resisting while they can...in the meantime, the number of women choosing to wear the headscarf in Sarajevo continues to grow, according to the article. And, the number of headscarves increase along with large infusions of Saudi money, but I guess that detail should demand provide material for a separate article.
If the figures quoted in this article are correct (they differ from those in the fact book I use, which gives 60 % Muslim, 35 % Christian [mostly Orthodox, then Catholics, a few Protestants] and about 5 % non-religious), then the Muslims do NOT have an overwhelming majority. Until recently most Bosnian Muslims were not terribly observant anyway.
Since when does a group comprising between 40 % and 60% of a population get to impose its religion on everybody else in the country, like it or not? And what if the percentages change? What if - by some miracle - thousands of Bosnian Muslims were to leave Islam?
Some smart reporter should pin that professor to the wall with a couple of simple little questions: "I understand that some 300-400 Bosnian Muslims have converted to Christianity lately. What is your attitude to apostasy? Should Muslims be free to change to a different religion - or no religon? What would you do if your daughter said she was converting to Christianity and marrying a Christian?"
"Islamic Science"? Balderdash!!!
Demographics, demographics, demographics.
Nothing else matters half as much.
dumbledoresarmy:
the cia factbook says that religious division of Bosnia is:
Muslim 40%, Orthodox 31%, Roman Catholic 15%, other 14%
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bk.html
I have never seen a fact book that said that muslims are a majority in Bosnia (the largest group yes, but not a majority) where do you have your info from?
Anyway, both the Serbs and Croats in Bosnia should as soon as possible declare their own independent states.
As a student I drove through Turkey several times. If you're curious what I was doing you can go to my blog and ask. I sat down with many Turks and had chai (tea) and each and every Turk told me the same thing:
"German good, Hitler good..."
"Why Hitler good?"
"Because he killed the Jooozzzz..."
I stopped at universities, in Istanbul and Ankara, usually with some American chicks in tow, and the Turkish girls would come out in droves wanting to talk to us. I'm talking about 1969. They (the turkish females) didn't wearre headscarves then, but tight jeans. They were envious about the Americans wearing miniskirts and told us that the men would spit on them and throw rocks if they did.
They guys were just unspeakably stupid, oversexed and sleazy, so we didn't waste any time with them.
That was then.
Very little has changed...
"the principle of secularism cannot be applied on Bosnia because Muslims are not a minority."
That means that to them, democracy equals the absolute power of the majority, as soon as the majority is muslim.
Until that date, human rights are applied. But no longer than until that date.
Everyone has to be tolerant... until they get in power.
Then all bets are off.
Forever.
Bosnia is just another disasterous 'unfinished job' dating the clinton administration. Thanks to it, Catholic Croats dwindled, Serbs resist (cos at least have some freedom in Republic of Srpska entity), and muslims flourish on never ending story about 'genocide' that has befallen them. And exactly in that selfproclamaited victimhood lies their gigantic hatred toward Serbs and Croats. Recently, world court has cleared Serbia from accusations for 'genocide' in bosnia. Since at least a half year prior to that decision,on every of their internet portals I have witness bosnian muslims strongest conviction that Serbia and Serbs will be proclamaited guilty.But final verdict and clearing of accusations was feeled as catastrophic blow for them. Ofcourse, immidiately they accused west, america and specialy jews for conspiracy. It was gone that far that muslim lider Haris Silajdzic, and long standing friend of muslim war leader Alia Izetbegovic, has publictly declared after verdict: to west, serbian fascism is more clouser than bosnian muslims islam. However, verdict appeases them at least in one sentence: that in Srebrenica, genocide events had happened. At least that claim fuels and support muslims wictimhood, so they start to exploit it on any possible instance, specialy, as publictly declared by every bosnian politician, with aim to obliterate republic of srpska entity for good. Since croats are without their own entity, their population rapidly decreased (approx. from 750000 before war to 450000 now). Now if Serbs lost their part, nothing stand on the path for creation of another sharia country in Europe. With their usual muslim behavior (who ever is not supporting us is a islamophobe, fascist and part of widespread conspiracy), they attack every reasonable proporsal offered by anyone else. So just few days before, bosnian Serb leader offered a model for new bosnia. Basicaly, it means resurection of Croatian entity (so called herceg-bosnia, which existed from 1992 to 1995 when it was extinguished by clinton order to Croats and muslims to unite and fight Serbs together and not each other like untill then).Note here, dear reader, that Croats are so confused after living a decade with imposed muslim union, that main proponent for their rights is a Serb, not a Croat. Although bosnian Croats widelly support the idea (recently thay proclamaited Serb leader Dodik as a person of a year), they today simply dont have a politician to stand up and defend their rights from islamisation wave flooding from sarajevo. So they now serve as vivid exemple to a Serbs, what will happen to them if Republic of Srpska been annihilated and drowned into unified bosnia. In that proposal, bosnia would be a federate state consisting of serbian, croatian and muslim entity. Few hours after proclamation, all muslims parties 'reject propose with disguisting' and accuse the Serb lider for trying to finish genocidal campaign against bosnia and their muslims.
Luckily for sebs, their leader Milorad Dodik, is democratic politician, who never took a part in civil war during 90ies.He draws major investments and Republic of Srpska is now investing large sums into infrastructure instead for mosks as it is done in last 17 years in muslim parts of bosnia. Quite different, muslim leader Haris Silajdzic,right arm and close friend of Alia Izetbegovic,and his 'compadre' ulema Mustafa Ceric, not only waste time on islamic propaganda, mosks building, and Srebrenica outcry, but they openly declears Alia Izetbegovic as 'model for bosnia'. Knowing Alias 'muslim declaration', sort of bosnian mein kampf, Serbs dream for freedom and leaving that arteficial state poised for a caliphate. But, yet again, they are Serbs, not say, albanians, so that they can get second state.
"Sarajevo, where she is professor at the Political Science Faculty, has had a strong Muslim majority since the Bosnian war."
from the article above.
-----------
"since the Bosnian war" is the key phrase. That's because the Muslims, supported by Clinton and NATO, ethnically cleansed the Serbs from Sarajevo.
In a sick and perverted twist of the truth, Clinton then accused the Serb victims of genocide. The few heroic Serbian leaders who resisted this Islamic/NATO genocide against Balkan Christians, are either prisoners in the Haque or are on the run.
The book I use dates from 2001...it's put together by a Christian group - Operation World (it's a guide to praying for the countries of the world). Note: they don't mince words about Islamic extremism and persecution where those things happen in a country - in fact, they have a little thing called a 'persecution index' and countries get rated. They're NOT a bunch of amateurs.
So far as I can see from their references (the CIA factbook is one of the main secular sources they draw on) they do try to be as accurate as possible, and being a Christian group they have access in most countries to 'sources on the ground' which other (secular) groups might not consult or even know - or care - about. They try hard to cross-check and allow for bias and rubbery figures. I was surprised myself when they gave a higher figure for Muslims in Bosnia than your source did. It may be that they were counting as Muslims people whom other sources regard as 'nonreligious'.
That said, neither 40 nor 60 percent is an overwhelming majority...the arrogant tone of the Muslim academic in the article under discussion is quite unjustified.
Add to posting above - first, that I was responding to European Crusader's question about sources.
Second - I should have written - "40 percent is definitely NOT a majority and even if the figure WAS 60 percent, that would not be overwhelming"...
Sorry, it's very early in the morning and I'm still waking up.
BTW 'Crusader', thanks for reminding me that the CIA factbook is online, I'll probably cross-check with that in future just to make sure.
40 percent is not a majority at all, that's a minority!
So if the CIA factbook numbers are true, the muslims already start to define themselves as a majority in a country when they are at 40% of the population. That's very interesting indeed.
dumbloredoresarmy:
In response to your comment:
"It may be that they were counting as Muslims people whom other sources regard as 'nonreligious'."
It looks more like they fell victim to muslim propaganda about the number of muslims in Bosnia. Also according to the cia factbook: the ethnic division of Bosnia is Bosniak 48%, Serb 37.1%, Croat 14.3%, other 0.6%. Serbs and Croats put together are more than 50% and I don't see how they could have counted a Serb or a Croat as a "nonreligious muslim". Unless of course it was the muslims that were counting, then I'm not surprised at all.
The CIA World Fact Book isnot alway accurate and I than going to write to thne world court that they didnot make the correct ruleing and I than going to tell then that I overrule they ruleing as I represtend than Highter Secert Court. The CIA still say that left than 1% of the USA population is moslim, many other scholar some non-muslim say the CIA is incorrect on that. My Intellent Department est is 15 plus million muslim in America. Afew non-muslim scholar put the number at 10 plus million muslim in america. Than majority doesnot alway mean 50% plus 1 vote. In a 6 parties election if one party have 40% of the vote they have than majority of the vote.
Agree with European Crusader.Depending on population figures -Serbs & Croats& Others OUTNUMBER Muslims so how the Hell can Bosniaks claim to be the majority??
It is interesting to note that Croats complain they are not being rehoused or been able to build
churches whilst 'secular' Bosniaks are rehousing
Muslims & building Mosques at a rapid rate in Bosnia.
Curiously enough,despite Muslims claims,there seems to be AS MANY IF NOT MORE OF 'EM[BOSNIAKS]
when there was supposed to be many thousands of Muslims killed by those 'Demon Serbs' during 1990's Wars...Suggest first thing should be taken
is a Census-matching so called 'Dead Muslims' with names of those who have 'miraculously' turned up alive in Sarajevo.
As to usual blah about 'secular Muslims' of Bosnia-suspect a lot of it only happened in front
of cameras of gullible Western Journalists.
Like Alija Izetbegovic,acclaimed by U.S.as DEMOCRATIC HERO-afterwards embarrassed NATO allies discovered he was same guy WHO HAD COMMANDED NAZI WW2 MUSLIM BATTALION KILLING SERBS
& JEWS IN BOSNIA!! Alija had the good luck to die
before he was dragged to the Hague -he was given
almost a decade of having TRUTH hushed up by
Clinton & Albright.
More lies from the religion whose god is the father of all lies.....
Recently the Muslims declared that they were a majority.
It could well be true
It just goes to show the farce of their - and their fellow Dhimmis - "Genocide" claim.
They're the victim of "Genocide" yet their population has SHOT UP????????
Did the Jewish population shoot up between, say, 1939 and 1945 ?
The Bosnian Croats are indeed dead in the water, there's no future in Bosnia for them and they're leaving for Croatia. The Serb Rrepublic have been holding on to the flawed Dayton Accord. It's their only , ONLY hope, and they tenaciously held off Paddy "jeremy" Ashdown - the Dhimmi's Dhimmi - who tried to destroy the Serb Republic. As noted above, their economy is really beginning to motor now, 13% growth, etc.
Izetbegovich - in his infamous "Islamic Declaration" - explicitly stated that when Muslims become a majority they should simply take over everything.
I'll try to find the link on the internet to the English translation.
It's a mixture of the bombastic - he's big on pseudo social science crap speak - with the downright bizarre-cum-scary-cum-hilarious when writing about how beautiful and wonderful life will be when Bosnia becomes an Islamic state.
There'll be no discos, TV will have an explicit Islamic theme, Infidels will get the mop jobs, if they're lucky.
It's so friggin' nuts it's funny.
Now a question, folks. He waxed lyrical on which country?
Was is the US with it's powerful economy ?
Was it Japan with it's prowess in R and D?
Was it Germany , a world leader in engineering?
Was it Italy or France with their quality of life?
No, no and no! And don't be so silly.
It was........wait for it....PAKISTAN.
Yes, the model to follow was, and is, friggin' PAKI-FRIGGIN'-STAN.
And so the insane "grandpa" Izetbegovic continues.....really. It's so scary it's positively uproariously funny
Found it. Here's the link
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/m102303.html
Click on "Islamic Declaration" on the Fifth paragraph down.
http://www.balkan-archive.org.yu/politics/papers/Islamic_Declaration_1990_reprint_English.pdf
You need Adobe reader, or whatever.
From Svemirko:
"Note here, dear reader, that Croats are so confused after living a decade with imposed muslim union, that main proponent for their rights is a Serb, not a Croat. Although bosnian Croats widelly support the idea (recently thay proclamaited Serb leader Dodik as a person of a year), they today simply dont have a politician to stand up and defend their rights from islamisation wave flooding from sarajevo. So they now serve as vivid exemple to a Serbs, what will happen to them if Republic of Srpska been annihilated and drowned into unified bosnia
TRUE TRUE TRUE.
That's strange - one would have thought Saudi Arabia, as the fountainhead of Islam, or Erodgan's Turkey - re-Islamizing. Fuckistan is a good model in terms of being a breakaway state with no basis for an independent existance other than Islam, and in terms of being a nuclear power. So the next thing to look out for in Bosnia will be nukes?
OTOH, you have a civil war of sorts in Pakistan of all types of cuts - Panjab vs the rest, LaWhore vs Karachi, Shia vs Sunni, et al. So what sort of intra-Islamic divisions within Bosnia can you think of - that's one of the ingradients they'll need in order to make Bosnia Pakistan, and Izetbegovic Jinnah.
There are some black comedy parallels - just as India had its infestation of Nehru and Gandhi, who sold Hindus down the Indus, Yugoslavia had Tito (granted, a Croat), who similarly sold Serbs down the Danube. Maybe Bosnia had the right vision.
Also, if Kosovo is going to be carved out of Serbia, Serbs should demand that Srpska be carved out of Bosnia. In fact, regardless of what happens vis a vis Kosovo, I support Srpska being carved out of Bosnia. Whether they want to be yet another independent country, or a part of Serbia, is their call.
Infidel Pride
The declaration was written when Bosnia was still part of Yugoslavia, so no wonder his role model was Pakistan. He wanted to break Bosnia away from Yugoslavia and make it a land for the "pure", just as Pakistan was broken away from India. Another similarity between Bosnia and Pakistan is that the muslims in Bosnia are ethnic Slavs just like the Serbs and Croats, but they have been brainwashed by islam to consider themselves superior towards their infidel ethnic cousins. (I'm sure you recognize that attitude from muslims in the subcontinent)
So the next thing to look out for in Bosnia will be nukes?
Posted by: Infidel Pride
No. Ethnic cleansing. 1947.
the principle of secularism cannot be applied on Bosnia because Muslims are not a minority."
That means that to them, democracy equals the absolute power of the majority, as soon as the majority is muslim.
Until that date, human rights are applied. But no longer than until that date.
Posted by: FreeSpeech
Absolutely -- that's how I take it as well.
That comment is returning us to the reason why the civil war in Bosnia happened in the first place. It is the fact that islamic community in Bosnia is blind to the reality that Bosnia is not a muslim country and that they are not a majority. Population of Bosnia is majority Christian, but still country is full memeber of Islamic Conference shoulder-to-shoulder with Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Albania etc. Clinton administration created a monster in Europe that will be hard to deal with as they are now not only running the country from Sarjevo but also engaged in their power trip with having US on their side for so long. At the moment Serbian Republic is the only factor keeping Bosnia not to slide into islamo-fascist breeding ground for international terrorists.
From the Serbian point of view, this is just another travesty of misguided Dhimmi policies and to relation to muslim population, they will always be converts, traitors of the western/christian identity that they sold for a few concessions during the islamic occupation. So after centuries of freedom in different Serbian states in the end they took up the arms to create an Islamic state to look up to Pakistan as a roll-model.For Serbs it was out of the question and the war was small price to stop it.
@Free Speech & A_Plague_on_Both_Houses
"...the principle of secularism cannot be applied on Bosnia because Muslims are not a minority."
It means that secularism cannot be applied on muslims, and they are ones to be asked when talking about Bosnia.It will be hard landing for them when they wake up to a new reality without western support.
One note:
Serbs ethnicly covered as a clear majority around 64% of Bosnia teritory before the war (Muslims predominantly lived in cities), and now they are on 50%. Ethnical clensing? Yes, but upon who?
Muslims in Bosnia are almost all Serb and (to lesser extend) Croat converts, but nowdays they are "Bosniaks", the new nation, as Albanians in Kosovo became "Kosovars", Arabs in Palestine "Palestinians", Indians in Pakistan "Pakistanis", and so on, and so forth... This nation building proces, based on islam is as great threat to very fondations of western existance, as it is THE most favourable contemporary hobby of some western politicians.
Consesions to Islam in Balkans will NOT change view of muslims towards West. Whoever argues diferently is either uneducated or dhimmi.
Dear US friends,
please write to your representatives about this travesty in Balkans, help your fellow Christians, or Muslims will get the best of us all.
If Muslims stand for their felow Muslims all around the world, and Christians don't (and even suport Muslims against Christians), it is not hard to calculate the final outcome of this conflict.
From Walls of Byzant
"Consesions to Islam in Balkans will NOT change view of muslims towards West. Whoever argues diferently is either uneducated or dhimmi"
Never had truer words been said.