Academic Duraković: SDA's policy is becoming a national catastrophe

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Bosniak politics is inferior, we don't have time to list all that SDA has given to Dodik's anti-Bosnian forces and Čović, said academic Esad Duraković for N1.

“Although Bosniaks are the majority nation in BiH, they have almost nothing. Everything has been given to political parties; the survival of BiH depends on Bosniaks, and there is no survival for them without BiH. SDA's policy is becoming a kind of national catastrophe, perhaps it's too harsh a statement, but it's a very inferior policy, and something must change,” said Duraković.

When it comes to politics and science, politics tries with all its might to dominate science, to bureaucratize it, and that is the worst path, believes Duraković.

“Science can only progress when it is independent and if it is independent of politics and has initiative. Today we have a situation where entire faculties, including UNSA, want to be put under the thumb of bureaucrats who do not understand the essence of science,” concluded Duraković.  

Speaking about the religious experience of Kurban Bayram this year, he said it was unusual and sad because, as he said, Bayrams are holidays that affirm the sociality of a community, but this “tiny virus has disrupted everything globally, including the Hajj this year.”

“I see this absence of mass visits to the Kaaba in several ways, and it carries several messages, dramatic warnings about the globalization of the world in which profit has become a deity, and even from the believers' side, it could be a warning of sorts to turn to spiritual values. I would insist on the positive fact that the Hajj visit has been reduced, and all Muslims should draw a message from this that in extraordinary situations they should behave differently, reorganize their social life, reduce it. In that context, I think it is good that the Kosovo mufti issued a fatwa that Bayram should not be prayed in mosques this year. This could be a message to our Islamic Community and others to suggest to believers not to rush to mosques while this pandemic is ongoing, this crisis that threatens the health of all of us, because Islam is a religion of ease, simplicity, a religion that serves to improve human life, because God said that He does not burden any soul, any person beyond their capacity,” Duraković conveyed.

Academic Duraković also points out that the coronavirus has taught us a lot and is still teaching us.

“Kurban Bayram is also originally called the festival of sacrifice, which means we are learning the meaning, virtue of sacrifice for others and self-sacrifice towards God and faith. Fear in critical situations is a matter of instinct. It is normal for a person to feel fear when exposed to a threat to their own existence, and in that sense, we can talk about egoism, however, this pandemic has taught us about other types or aspects of egoism that we did not know about,” commented Duraković.

“In the midst of the pandemic in Europe, it became apparent that even the best-organized healthcare systems in European countries have actually neglected the care of the elderly, of nursing homes, in a shameful way. It showed how vulnerable their healthcare systems are and how hypocritical their humanity is, as they left the elderly to neglect and indifference. Every noble, healthy society is actually measured by how much sense, ability, desire, and enthusiasm it has to protect and care for the least protected categories, and in relation to egoism, I would mention a general issue within the pandemic. I am shocked by the realization that many people in Sarajevo, in BiH, and beyond, do not care whether they will get the coronavirus, whether they will transmit it to someone else. This is the most brutal form of egoism. I had the opportunity to talk to some people who say they are young, strong, with good immunity, and that 'nothing can happen to them,' and I say that they can transmit it to someone who is not so strong, and then people are left speechless. This virus actually tests our sensitivity towards others: how willing we are to think about the safety of others, our neighbors, grandmothers, grandfathers, and so on. We could learn a lot from this pandemic, and it would be fortunate if we hadn't found ourselves in such a situation,” Duraković added, guesting on Novi dan.

N1 guest Esad Duraković also commented on the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

“Hagia Sophia should have remained a museum. Such a decision is not in accordance with Islam. I greatly respect the Turkish nation, I respect Turkish culture, history, all of it is extremely significant, but this decision to turn Hagia Sophia, which was a museum until now, into a mosque, I consider that move to be at least inadequate, wrong, and even counterproductive. It should not have been done; that building should have remained a museum, a monument to Islamic tolerance, breadth, multiculturalism, etc. In Istanbul, people have enough space, mosques, to perform prayers. They should not have conquered that space in this way either, because that decision has primarily some political implications, as it happens in the context of Islamophobia. I understand that Turkey is exposed to many threats from the world, but this is not a move that will contribute to solving these issues. Ultimately, in my deep conviction, it is not even in accordance with Islam to convert a place of worship into one's own place of worship. There is no compulsion in faith,” stressed Duraković.

I do not agree with the saying 'they did it to us, so let's do it to them.'

“I know there are many Muslims who say 'they' are, meaning Christians, converted our mosques for other purposes or destroyed them in Andalusia and the Balkans, and even in the last war in BiH; if they did it to us, why shouldn't we do it to them. That is wrong; we will not be like they were. When a religion becomes dominant in a certain area, then that religion should build, and let it build its own structures, mosques, churches, and leave the ones they found. Those left, preserved religious buildings are the best proof of the superiority of the incoming religion. That is the right move. I do not agree with the saying 'they did it to us, so let's do it to them.' We, Muslims, have preserved so many monasteries, places of worship, churches; that is something Muslims can be proud of. God addresses humanity with the words: 'O people, We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may know one another.' Our human mission, the highest duty, is to get to know others, not to antagonize each other, not to destroy others' places of worship. God will judge the validity of each believer's faith. I regret that this happened; it should not have happened; we should have been above it. Let Hagia Sophia remain a monument of culture because extremists in the Jewish people will eagerly await this as an excuse to destroy Al-Aqsa. Mosques will be devastated; extremisms feed each other,” Duraković conveyed.

Duraković: Even today, Srebrenica is under the jurisdiction of the institutions that carried out the genocide in Srebrenica, namely the army and police of the RS

Duraković also mentioned the Uyghurs in China, and emphasized that what is happening there, that camps for Muslims are being opened, is a horror, unspeakable. He also said that these days the epic suffering of the Rohingya Muslims is rarely mentioned, and he touched upon Srebrenica.

“Even today, they come to Srebrenica and give political speeches, and even today Srebrenica is under the jurisdiction of the institutions that carried out the genocide in Srebrenica, namely the army and police of Republika Srpska. I am not surprised, and I regret it, that Serbia supported this because Serbia has continuously pursued a policy that supports genocide and crime since the 1990s. Almost all presidents, up to the current one who is eloquent and not a sincere person, are people who were protagonists of genocide or aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina. I deeply regret that the Serbian political leadership is doing this. Not all Serbs are like that, but the political leadership is. It's not just Serbia; these days, the President of the Republic of Croatia is supposed to present an order to someone who has been legally convicted of war crimes in BiH. This is horrific. Where is this world rushing to? This is something I cannot understand, and the whole world should condemn it,” he stated for N1.

“Problems BiH will face due to migrants”

He also commented on the migrant crisis in our country for Novi dan and said that he has “empathy for the unfortunate people we call migrants.”

“We have a pronounced problem here. Migrants have been accumulating in BiH for a long time because the European Union has almost hermetically sealed its borders, and they are settling in BiH, while these 'European humanists' lecture us in BiH – a country devastated by war, which has not yet recovered – on how we should be humane, while they have forbidden them entry into their countries. They give us a million or two and come to BiH and lecture us on where to relocate these migrants within our country. This is unfair to BiH and to the migrants. BiH has no capacity whatsoever to absorb the arrival of these people from Asian countries, of whom there are tens of thousands here, and they will pose a very big problem for us, and this problem will grow significantly, and we will have problems. That is why I have appealed many times to raise our voices strongly towards the EU institutions, to open their eyes, to tell them that it is unfair that they are burdening us with so many migrants because BiH has so many problems that it cannot handle. Our politics is behaving inadequately towards this problem. The institutions of the Islamic Community are behaving patiently, humanely, and I do not encourage them to be inhumane, but they should not encourage them to come here; let that be left to the authorities. Let the borders be closed,” he emphasized, outlining the problems BiH will face due to migrants.

“BiH is a country that is almost on the verge of dissolution. I hope it won't, but Čović wants Herceg Bosna, we all see how Dodik talks about the secession of RS, etc. Migrants are accumulating in the Federation of BiH, and in the part where Bosniaks form the majority. At the same time, neighboring Croatia is a country that feigns friendship and accuses us of radicalism. It will be enough for more serious security incidents to be staged in BiH by migrants for neighboring countries to say, 'See, the Bosniak Muslims are radical, we don't want to live with them, and we have every reason for the dissolution of BiH.' I fear that is the scenario,” Duraković stressed for N1.