Dodik is (not) more dangerous for Bosniaks than Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, and Christmas

By Ernad Metaj

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Bosnia and Herzegovina is under attack. Milorad Dodik, with his domestic and foreign allies, is destroying it. At least, as claimed in public, Bosniaks care about the state. Much struggle and wisdom will be needed for its survival. Before that, Bosniaks must first defeat themselves. This was pointed out by a brilliant post by colleague Alen Bajramović on social networks: “Brothers Bosniaks, let’s agree on who our enemy is. The Christmas tree, a billboard, Santa Claus, or Viktor Orbán. We can’t fight on so many fronts, for God’s sake, we’ll get exhausted.”

First, in Bužim, the mayor, an SDA member, ordered the removal of a billboard congratulating Christmas and New Year. The billboard was initiated by representatives of the cantonal government, specifically NES and SDP. A battle of statements began, and then it spread to the municipal council, where the majority supporting the mayor became questionable.

In that battle, everyone suddenly forgot about SNSD or HDZ. The billboard proved to be a good tool for self-positioning before the elections. Then another billboard followed, this time in Zenica: "The Christmas tree, Santa Claus, and New Year are not part of Islam and Bosniak tradition." Therefore, billboards and messages that (un)consciously justify the painting of murals glorifying war criminals in Republika Srpska are being used. Many will say this is a harsh qualification and an inappropriate comparison, but at the core of both is the lack of common sense so needed to stop intolerance and the spread of hatred in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The erection of these billboards also provoked a reaction from academic Enes Karić, a professor at the Faculty of Islamic Sciences. In fact, with his essay, Karić, as he himself states, expressed another “Cry”.

-    For years in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from our “Muslim“ or our “Islamic side“, here and there, we have had stupid and simple-minded comments about celebrating (or our Muslim congratulating) Christmas, New Year, letting Santa Claus into kindergartens and schools, and so on. I have always been disgusted by this stupidity of ours. Here, they are reducing our state to zero, and we are using our reason, if we still have it, on things that have never been a problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina, among other things, Karić wrote. 

In doing so, Karić reminds all those who justify the billboards that Christians are not HDZ, Christians are not SNSD. One should politically confront HDZ and SNSD, and one must not fall into the trap, as in Bužim, of justifying it with the fact that it is a 99 percent ethnically pure area. SNSD and HDZ want exactly that, because their goal is ethnically pure territories as a prerequisite for the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina. That is why the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željko Komšić, is right when he says: “As much as the policies of both Dodik and Čović are dangerous for Bosnia and Herzegovina, phenomena like these that destroy unity and our common Bosnian-Herzegovinian identity are equally dangerous.”

The controversial and shameful billboards bring us back to the already known thesis that, among the Bosniak political elites, there are still individuals who have not stopped dreaming of a “Bosniak state”. Its goal is nothing other than to endorse the disintegration of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

In the fight for its survival, reason is most needed, and it is difficult to seek it from those who are bothered by Saint Nicholas who took from the rich and gave to the poor. Those who are bothered by the billboard in Bužim, but not by the one from Zenica, want to convince us that the only tradition of Bosniaks is for the rich to take from the poor. The division into ethnic states is essentially nothing more than the legalization of war spoils. If Bosnia and Herzegovina is not destroyed by Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović, corruption has a great chance of doing so.

Therefore, it is difficult not to agree with one of the statements that says that Santa Claus on his sleigh, with reindeer and a red hat, will enter paradise before these so-called believers, during whose peaceful rule a third of the people have fled from their lies, crime, and misery which they caused. 

Finally, it seems most appropriate to quote academic Karić again: Furthermore, please, in the Quran, God declares in several places that He did not want humanity to be of one faith! God calls diverse humanity to “compete in good deeds“. In the Quran, God is never called the Muslim God! God is named in the Quran as the “God /Lord/ of all worlds!“ Therefore, God wanted a diverse humanity that competes in good deeds!