Friday prayer or the state, that is the question?

The shortest way to trivialize the Bosniak victim is precisely to establish so-called Islamic terrorism as the main danger. It should appear that this victim is the result of the Bosniak endeavor to create a so-called Islamic state here, in which Serbs and Croats would have their heads cut off in front of American cameras. Something like that.

How Bosnia Became Bakir

The pressure to install a terrorist label on Bosniaks has resulted in completely unexpected phenomena, which were thought to have died out forever, such as the establishment of an authoritarian political figure, like the one Serbs have in the person of Milorad Dodik.

Bosniaks, thus, got Bakir Izetbegović, for whom, on the occasion of his electoral victory in 2010, it was thought to be a transitional and temporary solution, a phase, an incident, because he was merely the son of Alija Izetbegović, and nothing more.

Today, Bakir Izetbegović has spread his political power not only to the SDA but also to the Bosniak patriotic sentiment, which precisely means the establishment of that uncritical support, according to which he is "ours, no matter what".

Thus, for example, today Turks, and indeed Bosniaks, uncritically applaud every move of Tayyip Erdoğan, even if it concerns that senseless palace with who knows how many rooms, chandeliers, and toilets. The political power of Bakir Izetbegović, who was elected a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the second time, convincingly, has emerged precisely as a reaction to the aggressive campaign to invent so-called Islamic terrorism.

Looking rationally, in Bakir Izetbegović's past mandate, there is no continuity in the struggle for the people and the state, and certainly not for the faith of Bosniaks, there is no material on the basis of which he should be the chosen one of the Bosniak heart. He has not defended us even once on this account of being connected to so-called terrorism, yet he has profited from it.

We could now leaf through the chronicle of events from 2010-2014 and establish a series of situations in which Bakir Izetbegović let the people down. For example, the deletion of the word genocide from the monument in Višegrad. For example, the ignoring of Bosniak returnees where they were attacked (the case of murder in Kozluk or beatings in Zvornik).

We could also establish a list of various gaffes and failures. All of this would convince us that Bakir Izetbegović has no merits for which he should receive such massive support from Bosniaks. His political power today is collateral damage from the endeavor to satanize Bosniak politics led by Alija Izetbegović. In the name of the struggle for truth and support for the character and work of Alija Izetbegović, the people voted for Alija's son, who reaped the benefits without any effort. It could be further argued how different a father and a son can be, how Alija is one thing and Bakir is another, but that is not the topic of this story.

Bosniaks, therefore, outside of interest relations, outside of the principles of merit and gratitude, have chosen Bakir Izetbegović. Perhaps it is not such a big problem that Bosniaks chose Bakir Izetbegović, in the way they chose him, but the problem is that they have given their unreserved, uncritical sentiment to that fruitless choice. To love Bosnia, to love Bosniaks, today is the same as loving Bakir Izetbegović. ...And it is not, and cannot be.

Is the leader blind or the people

The concrete disproportion of Bakir Izetbegović's unfulfilled enthronement as SDA leader is reflected in the difference between the party base and the center, because the base still predominantly relies on value judgments established by Alija Izetbegović, based on faith, patriotism, spirituality, and tradition, while the center is all about form, business, personnel, and profiteering puzzles. Bakir Izetbegović is the leader of that profane center of Bosniak politics, which actually lives off those honest Bosniaks in the field, in the villages, who benevolently believe that every Bosniak is as good as Alija Izetbegović. And Bakir Izetbegović himself no longer flinches when Alija Izetbegović's politics are placed in the context of so-called terrorism. It cannot be that he doesn't see, that he doesn't know, it can only be that he is not interested in what the people are interested in – that our conscience remains clear before history.

However, this sluggishness and disinterest of Bakir Izetbegović in the face of the challenges of the political present, as we have seen, was not a limiting factor for the people to re-elect him as a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus, we got a "new Alija" who does not respond to the people's feelings, but is surrounded and inspired by those trivialities by which politics in the Dayton order is recognized as a space of profiteering, fraud, and dishonor. It is a big question whether the leader is blind or the people, and who in this order does not see who is who.

And then, suddenly, Bakir Izetbegović decides to play the role of an important believer in the middle of an important state event – the first visit of a European Union delegation to Sarajevo, for a meeting with election winners. Bakir decided to go to Friday prayer in the middle of the meeting. Friday prayer cannot happen without him, nor he without Friday prayer. And he is important and arrogant enough that he can even dismiss the European Union, as if they depend on us, and not we on them.

They immediately attacked him, of course, both "Dnevni avaz" and Milorad Dodik, and self-aware Bosniaks instinctively stood up in defense of faith, Friday prayer, the mosque, and it turned out, in defense of Bakir Izetbegović. Religious authorities, interpreting the concessions in Islam, and especially that there is a priority of priorities in the order of importance, would probably have interpreted that Bakir Izetbegović's place was at an important state meeting rather than at Friday prayer.

That job in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, if it is a job at all, is so diluted that few Friday prayers will be occupied by state affairs for Bakir Izetbegović, and this meeting, which happened to coincide with the time of Friday prayer, is important for Bosnia and Bosniaks, so Bakir's personal religious obligation cannot be more important than all of us. Although this is logically arranged like this, many Bosniaks jumped to Bakir Izetbegović's side. The greatest loser is the freedom of judgment, arrested in passion and division, so bad becomes good, and vice versa.

It would not be good for there to be any figure among Bosniaks who is exempt from criticism. There are permanent, eternal values, around which all Bosniaks should be united: Bosnia, Bosniaks, faith, tradition.

In this line, few mortals can be found, after Mehmed the Conqueror. It is one thing to defend the faith, and another to defend Bakir Izetbegović when he goes to Friday prayer in the middle of an important state meeting. In our country, we are citizens first, and then believers. This also applies to politicians: the state first, then faith. Because if there is no Bosnia, there are no Bosniaks, and if there are no Bosniaks, there is no Islam. Where will you pray Friday prayer, Bakir, if Bosnia becomes like Niš and Užice, a territory wiped out of Islam and mosques?