EDIN URJAN KUKAVICA Not in my name!

By: Edin Urjan Kukavica

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There is nothing that cannot be objected to any form of discrimination on any grounds: from sowing and inciting inter-ethnic intolerance, through hate speech to open chauvinism and fascism. And I am not sure which of all these objections is more offensive: whether the insults are uttered by anonymous member(s) of a party that claims to have led, fought for, and still fights for a unified country and state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whether that party claims to represent an entire nation, whether these individuals are elected and/or appointed officials of the state administration, whether such individuals ever came into a position to represent anyone, anywhere, or anytime, whether they do not care that those they discriminate against and insult enabled them, fought for, and defended their right to enter the structures of state governance and decision-making about the fate of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whether their statements and posts cast that dark, backward, regressive chauvinistic shadow over all Bosniaks, Muslim women and men, whether after their statements no one looks the same at veiled women on the streets... or whether their president has still not critically, let alone sanctionally, commented on the malicious statements of his subordinates (at the time of writing).

The likes on those posts are no less offensive, but there are few of them – thank God; as is the fact that they, with their chauvinism, fully justify all the discrimination that has been and still is done to Bosniaks and Muslims, from the two schools under one roof to the open advocacy for the division and disintegration of Bosnia and Herzegovina by another fascist... because with such Bosniaks, who like to emphasize that they are the most numerous nation in BiH – especially and particularly because they are the most numerous – it is simply impossible to live.

Personally, what offends me the most is that these people defend their "right to hate" by invoking God, the Universal Creator and Benefactor, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful... Who created everything, including people, and divided them so they could get to know each other. It is obviously pointless to call upon the conscience, reason, and reflection of such people, to convey what message as Muslims they are sending about the God they supposedly believe in. Although it should be, we will not open the topic of religious education in schools and religious teachers and officials in politics here.

In general, it is very bad that similar statements, such as the fight against anti-fascism, and equally bad ones like "this one leaves, that one comes" have been interpreted as slips of the tongue and outbursts. But, perhaps the worst of all is that hate speech, inter-ethnic incidents, discrimination... have been transformed and diluted with statements on private FB pages as if it only concerned the two directly involved. It would also be good if wars were only fought by the idiots and cretins who provoke them. But, unfortunately, it is never like that.

First of all, it is not an exaggeration to say that a large part of the old world at the end of the 20th century almost irrevocably stepped into the Middle Ages. Whether it began with the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina and true medieval violence against the inhabitants of besieged cities, I do not know, but it is a fact that it continued with cruelties that until then could only be read about in chronicles from the time of the Crusades and in records from inquisitorial determinations of church orthodoxy. The only significant difference is that now Muslims are perpetrating violence, first against Muslims, and then against others who are religiously different.

Then, everything that has happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last twenty-five years seriously calls into question the thesis that BiH is a "post-conflict country" or, at the very least, requires its analysis and a certain redefinition. In fact, it is enough to broaden the context of the term "conflict" in the case of BiH, it could be taken out of its basic/reduced meaning and extended, because BiH populism is based on a continuous conflict of the most primitive imaginable populisms, personal interests, and sycophancy of the lowest imaginable category.

And finally, indeed, I always wonder: into which category of unnecessary, useless, and meaningless – harmful people do such people fall? To whose advantage is such a continuous trend of development of the situation and circumstances in the country? That is, how does such speech and behavior, which are obviously a reflection not only of personal lack of upbringing in the civilizational spirit, but of fanatical provincialism, personal frustration, and unjustified disappointment with one's own past, and the need for redemption by jumping from one worldly to another nationalistic and chauvinistic extreme, contribute to the building of Bosnia and Herzegovina?

Or, why are we so (mentally) limited, or uninterested, or convinced that we cannot influence anything?

In short, decadent and disgusting... but let these ideal instruments, this subservient, hierarchical structure – cheap to buy, faithfully serve – of a petty profiteer mentality, without spirit and soul, with an FB status as the maximum reach of what they can achieve, do and act whatever in the name of anyone's path, any policy, or any ideology, but not in my name.