I am a Bosnian, that is not your problem!

Written by: Rasim Belko (apostle of Bosnianhood)

I am a Bosnian.

Whenever I utter this sentence in a discussion with someone who identifies as a Bosniak, a barrage of questions and follow-up questions follows, with the obligatory intention of concluding that those of us who identify and feel as Bosnians are dividing the Bosniak people and its unity.

In essence, that is not the case, but there are few Bosniaks who manage to discuss this topic reasonably without being burdened by emotional pressure and some insecurity in their own choice. Even within academic discussions in the media space, anyone who dares to publicly state that they are a Bosnian is too often insulted. Why this is so will have to be investigated by someone closer to it than the author of these lines.

Bosnianhood does not exclude Bosniakhood and vice versa, this is the truth uttered last night in a debate on Face Television by legal expert Enver Išerić. I truly do not feel like a Bosniak, and there is no media pressure, story, or argument that will impose that on me. But, likewise, I do not dispute anyone who is ethnically a Bosniak, Serb, or Croat from feeling or not feeling like a Bosnian.

The individual right to any form of affiliation cannot and must not be under pressure from some collective interest and belief. Bosnianhood is a nationality, Bosniakhood an ethnic affiliation. Just as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the ethnic groups are also Bosnian Serbs and Croats.

Therefore, any attempt to impose someone's affiliation as a collective sanctity is unnecessary, whether the reason is a advocated interest or something else. And so, no matter how much I feel like a Bosnian, I am even more certain that I cannot in any form be represented by a self-proclaimed expert on everything and anything, a false propagandist of Bosnianhood, Suad Kurtćehajić.

And Kurtćehajić was the second participant in last night's debate, trying to convince the entire populace that dividing the Bosniak people into Bosnians and Bosniaks in the census sense would be a supposed salvation card for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Before I explain why I think this is unnecessary, I must emphasize that Kurtćehajić is one of those specimens on whom Milorad Dodik bases his story about “Bosniaks as converts.” Because, today this loudest advocate of Bosnianhood was yesterday the loudest advocate of Bosniakhood.

He wrote papers, convinced everyone in turn of the need to be Bosniaks, offered arguments that he today calls lies. If he was lying then, how can Kurtćehajić prove that he is not lying today? In essence, he lies and sows confusion continuously, and that is why the number of people who follow his story is minor, and his projects are doomed to failure. His only success is in occupying public space with propaganda, so the question arises in whose interest he is doing this?

Why is it foolish to claim that in the census, Bosniaks should divide (roughly 30 percent Bosniaks and 20 percent Bosnians), so that Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state would be better, stronger…?

Firstly, Bosnianhood is not registered in the census, because every person with an ID card of this country is a Bosnian, whether they feel it or not. Actually, when it comes to belonging to Bosnianhood, there are only two groups: those who feel that way and those who deny it, but are essentially Bosnians.

Ethnic affiliation is a completely different category and there is absolute freedom for every person to write in the census which ethnic group they belong to. Dividing one ethnic group to supposedly satisfy Europe, as Kurtćehajić advocates, is meaningless.

The first reason is that Bosniaks would not be a problem if they were some agnostics; they essentially bother parts of the West primarily because they are Muslims. Just as, by the same matrix, Bosnian Muslims bother them. The second reason against that story is reflected in the fact that by implementing Kurtćehajić's foolishness, we would get from the Bosnian nation an ethnic group of Bosnians, as a fourth one, which is nonsense. Turning a nation into an ethnic group is in itself a counterargument to Kurtćehajić's story.

Kurtćehajić should be ignored, because everything he has done so far has been unsuccessful, so any media attention to his activities has no serious effect except confusion and unnecessary debates.

However, there are also Kurtćehajićs in that part that, through aggressive campaigns and offensive texts, would elevate Bosniakhood as some sanctity, turning everyone who does not identify with Bosniakhood into a heretic who should preferably be expelled.

These are de facto fanatics who act on the same shady motives as Kurtćehajić, and the decibels of their rampage in public space depend on the amount of shady paper. And they are actually more dangerous to Bosniakhood than any similar Kurtćehajić.

Because even the best ideas become repulsive when spread and imposed through fanaticism, persecution of dissenters, and ultimately drawing targets on foreheads. And there is no small number of those who swear by Bosniakhood and frenetically attack anyone who does not feel that way, yet lives, say, in their area and happens to be a Muslim.

There are too many such people in the media space, and recently, missionaries on shady fuel have become increasingly active, visiting the confused diaspora, enriching themselves on the “self-sacrificing defense of Bosniaks.”

Neither they nor Kurtćehajić bring any benefit to those they supposedly represent!

That is why both groups should have the door closed in public space, because there are many more topics important for Bosnia and Herzegovina than these debates!