Kavazović: The strength of our people lies in unity; after genocide, we should not allow others to decide on our security!

(Patria) - The Grand Mufti of the Islamic Community (IC) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Husein-ef. Kavazović, stated today in his address to the assembly members in Sarajevo that the strength of our people lies in unity, work, faith and patience.

He said he wants to believe that young people will emerge, sons and daughters of this country, from all its peoples and social groups, who will understand the times and challenges this country faces, and find a political formula for all of us to build a state that all its citizens will love.

„I would like, if I could, to speak about the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina with more optimism. Unfortunately, we are all aware that there is no room for overly high expectations. Political, as well as other social crises, which are a consequence of the former, are only deepening. The political elites of our country, as well as representatives of the international community, cannot find a way out of this deep crisis. The great-state ideas of our neighbours from the 1990s are still alive and dominate the political scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These ideas are equally supported by the political, academic, cultural and religious elites of our neighbours, together with part of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina“, said the Grand Mufti at the session of the Assembly of the Islamic Community.

As he assessed, Bosnian forces are completely disoriented and cannot create a stable and clear platform from which our country and society as a whole could successfully emerge from this depressing state.

„The unspeakable political creed of almost all domestic policies, that the crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be resolved by the international community, and that this is not the focus of their interest, results in an insatiable greed to seize power, public funds, privileges and everything else that entails power without responsibility.

At the same time, the constant repetition of the international community's stance that politicians in
Bosnia and Herzegovina must reach an agreement has turned into an empty slogan that serves some of its representatives to shed responsibility and avoid using all those powers they have to sanction individuals and policies in this country that act contrary to the elementary political and social values of the modern world“, said the Grand Mufti.

„In the ruthless struggle for power among our politicians, which is unfolding before our eyes, and which is staged by the enemies of this country, processes detrimental to our survival, both as a people and as a state, are taking place behind the curtain“, warned Grand Mufti Kavazović.

„The most visible example of this is the issue of the property of the former Lakišića harem cemetery in Mostar. Whoever does not understand the real and symbolic value of this issue for our people, does not understand the consequences of policies that have been unfolding here for more than a century through the seizure of our land, from Austria-Hungary to the present day. I warn our politicians that Muslims were the owners of land in Bosnia and Herzegovina in a huge, dominant percentage, until the Annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, when the German, by a decision written on paper, turned us into paupers.

We fared even worse in the first Yugoslavia. Like a reed, I tremble at what will happen with the law on state property and what is being prepared for us again. The situation of our people in the RS is no longer even spoken about. Their fate will be like the fate of the Croatian people in that area: miserable and sorrowful“, he emphasised.

As the Grand Mufti said, „the minimum of what we are entitled to as an internationally recognised country, a UN member, especially as a people that survived genocide, is to build all the prerequisites so that we can take care of our own security, and not fear whether some warmongering policy from Bosnia and Herzegovina, neighbouring countries, or, indeed, from some world power centre, will again threaten our security, and we will not be able to protect ourselves“.

„A people that has survived genocide should not allow others to decide on its security“, the Grand Mufti emphasised in his address.

The trend of thawing global conflicts, which we are witnessing, and constant security provocations along entity administrative lines and in our surroundings give us additional reason for concern and vigilance, he believes.

„The global realignment of power positions, the strengthening of radical and exclusive ideologies and their coming to power, and the intricate network of alliances and enmities require vigilance from all of us who care about the future of our people and homeland. We must return to true faith in God and the awareness of accountability in the afterlife. We must teach our people how to recognise political hedonists and populists and remove them from political life. Without a political elite whose political philosophy will be based on ascetic political activism, and not on hedonistic populism, we will not succeed in preserving the country and the people. This should be the task of our fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, teachers and instructors in schools and mualims in mektebs“, emphasised the Grand Mufti.

He added that events in the world and the time we live in require us to assess our position and circumstances in our congregations and in society.

„There is no problem affecting the human community that does not touch us, as small members of that large community. The war in Ukraine, the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, Israel's aggression against Palestine... are major events in which our recent pain, unhealed wounds and unprecedented suffering from the end of the 20th century have determined us as those who sympathise in suffering and affliction. Only two or three decades ago, we were ready to believe that humanity was maturing and that the world was becoming better and fairer.

We thought that the hard lessons of the Holocaust and genocide had been learned“, he stated.

As he pointed out, we could not even suspect that we would witness such scales of evil and human suffering as we see today.

„What has been unfolding in recent weeks, before the eyes of humankind, in Gaza and around it, leaves us speechless and petrified. We ask ourselves where such a passion for killing innocent people was stored! How great must that evil be to completely lose empathy for children and their parents! In addition, politics and the media are trying to accustom us to a post-human way of life, to the relativisation of all values, to a society without ethics, to a debate about who started first“, said the Grand Mufti.

The right to self-defence, which is a universal human right, has its own ethics, emphasised the Grand Mufti,

„We, as a human community, until yesterday believed that people were ready to defend the general principles of justice and fairness and sacrifice themselves for them. However, when unprotected children, women and the elderly are killed in front of the cameras of world media; when humanity is not ready to stop this, but, deaf as it is, tries to forbid talking about it and calling it by its real name, then we lose that faith. Until yesterday, we did not believe that such a world was possible. On one occasion, the late Alija Izetbegović said that after the genocide in Srebrenica, there are no innocents in the world. After Gaza, to our collective shame, except for children, no one is innocent. Centuries of oppression of the Jewish people and their struggle to achieve their own state were realised through persecution, seizure and destruction of other people's lives and property“, underscored the Grand Mufti.

He added that „the decades-long struggle of the Palestinian people to preserve the right to their existence, their land, their freedom and their holy places has brought only suffering, pain and disappointment“.

„These two peoples, who lived in peace for centuries, have been led into the slaughterhouse. If Muslims and Jews do not sit down and return to the values of living together, without Zionist interference from the outside, they are not in for a good fate. What we now see in action is a clash of two ideologies that believe in the end of the world, the coming of Jesus and the Mahdi to Earth. I hope that among Jews and Muslims there will be minds like Ibn Rushd and Maimonides, who will return us to the right side of history and life on this earth. What is now being offered to us is Armageddon, the end of the world“, stated the Grand Mufti.

He emphasised that as a Community, we have done what we were able to do in the circumstances we are in.

„We are in constant contact with our Jewish community in Sarajevo. They are our neighbours, and by the right of neighbourhood, which is sacred to us Bosnian Muslims, we are obliged to take care of our neighbours first. Also, together with the Ambassador of Palestine to Bosnia and Herzegovina, we are doing everything we can to alleviate the suffering of the innocent in this bloody tragedy. In the first days of the escalation of violence, we condemned the crimes, attacks on civilians, hostage-taking and capture of civilians. Carefully, precisely and clearly, we made a distinction between the policy carried out by the current government in Israel, which we condemn for the most terrible crimes against Palestinian children, and Jews as adherents of Judaism, with whom we have correct and friendly relations“, said the Grand Mufti.