The Cry of an Honorary Citizen of Bužim

(Patria) - We are publishing in full the column titled "The Cry of an Honorary Citizen of Bužim" by academician Enes Karić, which was published in the editorial of the new issue of IIN Preporod.

"For a long time now, thirty-eight years ago, I have had several folders in which I store my modest notes and essays. I wrote 'Cries 1', 'Cries 2', and so on, with ink on the folders. This modest essay will also go (and will be placed) into one of those folders. I am not happy that I have been recording 'cries' for almost four decades, but what can I do! The world exists and happens contrary to, beside, above, and against our will. Most often like that.

So, to be clear, as a Muslim, I am against the removal of billboards or the removal and taking down of public Christmas and New Year's greetings in the town of Bužim. That public Christmas and New Year's greeting is in no way directed against our religion of Islam, nor against our Bosniak nation, nor against the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

And that this public Christmas and New Year's greeting is not contrary to all of the above mentioned is enough for me with just one piece of evidence: the joy of Christians, Catholics or Orthodox, who will travel through Bužim and see that they are being wished a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2022. That traveler and citizen, that Catholic and Orthodox person, they are not HDZ, they are not SNSD, they are not destroyers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are simply travelers, they are people who will be happy about that greeting.

They will perceive the greeting as a welcome extended to them right there in Bužim. Although I am not seeking reciprocal love, nor reciprocal patriotism, I will mention this in passing: I too would be happy to read a billboard or a sign above the street in Široki Brijeg, or in Grude, or in Međugorje saying 'Happy Bayram to you and may you be healthy, Muslim traveler!'

For years now in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we have had, from our 'Muslim' or our 'Islamic side', here and there, 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 our stupidity. Here, they are reducing our country to zero, and we are using our reason, if we still have it, on matters that have never been a problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina. So, if you please, Baščija spoke long ago about joint Christian and Muslim celebrations in Sarajevo!

Furthermore, if you please, in the Quran, God states in several places that He did not want humanity to be of one religion! God calls this 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!

And is it not a good deed if we, if you, say to a Catholic or an Orthodox person: 'Merry Christmas!' 'Happy New Year!' You will not, my Muslim brother and Muslim sister, leave the faith if you bring a few seconds of joy to a Christian, an Orthodox, or a Catholic. And buy them a nice gift, a kilogram of rahat lokum, for example! That is one thing I wanted to say, with great sadness and pain.

And the second is: Many Muslims do not know that we Muslims also have the right to celebrate the birth of Isa el-Mesih, son of Maryam (Jesus Christ, son of the Virgin Mary). So, I kindly ask you all, I ask you from the heart, listen to the following: The birth of no prophet of God is described in the Quran, which we Muslims believe to be the literal Word of God, as detailed and as sublime as the birth of Isa el-Mesih (Jesus Christ)!

When I was specializing in Cairo, I was in the great Al-Azhar mosque and listened to those passages from the Quran in Surah Maryam, and I saw that around me, in the rows, hundreds of people, hundreds of Muslims, were weeping as the reciter (qari) with an angelic voice recited those verses from the Quran about Isa el-Mesih and the Blessed Virgin Mary. So, for God's sake, Isa el-Mesih is ours too, the Blessed Mary is ours too! And why should it bother us Muslims that Christians (Catholics, Orthodox, Copts...) honor them on their birthdays and have them in their dogmas - not always like us Muslims - but they have them and love and respect them. And we do not condemn them, as you all know. I repeat, God wanted a diverse humanity, religiously, linguistically, culturally, racially! Let us not be against God's will. Islam means submission to God's Will!

There are narrations in Islamic books, and they record this: When the Prophet Muhammad peacefully liberated Mecca, he removed statues, idols, and effigies from the Kaaba. There he found a small fresco, on it was a modestly painted sad Virgin Mary holding the young Isa el-Mesih in her arms. The Prophet Muhammad did not allow that fresco to be defiled. He covered that fresco with his blessed hands!

I do not think that the respected mayor, or whoever it is in beautiful Bužim, did a good deed for Bosnia and Herzegovina by ordering the removal of the billboard with the Christmas and New Year's greeting. Because the birth of the Prophet Isa el-Mesih, and the remembrance of him, is a joy for Christians, so, for God's sake, let us acknowledge their right to that joy! Moreover, we Muslims can also make the birth of Isa our holiday, our mevlud. Just as, after all, we Muslims should not celebrate New Year with alcohol, but we can with beautiful lectures about Isa el-Mesih. And even the famous Santa Claus can be interpreted as a nice, benevolent Sufi who went around the village, beating a drum to remind Muslim children to go to mekteb!

But we Muslims, yes, we ourselves, have long since begun to abolish the celebration of mevlud in honor of the Prophet Muhammad! So how can we then respect Christians who celebrate the birth of Isa el-Mesih?!

And in these terrible and difficult times, we need at least a little goodwill. I repeat, Christians are not HDZ, Christians are not SNSD. One should politically confront HDZ and SNSD. Let us have a sense of distinction. And let us be glad that Christians rejoice in their faith and their hopes in the mercy of the dear God who created us all.

POST SCRIPTUM:

I am proud to be an honorary citizen of Bužim. And I achieved that high status in the following way: In 1995, in the whirlwind of the aggressive war, I was the Minister of Science and Education in the government of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose prime minister was Prof. Dr. Haris Silajdžić. The then ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Professor Senahid Bristrić, informed our ministry that he urgently needed fifteen projects for the construction of fifteen school buildings in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We worked on those projects day and night (and under shelling!) in the ministry. The projects were sent to Ambassador Bristrić. Within two months, fifteen million dollars arrived at the Government of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (I believe my memory of the exact amount is not mistaken). Those dear money and dollars were donated by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. President Alija Izetbegović, may his soul rest in peace, called me and congratulated me on the successfully completed projects. He told me to propose a city or municipality where one million US dollars would go. So, I have the right to only one suggestion, nothing more!

I told him: 'Mr. President! Can that million go to Bužim, they don't have a good high school building?!' 'Yes!' - said the late President Izetbegović.

And indeed, that million (or a little more, or a little less, I don't remember anymore) went to Bužim. A magnificent building of a high school center was built in beautiful Bužim. And someone in Bužim, many years later, remembered that I had modestly helped to bring the aforementioned million to that wonderful place. After many years, they invited me and presented me with a plaque that reads that I am an 'honorary citizen of Bužim!' And now I am proud of that plaque.

And I take the liberty to give the good people of Bužim this very lecture, this advice!

(IIN Preporod)