It's not a phobia of Arabs, but it's not investments either: It's a PROJECT to be feared!

It was generally stated that in recent times Arabs in BiH are massively buying huge spaces, as their land, intending to build, or already building large residential complexes, etc. It is not uncommon for citizens to notice the invasion of these foreigners in BiH, especially in its most attractive parts.

This has also been written about recently, from various angles. There are increasingly more texts that affirm this phenomenon, which has truly become widespread, viewing it as a supposed economic interest, as tourism development, economic investments, and so on. I have also written about this on several occasions, but I feel the need to emphasize something that seems important to me and escapes the focus of many, or all, who view this phenomenon positively.

At the same time, I must emphasize, at the very beginning, that this is not about any phobia of mine, that I have nothing against Arabs as such – absolutely – but I view the whole case as a special strategy whose final effects are not visible now, but will be visible when it is too late. I even believe that this is some kind of project.

First, this is not about investments in the economy, nor is it about tourism, but rather our best resources are being sold off to foreigners: Bosnian land is being permanently sold to them.

Second, the short-term benefits from the visits of this type of foreigner (I am not aware of any official analyses on this) are precisely short-term, almost immediate: they can be deceptive regarding the ultimate goals because – I repeat – these are not tourists who come and go, but those who will permanently stay on THEIR LAND in BiH. This changes the situation.

Third, we often hear/read arguments from those who support this widespread phenomenon that Arabs are buying real estate in European countries, as well as in Serbia, etc., and that there is nothing wrong with that, that we are not the only ones where they are buying real estate... Such argumentation overlooks one thing that is of particular importance and that all patriotically oriented Bosnians, and especially Bosniaks, should be concerned about, given that their survival is exclusively tied to the survival of BiH.

THE ESSENCE IS IN DIFFERENT CONTEXTS!

Namely, a war was waged in BiH to politically thwart Bosniaks as Muslims, to marginalize them as a political entity. That inertia has not stopped. Even today, many in BiH think/propagate that it is impossible to live with Muslims, that Sarajevo is Tehran (for them, that is the worst descriptor), and some others think the same, but do not express it in such a way. Therefore, in BiH, we have a special context built, unfortunately, in which the mass settlement of Arabs in such a BiH is not the same as in London or Paris, for example.

We already have imported "Islamic missionaries" of various kinds here, who, through their actions, problematize traditional Bosniak cosmopolitanism and play right into the hands of those who are still driven by the inertia of aggression to achieve the goals they set.

I apologize to the Arabs, publicly, because I have nothing against them as such, but they should also have understanding FOR THE CONTEXT. In the final outcome, which is so realistic that it truly resembles a project, when many Arabs/Muslims settle – and in the most convincing way of settlement, through mass land purchases – it is realistic to expect that Dodik's policy will have an additional, "final" argument for secessionism (the extreme HDZ side will also have it) because – they will not want to live in "Muslimania", in a country whose one entity is overcrowded with Salafis, paradžemats, Ahmedis, Shiites, and in which – on top of all that – Arabs have bought entire regions.

We should think about that moment of the future, about the future of our children, not about how much money foreigners left in Baščaršija this summer and how much our peasants or municipal officials profited from land prices...

The author of the text, Esad Duraković, is a professor of Arabic literature and philology, a BiH academic, a member of the Royal Jordanian Academy, and a corresponding member of the Arab Academy of Sciences in Damascus and Cairo.

(Depo.ba)