Puhovski in the Mantle of Islamophobia: Thanks Neighbor, But No Advice Needed!

"In BiH, we have five "fifth columns" that have at least supporters, if not masterminds from abroad. Nobody is clean there. On one hand, you have the idea of a civic BiH advocated by those who at the same time demand that women must wear headscarves. That is a strange concept of citizenship." (Žarko Puhovski, N1 HR, April 28, 2026)

With this statement, Žarko Puhovski is not offering a serious analysis of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but rather recycling dangerous stereotypes, false equivalences, and political narratives that have served for decades to challenge the very idea of a sovereign, integral, and civic BiH.

The claim that proponents of a civic state in BiH simultaneously want to impose religious norms like mandatory headscarves is not only untrue, it is shockingly manipulative. Civic Bosnia and Herzegovina is not advocated by any religious groups, but by political individuals and organizations. This idea is primarily championed by citizens who want a state of equal rights, where a person is not politically valuable only if they belong to the "right" ethnic group.

Civic state is supported by Bosnians and Herzegovinians, because in the current system, they are an unknown category without a significant portion of political and other rights. At the same time, civic state is supported and demanded by ethnic Serbs and Croats, who refuse to be instruments of the hegemonic projects of Belgrade and Zagreb. Precisely because of this, they are often derogatorily called "halal Serbs" or "halal Croats," because they oppose divisions, separatism, and policies that see BiH as spoils, not as a state.

Civic state is, perhaps to the greatest extent, advocated by Bosniaks. In this spirit, Bosniaks have raised post-war generations of young people, now adults, without a desire for revenge for the crimes committed against their ancestors precisely because of the hegemonic projects of Belgrade and Zagreb.

However, all of this is irrelevant to Puhovski, so he has decided to hypocritically ignore the real forms of discrimination and apartheid that exist today, such as the HDZ's ethnopolitical mechanisms in Herzegovina, Dodik's systemic discrimination against Bosniaks in the entity of RS, as well as the continuous continuation of war aims through political and institutional methods orchestrated by neighboring Serbia and Croatia.

This is what Puhovski remains silent about.

Instead, he resorts to Islamophobic patterns by linking the headscarf to the alleged issue of a civic state model. In doing so, he directly enters the same propaganda framework used by Dodik and Čović's megaphones when they try to present Bosnian Muslims as a civilizational threat to Europe.

Wearing a headscarf is a matter of individual religious freedom and basic human rights, not proof against a civic society. A civic state precisely implies the freedom of every individual to live their identity without discrimination, whether religious, national, or political.

The essence is clear: a civic Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a threat to anyone except those who politically survive on divisions, fear, and ethnic dominance. That is, to those who have never abandoned their intentions to dismember Bosnia and Herzegovina according to the patterns, or rather, the napkins of Slobodan Milošević.

Therefore, such statements are not "analysis," but manipulation of European fear of Bosnian Muslims, because that is precisely the image that Dodik and Čović are unsuccessfully trying to spread. One of the insurmountable obstacles in this direction for them is the number of tourists visiting Sarajevo, a city inhabited by European Muslims with Bosnian citizenship. And no one has complained yet.

That is why analysts like Puhovski and politicians like Željana Zovko must invent things in an attempt to create Islamophobia towards Bosnian Muslims, i.e., Bosniaks, a people who were killed but did not seek revenge, but were the first to extend a hand. And that is gentlemanly and European, unfortunately for them, no one in Zagreb or Belgrade can boast of that.

Because of all this, they must understand that all attempts, whether it is drawing some maps, the foolishness of analysts on TV screens, Zovko's spin idiocy, or who knows what other foolishness, Bosnia and Herzegovina will survive as an independent, sovereign, and integral state. Because criminal policies created in hegemonic aspirations, illogical at first glance, have made concessions to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As weak as it may be internally, it is dangerously strong externally. So strong that from Australia to Canada, there are thousands of patriots, Bosnians and Herzegovinians, who will travel miles and fly oceans for the flag of their country and its interests.

Therefore, map creators should know that for every one person in the country, there are two ready in the diaspora if needed. So let them think if there is a need to draw maps!

On the other hand, let Puhovski and others like him be clear that Bosnia and Herzegovina does not need analysts or interpreters from Zagreb or Belgrade; our arrangement is a matter for us in this country, not for messengers of hegemonism, no matter where they come from.

As Frenkie would say: "Thanks neighbor, but no advice needed"!