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’Ten years is long enough’

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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: ’Ten years is long enough’
    Posted: 24-Nov-2005 at 11:41
While I'm still sceptical about how much progress
will actually be made, this is beyond any doubt one
of the most significant developments in the Balkans
in the past decade.

Bosnia to end 10-year divisions

With a prod from the United States, leaders of
Bosnia's three major ethnic factions agreed
yesterday to remake their divided government a
decade after the end of their civil war, Europe's
bloodiest fighting since World War II.


Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heralded the
Balkan accord struck in Washington but warned that
international patience has run out for war crime
suspects who walk free in Bosnia.

"There can be no more excuses and no more
delays," Rice said at a State Department luncheon
celebrating the 10th anniversary of a U.S.-brokered
peace settlement. "Ten years is long enough."

Rice spoke at a luncheon with Bosnian political
leaders and diplomats from the Clinton
administration.

The 1995 agreement signed in Dayton, Ohio, ended
a three-year civil war by allowing Serbs, Croats and
Muslims to preside over separate political spheres.
The result was an inefficient, three-headed
government that Rice said was appropriate for its
day but is now outmoded.

The nation of 4 million people - about the size of Los
Angeles - has 14 different education departments.

"Today, Bosnia-Herzegovina is joining the
international community," Rice said.

Yesterday's agreement commits Bosnian leaders to
revamp the national constitution by March, with an
eye toward joining NATO and the European Union.

European nations have told the Bosnians that they
have little hope of joining the EU, with its trade,
border, economic and political advantages, under
the country's current constitution.

Ivo Miro Jovic, chairman of Bosnia's three-president
arrangement, spoke after Rice at the luncheon.

"This key that opens this door of the future has been
given to us, but only if we know how to use it and
open the door," he said through a translator.

The accord marks the second time in a month that
Rice has applied U.S. pressure to secure
incremental agreements among former enemies.
Last week in Jerusalem, she put the finishing
touches to an Israeli-Palestinian pact that opens the
borders of the Gaza Strip.

The Bosnian war began out of the disintegration of
the former Yugoslavia. The conflict killed 260,000
people and drove 1.8 million from their homes.

The war stunned Europe and the United States,
which were slow to get involved and watched while
an educated, Western-looking nation was shredded
along centuries-old ethnic and religious lines.

"We will never forget the massacre at Srebrenica,"
Rice said yesterday, referring to the slaughter of
nearly 8,000 Muslims by Bosnian Serb forces in July
1995. The killings galvanized international will to end
the war.

"America's position is clear and uncompromising:
Every Balkan country must arrest its indicted war
criminals or it will have no future in NATO," Rice said.

In a separate statement, the Serb entity within
Bosnia said it will cooperate with an international
criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

And all the leaders said they were determined to
deliver all persons indicted for war crimes to the
tribunal in The Hague.

The most notorious of these are former Bosnian
Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko
Mladic, accused of masterminding brutal Bosnian
Serb offensives against Muslims.

Rice mentioned the two men by name yesterday.
Both are believed to be living under Serb protection,
moving about the region with relative ease. Karadzic
published a book of poetry last month.

Separately, Rice said the United States wants quick
resolution to the lingering ethnic standoff in
neighboring Kosovo. Legally part of
Serbia-Montenegro, Kosovo has been administered
by the United Nations after a 1999 Serb military
crackdown on the province's ethnic Albanian
separatists.

Although the Bosnian announcement was short on
details, U.S. diplomats said Serbs, Croats and
Muslims had all agreed to junk the three-president
system and make parliamentary and administrative
reforms.

Bosnia has already begun parallel reforms of its
military and police structure.

"These are only the first steps," said a statement by
the Serb, Croat and Muslim leaders. "We recognize
that further reforms of the constitution will be
necessary" to meet criteria for membership in the
EU.

"We are committed to working together to undertake
these reforms and to improve the quality of life for all
citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina."
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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-Nov-2005 at 21:30
Sabina Izetbegovic, daughter of Bosnia's war-time
Muslim President, Alija:

"It is with great honor and humility that I received
details of these recent developments. Constitutional
reform is, without question, the single most
important process on Bosnia and Herzegovina's
path to Europe. It is important for Bosniaks because
it demonstrates Europe will not allow a political entity
founded on the blood of others, founded on
genocide, to endure. The Serb Republic will be
abolished and Bosnia and Herzegovina will be
reunited. It is important for Bosnian Serbs because it
shows that Europe will not allow an entire people to
held hostage, to be held collectively guilty, for the
crimes of, and according the dreams held by, a
select few. With this decision, Bosnian Serb
politicians have said: No, it is not okay that the Serb
Republic is behind the rest of Bosnia and
Herzegovina in every sphere, especially quality of life
and economic development. It is important for
Bosnian Croats because it shows their Bosniak and
Bosnian Serb fellow citizens are committed to
moving forward and to establishing a new Bosnia
and Herzegovina that is functional and sustainable.
There was always a future for a united Bosnia and
Herzegovina, but now, for all our people, that future is
finally the brightest, most realistic option. For the first
time in my adult life, I am proud of our leadership
and I pray to God, the most merciful and
compassionate, that progress beings swiftly and
deeply, positively impacts every Bosnian citizen. <<I
pledge my love to you, my one-thousand year old
land. From the Sava to the Sea, from the Drina to the
Una. You are the one and only, my homeland. You
are the one and only, Bosnia and Herzegovina>>."
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  Quote Maju Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Nov-2005 at 06:58
Does this mean that federal/confederal organization of post-war BiH is going to be supressed? Do Serbobosnian and Bosniak leaders agree to it already? Sorry, you may have already said that but put in the lips of Condi it seems just wishful thinking of US Foreign Affairs Minister. 

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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Nov-2005 at 09:08
The Bosniak, Bosnian Serb, and Bosnian Croat
leaders have signed on to a watered-down version
of what the United States originally supported.

It's not a fully satisfactory document, a lot of
politicians are saying it's no good - but only the
nationalist politicians. The moderates on all sides
say its a good first step.

They've agreed to do away with the three-President
system. So that's a huge step, of course it's not as
though suddenly they can elect a Bosniak President
and a Bosnian Croat Prime Minister and all the
Bosnian Serbs will be fine with that. You couldn't
have a Bosnian Serb President and Bosniak Prime
Minister and expect the country to function normally
either. So they'll have to come up with some formula.

Instead of having all three groups represented in, in
reality, three different governments - one dominated
by Bosnian Serbs, the other by Bosniaks, and the
third by Bosnian Croats - they'll have all three
represented in one government.

In Brcko, for example, the city authorities keep a two
Bosniak-two Bosnian Serb - one Bosnian Croat ratio
for their positions. Doesn't matter who has what
positions so long as that ratio is reasonably
followed.

Any changes they make here should literally cut the
cost of government down to a third, which is very
important. Next to health care spending and
education (which are still free here, from the first day
of school to the graduation day of university),
government is what uses up most of Bosnia's GDP.

So we'll see how it goes.
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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Nov-2005 at 09:18
They've already started the offensive, Maju - hahaha:

TIHIC SUBMITS REQUEST TO BOSNIAN
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT CONCERNING THE
NAME OF THE SERB REPUBLIC

SARAJEVO, November 24 (FENA) President
Sulejman Tihic submitted a request to the Bosnian
Constitutional Court to start a procedure for
assessing whether the Bosnian Constitution
conflicts the European Convention on Human Rights
and Basic Liberties concerning the name of the Serb
Republic.

Naming the entity after only one people allows
positive discrimination for Serbs over Bosniaks,
Croats and other Bosnian citizens, Tihics Cabinet
stated.

Tihics Cabinet stressed that earlier decisions by the
Bosnian Constitutional Court have cancelled the
ethnic indication in the names of cities because they
conflict the European Convention on Human Rights
and Basic Liberties, which is an integral part of the
Bosnian Constitution and has top priority.

[All the cities with Bosnian or Bosniak names
conquered during the war were changed. Like
Bosanski Brod became Srpski Brod, Foca became
Srbinje, Lukavica became Srpsko Sarajevo, etc. The
court struck down these names]

Tihics request is in no way directed against the
Serb people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the
contrary, Serbs, together with Bosniaks, Croats and
other citizens of Bosnia have their equality and
should exercise it in the entire country, rather than in
only one part of it, his cabinet stated.
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  Quote Maju Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Nov-2005 at 11:18
Is this the current official division of BiH?



Yellow BiH Federation, Red Republika Srpska. White line, front at the end of the war.

Is this right?

Or is it this the correct one:



... following the frontline?


Edited by Maju

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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Nov-2005 at 17:28
They're both the same.

The first map shows the pre-war population of
Bosnian counties. Where the color is yellow, the
population was more than 50% Bosniak or Bosnian
Croat. Where it is red, the population was more than
50% Bosnian Serb.

Anything inside the white border is now close to
100% Bosnian Serb, they're just showing which
areas were ethnically cleansed.

The second map is just a basic map. If you look
along the northern border you see Bosanski Brod
and to the right two little bubbles joined by lines to
the rest of the Federation. These are Odzak and
Orasje municipalities, both overwhelmingly Bosnian
Croat.

There's a lot of Bosniaks there as well now, Orasje
even has its first mosque. But these are just
refugees from the surrounding areas.

If you look at the west border you'll see an area of
Bosnian Serb majority that is outside the created
Serb Republic. This area was connected with
Serbian-majority areas in Croatia and was intended
to be part of the Serb Republic of Croatia. But when
the Croatian army took back their country in 1995,
they also came into this region of Bosnia. Cities like
Bihac, you can see in the north, were all majority
Muslim but Croatians still liberated them from
Bosnian Serb sieges.

Here a majority of the Bosnian Serb population was
driven away. More than 200,000 Serbs from Croatia
and that piece of Bosnia were forced into what is
now the Serb Republic. Of course any Bosniak will
tell you: Well, at least the Croatians were nice
enough to leave them alive to go there, more than
they did for us. But it was still a bad thing.

They ended up going to areas like Prijedor, which
had no fewer than 23 detention, concentration, and
death camps during the war - including the most
famous like Omarska. So you have Croatian Serbs
who were truly victimized living in the most
contentious area with the most horrible memories
for Bosniaks, it makes a lot of tension.

They're not like Serbs from Sarajevo who know what
happened and no matter how hard they fight with you
will never cross certain lines, they really don't know,
or don't believe. They only came here in 1995, all
they know is what happened in Croatia.

So that northern chunk is going to be a big problem,
much bigger than the eastern border with Serbia,
where lots of survivors among the Bosniak and
Bosnian Croat people have returned. This area was
like our Kosovo, our heartland. All our oldest relics,
this sort of thing. And we were, I think, in majority of
90% of the population in some counties so they're
returning.
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  Quote Maju Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Nov-2005 at 18:41
I see, thanks. I've always wondered why the war stopped precisely when the Croatian army/militia was driving the Serbs back. Obviously an inverse genocide, like which happened in Krajina, was likely... but, from the Bosniak viewpoint, do you think that if the war would have continued for some months, the situation would be now diferent? I understand that it was the fear of Bosnian Serbs of losing Banja Luka, what made them sign peace.

I was in the ex-Yugoslavians countries, not in Bosnia though, during the war, gathering info and contacts for an antimilitarist organization. I slept in the home of Croat refugees from Krajina, I made good friends with antimilatrists of Belgrade, helped a Bosnian deserter (from the three armies!) to flee to Barcelona, etc. I even recall one guy that used to be in our group that went to Bosnia in some humanitarian initiative, felt in love, converted to Islam and married there. I've lost track of all that with the years but it is an issue that interests me strongly.

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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Nov-2005 at 00:50
I know a few girls who've married converts as well. I
think it's foolish to convert, I don't trust converts.

The war ended then because Croatia had the upper
hand. There was only one leader who wanted war,
and when it became clear he would lose, the war
stopped.

(Also cowardice. When you're not lining up men,
women, and children and shooting them in the back
with their elbows tied like dogs... when the peopel
you're fighting are able to defend themselves, the
fascist cowards gave up)

Originally the "Lightning Operation", which was the
term for the operation by the Croatian Army that
liberated the Krajina after 5 years of occupation, was
to include the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia would have had about as many Serbs as
Croatia does today.

It would have been nice to have the country reunited
and to not have to deal with their nationalists, but I'm
still glad it didn't happen. I have Serb friends, like
Ljdia and Mirjana, and I can't imagine not having
there, or knowing their families were driven away.

Edited by Mila
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  Quote Maju Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Nov-2005 at 05:09
Originally posted by Mila

I know a few girls who've married converts as well. I
think it's foolish to convert, I don't trust converts.


Well, considering that Islam forbids inter-religious marriages and also aposthasy (leaving Islam) there's no other practical way that any non-Muslim can marry a Muslim. I think love is more important than religion.



The war ended then because Croatia had the upper
hand. There was only one leader who wanted war,
and when it became clear he would lose, the war
stopped.

(Also cowardice. When you're not lining up men,
women, and children and shooting them in the back
with their elbows tied like dogs... when the peopel
you're fighting are able to defend themselves, the
fascist cowards gave up)

Originally the "Lightning Operation", which was the
term for the operation by the Croatian Army that
liberated the Krajina after 5 years of occupation, was
to include the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia would have had about as many Serbs as
Croatia does today.

It would have been nice to have the country reunited
and to not have to deal with their nationalists, but I'm
still glad it didn't happen. I have Serb friends, like
Ljdia and Mirjana, and I can't imagine not having
there, or knowing their families were driven away.


Well, there were Serbs also in the Bosnian side, weren't they? Maybe not many but they were. There was also so many people that had no ethnic adscription, many inter-ethnic families, etc. A counter-genocide clearly would have not been any good solution in my opinion. But getting the war criminals and getting the country reunited probably would have helped. Hope that you can do it now by more peaceful means.

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  Quote ill_teknique Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Nov-2005 at 11:13
Originally posted by Maju

Originally posted by Mila

I know a few girls who've married converts as well. I
think it's foolish to convert, I don't trust converts.


Well, considering that Islam forbids inter-religious marriages and also aposthasy (leaving Islam) there's no other practical way that any non-Muslim can marry a Muslim. I think love is more important than religion.



The war ended then because Croatia had the upper
hand. There was only one leader who wanted war,
and when it became clear he would lose, the war
stopped.

(Also cowardice. When you're not lining up men,
women, and children and shooting them in the back
with their elbows tied like dogs... when the peopel
you're fighting are able to defend themselves, the
fascist cowards gave up)

Originally the "Lightning Operation", which was the
term for the operation by the Croatian Army that
liberated the Krajina after 5 years of occupation, was
to include the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia would have had about as many Serbs as
Croatia does today.

It would have been nice to have the country reunited
and to not have to deal with their nationalists, but I'm
still glad it didn't happen. I have Serb friends, like
Ljdia and Mirjana, and I can't imagine not having
there, or knowing their families were driven away.


Well, there were Serbs also in the Bosnian side, weren't they? Maybe not many but they were. There was also so many people that had no ethnic adscription, many inter-ethnic families, etc. A counter-genocide clearly would have not been any good solution in my opinion. But getting the war criminals and getting the country reunited probably would have helped. Hope that you can do it now by more peaceful means.


Islam does not forbid inter-faith marriages.  Thats clearly stated in the qu'ran that it does allow it and emphasized in the charter to the monastery of sinai by the prophet.  Beside that there were catholics and orthodox in the army alongside muslims.  My friends father is from Doboj - Central Bosnia and he joined the army the first day the war started and is Catholic. 
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  Quote ill_teknique Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Nov-2005 at 11:14
Originally posted by ill_teknique

Originally posted by Maju

Originally posted by Mila

I know a few girls who've married converts as well. I
think it's foolish to convert, I don't trust converts.


Well, considering that Islam forbids inter-religious marriages and also aposthasy (leaving Islam) there's no other practical way that any non-Muslim can marry a Muslim. I think love is more important than religion.



The war ended then because Croatia had the upper
hand. There was only one leader who wanted war,
and when it became clear he would lose, the war
stopped.

(Also cowardice. When you're not lining up men,
women, and children and shooting them in the back
with their elbows tied like dogs... when the peopel
you're fighting are able to defend themselves, the
fascist cowards gave up)

Originally the "Lightning Operation", which was the
term for the operation by the Croatian Army that
liberated the Krajina after 5 years of occupation, was
to include the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia would have had about as many Serbs as
Croatia does today.

It would have been nice to have the country reunited
and to not have to deal with their nationalists, but I'm
still glad it didn't happen. I have Serb friends, like
Ljdia and Mirjana, and I can't imagine not having
there, or knowing their families were driven away.


Well, there were Serbs also in the Bosnian side, weren't they? Maybe not many but they were. There was also so many people that had no ethnic adscription, many inter-ethnic families, etc. A counter-genocide clearly would have not been any good solution in my opinion. But getting the war criminals and getting the country reunited probably would have helped. Hope that you can do it now by more peaceful means.


Islam does not forbid inter-faith marriages.  Thats clearly stated in the qu'ran that it does allow it and emphasized in the charter to the monastery of sinai by the prophet.  Beside that there were catholics and orthodox in the army alongside muslims.  My friends father is from Doboj - Central Bosnia and he joined the army the first day the war started and is Catholic. 


also the head of the bosnian army was a bosnian serb
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  Quote Maju Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Nov-2005 at 12:07
Originally posted by ill_teknique


Islam does not forbid inter-faith marriages.  


Well, I can't question that, but it does seem to me that many Muslims only accept marriages between Muslims, specially if the bride is the Muslim one. It's not the first case I know first hand of people converting to Islam for marriage reasons. This case, I knew the husband (he was originally Christian) and in another case I knew the family of the wife: a Moroccan woman that amrried a German (he converted to Islam for the occasion). Instead I have never known any case of inter-faith marriage involving Muslims, much less a Muslim bride and a non-Muslim groom.

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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Nov-2005 at 12:55
Yes, there were many, many, many Bosnian Serbs
who fought alongside those among the Bosniaks
and Bosnian Croats who were fighting for a united
Bosnia.

And it wasn't all through joining the army, though
many hundreds did. We even had some Serbs from
Serbia who came to Bosnia to join us.

But it was also just through remaining in their
communities, working with charities, opening up
their homes for refugees, giving their family cars to
Bosniak or Bosnian Croat neighbors so they could
take more of their belongings when fleeing ahead of
those forces.

Hiding people. I remember one story on the news
where one Bosnian Serb woman whose daughter
was killed in a shelling attack on Bihac took in the
same-aged daughter of her Muslim neighbors and
fled with her, giving that girl her daughter's Serb
identity, to Banja Luka (Bosnian Serb war-time
capital), where there was no fighting, so she could
survive the war.

You could go on for the rest of your life about people
like this and never tell all their stories.

There was even one teacher, once it was clear that
the village (I think it was Zepa?) was going to fall to
the Serb forces, who poisoned her three Muslim
students in one village and then hung herself, just to
make sure it was painless for them.

I mean, that's not something you can really celebrate
but really... whatever it says about it mind, it says only
the greatest things about her heart.
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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Nov-2005 at 12:57
As for the whole issue of whether or not a Muslim
can marry a non-Muslim...

My husband is Catholic. - And very devout, actually.
I'm much more religious than I seem and I couldn't
be with someone who wasn't - as my sister says - a
fundamentalist, whatever the faith - hahaha.

But she also tells people I vote for Hamas - hahaha.
Anyone who knows the SDA will laugh.

Edited by Mila
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  Quote Beylerbeyi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Nov-2005 at 16:44

I think it's foolish to convert, I don't trust converts.

I agree. That's why I trust the Bosnians, they never converted in their history.   

My husband is Catholic. - And very devout, actually.
I'm much more religious than I seem and I couldn't
be with someone who wasn't - as my sister says - a
fundamentalist, whatever the faith - hahaha.

What about the children? Friday to the mosque, sunday to the church?

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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Nov-2005 at 16:55
Beylerbeyi

Of course Bosnians didn't convert. We evolved
Muslim - first Muslim people there were. Mecca is
just Arabic for Mostar, that's where it all happened.
The prophet's last name was Bosnjakovic.

Well it's not as complicated here as you'd think,
Beylerbeyi. The number of people in Sarajevo who
are firmly rooted in any single religion is very low. It
can be as simple as sharing Christian and Jewish
holidays with your friends and neighbors, or as
abstract as being - like a full 20% of Sarajevo's
population - the child of a mixed marriage.

"In this valley, an amazing alchemy of faiths merges
into a single one - yet each keeping something of its
character, and being recognizable for what it is."

If we have children, we'll raise them simply as
Bosnian. They'll know I'm Muslim, and Bojan is
Catholic, and they'll be experienced with the
practices at mosque, and at church. And when
they're older, if they want to choose a single belief
system and commit themselves to that, then thats
fine. Tens of thousands of families have done it.

Usually the children end up being classified by their
father's religion, whether they are religious or not.
Most Bosnians would call any child resulting from
my marriage a "Catholic Yugoslav", or a "Mixed
Catholic". If this doesn't happen, its usually because
the father is a communist and the mother is devoutly
religious. Then the children generally have the
mothers faith and, if they're practicing, its obvious
what they are. A mixed child who goes to mosque
will be called a Bosniak, a mixed child who goes to
Catholic church will be a Croat.

There's a movement now to label these people
simply as "Bosnian", but old traditions die hard.

Bojan always jokes, "As long as they don't sing Boze
Pravde [God of Truth, Serbian national anthem], it's
fine with me."
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  Quote Mortaza Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Nov-2005 at 17:14

I agree. That's why I trust the Bosnians, they never converted in their history.   

 

Absolutely unnecessary agresiveness. Because you dont like her words, you dont have rigth to attack her nation. You should control yourself more.

I think it's foolish to convert, I don't trust converts.

Mila Your religion was choosen by your parents, but converts choose their religion. So who do you think more trustable?

 

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  Quote Beylerbeyi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Nov-2005 at 18:01

Bojan always jokes, "As long as they don't sing Boze Pravde [God of Truth, Serbian national anthem], it's fine with me."

 I love Yugo humour. Was Tito the only sane Yugoslav?

What do you think about Emir Kusturica, btw? He says the Bosniaks had to convert 'to survive the Ottomans', and he's back to his people's true beliefs, i.e. Orthodox Christianity, besides his dad was an atheist anyway. That's like singing the Boze Pravde, isn't it?

Murtaza,

Absolutely unnecessary agresiveness. Because you dont like her words, you dont have rigth to attack her nation. You should control yourself more.

Easy, man. I was joking (noticed the yellow faces?), and Mila got the joke. Besides my great-grandad was a Muslim from Sarajevo, and even today I have relatives over there somewhere (Mila already knows this). I sure as hell won't go bashing Bosniaks that easy.

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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Nov-2005 at 18:52
Yes, Mortaza, Beylerbeyi was joking. Sorry if it wasn't
obvious, but I promise - it wasn't offensive, what he
said.

What I said about converts, I was also mostly joking,
Mortaza. It was fully a joke, actually, but truthfully I do
believe some strain of this. I'm wary of people who
convert now, when Islam has such a negative
stigma in the nations these people are coming from.
I question their motives much more than I would if
they converted to, say, Buddhism, which has little or
no negative connotation.

Beylerbeyi...Tito wasn't the only sane Yugoslav.
There was also Esma Redzepova and Schroeder.

Personally, I think Emir Kusturica is a traitor and an
idiot. But the media here went through his family
history with a magnifying glass and he actually is of
Serbian descent. His family arrived in Bosnia in the
late 1700s and only converted to Islam at that point,
though none of his family members have even been
shown to be devout Muslims. The closest was his
Grandfather, who himself always referred to his
ethnicity as Serbian.

More annoying for Bosniaks is Lepa Brena, a
popular folk singer. Her real name is Fahreta Jahic,
and she her ancestors were Bosniak. There is even
evidence that suggests one of her ancestors was a
Bogumil Priest prior to the Ottoman invasion. Her
conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy, as well as the
highly publicized process she went through to learn
all the little differences of the Serbian language,
giving her children Serbian names, etc...annoyed a
lot of people.

But for every Bosniak who decides to be Serb, there
are Bosniaks who decide to be Croat and Croats
and Serbs who decide to be Bosniak. Take, for
example, the entire population of southwest Serbia
and northern Montenegro. They have not considered
themselves Bosniaks since the middle years of the
Ottoman Empire in this region and, truthfully, they're
not. They have no connection to the historic, Bogumil
Bosniak nation. They are Muslim Montenegrins, and
Muslim Serbs. But today, by the hundreds of
thousands, they call themselves Bosniaks.

This is the second time in our history that a series of
high-profile "No, I think I'm X" have taken place. The
previous time was in 1918, when Bosnia was
incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and
Slovenes and Bosniaks were not nationally
recognized. Most Bosniaks declared their ethnicity
as "nationality undeclared" in the censuses taken in
those years but many opted for Croatian or Serbian
identity. Most chose Croatian, and most changed
back once Bosniaks began fighting for Tito to
recognize us as a distinct nation in the 1960s.
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