THE SECULAR STATE AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY
As discussed, Bosniaks have existed in a secular state for over a century. Yet the independence following the wars of succession did not lead to loud calls for an Islamic Republic.
Rather, it was perceived that the only way for the Muslim leadership to integrate non-Muslim Bosnians was to maintain the secular state principle. While this has encountered problems of its own, the further devolution of states within the former Yugoslavia was the most probable alternative outcome. Today, the state of Bosnia and Hercegovina is made up of three regions: Bosnia, Hercegovina and the Republika Srpska. Since the ethnic cleansings of the 1990s, the population has become largely segregated into separate ethnoreligious areas based on these three regions: the majority of Bosniaks live in Bosnia, the majority of Catholics in Hercegovina and the majority of Orthodox in the Republika Srpska.[1475] The Bosnian Constitution reflects and protects this division; Articles IV and VI ensure equal representation for each region and ethnicity in the Parliamentary Assembly and Constitutional Court.[1476]Most Bosniaks are not troubled by the secular status of their nation. The Islamic Community itself has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to the separation of religion and state[1477] and there remains no reason why Islam cannot continue to flourish in this environment. Fikret Karcic is a scholar and professor of law and Shari’ah in Sarajevo. One of his main focuses has been on ways to adapt Shari’ah to the secular state; he believes this can have a number of positive influences on an Islamic community. Admittedly, this secularisation has meant that some traditional religious privileges have been lost; yet, as a result, communities have become free to manage their own affairs and apply their resources to the needs of their members.[1478] Ahmed Alibasic adopts a similar view to Karcic.
He considers that the neutrality provided by a secular state is required to deliver a free and open space for debate without marginalising the meaning of religion for individuals or communities.[1479] It stands to reason that laicity establishes a forum for the continual development of religion.In considering Islam’s place in a secular society, Karcic conceives that there are two domains of human life in which Shari’ah should always remain significant: the relationship between an individual and God, and the relationships between other individuals and communities. Karcic assures his reader that, in regards to the application of Shari’ah, there is no conflict between the relationship with God and the present separation of church and state. This relationship is a private affair outside the realms of appropriate political control. However, he recognises that secularism may inhibit the ability of Shari’ah to actively govern interpersonal relations. In order to preserve these laws, Karcic insists that they be assigned the status of ‘ethical laws’ which ‘need no enforcement by the state, but would influence people’s actions and decision through appealing to their conscious’.[1480] It is to this conclusion that Bosniaks naturally gravitated during the twentieth century.
As the ethnicities of Bosnia and Hercegovina’s population are principally founded on religion, it is hardly surprising that the state law on religious freedom reaffirms the right of every citizen to religious education. The law calls for an official representative of the various religious communities to be responsible for teaching religious studies in all public and private schools, usually twice a week.[1481] These teachers are accredited by the governing religious denomination but perform as employees of the schools in which they teach. Interestingly, religious instruction is not bound by the ethnic borders within Bosnia and Hercegovina. When a sufficient number of students (between 15 and 20) of a minority religious group attend a school, it is a requirement that the school organise religion classes on these students’ behalf.
The ability of the Bosnian education system to accommodate all religious faiths demonstrates that, unlike in some other European countries, a secular state does not come at the cost of state sponsored theological education.There are many other examples within Bosnia and Hercegovina of compromise for the sake of religious harmony. For example, agreements between Bosnia, the Holy See and the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2007 and 2008 recognised the legal personality of Bosnian churches and granted a number of rights, including official recognition of Catholic and Orthodox holidays. Both of these agreements notably advanced the basic human right of freedom of religion.[1482] The status of public holidays is particularly telling as these are often founded on deeply significant religious and cultural events. Currently, different counties, municipalities and regions celebrate religious public holidays as they apply; only a small number apply universally across the country. This is not simply a token recognition. The labour laws of the Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina (the area made up of the regions of Bosnia and Hercegovina) obligate all employers within the Federation to permit an employee four days off in a calendar year for the purpose of religious or traditional needs, two of which must be paid.[1483]
The environment created by this inclusive compromise is an accurate microcosm of Bosnian society. While plurality and cooperation exist at heart, the actions of some can be antagonistic, based on ulterior motives. For example, Republic Day is celebrated in the Republika Srpska to commemorate its declared ‘independence’ from Bosnia and Hercegovina in 1992. Understandably, many ethnic groups within the Federation view this as a direct provocation.[1484] Governments at the local level have also been known to restrict minority religious services and ceremonies. In 2007, the eastern Republika Srpska municipality of Bratunac repeatedly denied a permit for Muslims to build a cemetery and memorial on the property of a downtown mosque.
Bosniaks had intended to bury 98 identified victims of a 1992 massacre in Bratunac in which more than 600 persons were killed.[1485] Evidently, the wounds from the 1990s civil war have not closed. Similarly, Bosniaks have impeded the building of Catholic Churches, while the vandalising of religious sites for all faiths has been common. The fact that this increased in 2014 when the country’s national football team competed for the first time at the FIFA World Cup highlights an ingrained mindset of ethnic superiority within a number of Bosnian subgroups.[1486]Due to the fact that religion and ethnicity are often closely linked in the Balkans, it is often near impossible to differentiate to which category each inflammatory act belongs.[1487] Unfortunately, too often spiritual symbols are used in Balkan politics to achieve national objectives rather than religious ones.[1488] While Bosniaks compose a majority of the populations (around 45 per cent, with the remaining 55 per cent split between Serbs and Croats), very few countries in the world exist in such a fine ethnic equilibrium. The guns may have stopped, but the struggle for supremacy and security remains. Bosnia’s leaders have often spoken out against this perceived siege mentality. They preach of a Harmonica Abrahamica, based on the Qur’anic verse ‘[t]o each of you We prescribed a law and a method. Had Allah willed, He would have made you one nation.’[1489] The former Bosnian vice-President, Rusmir Mahmutechajic, spoke on this ‘Harmonica Abrahamica’:
the three religions of Bosnia - Christianity, Judaism and Islam - can be seen as different but doctrinally complete exoteric expressions of one and the same Reality. Their single forefather, Abraham, the prophet, has an endless diversity of offspring.[1490]
It follows that an idea of superiority has no place within Bosnian Islam. Amongst the historic friction exist a people who share similar cultural evolutions. Should this seemingly historic and cultural antagonism be extinguished, there is no rational reason on the facts that religious harmony cannot be sustained.
VII.