Djamila
Bosnjakinja
Orthodox Christmas, Sarajevo
Orthodox Christian Serbs light candles in Sarajevo.
Orthodox Christmas, Tuzla
Orthodox Christian youth participate in Christmas ceremonies in Tuzla.
Orthodox Christmas, Banja Luka
8,000 Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas
with protests supported indicted war criminals in Banja Luka.
The divide between Bosnia and Herzegovina's Orthodox Christians is growing wider as Serbs living in areas dominated by Muslims and Roman Catholics drift away from the nationalism among Serbs in areas they conquered and ethnically cleansed during the war.
I've noticed this for a long time, among my friends - their complaints about sermons being too political in many churches, and openly calling for a continuation of the genocide in others. Now it's reaching a more national scale.
Prosvjeta, the organization that represents Serbs in Sarajevo, issued an official condemnation of Orthodox Church services in Banja Luka this Christmas calling on the Serbian Orthodox Church to put an end to sermons that "praise Slobodan Milosevic more than Christ Jesus".
In Tuzla, a famously tolerant and united city, Serbs were even more infuriated and banned a Banja Luka girls' folk dance troupe from performing at their Christmas celebrations.
All of this is music to the ears of most Muslims and Roman Catholics in Bosnia, especially in Sarajevo and Tuzla where the local Serb population suffered considerably, at the hands of all sides, just to remain the "local Serb population". People in these two cities are very protective over "our Serbs", as compared to "those Serbs" in Banja Luka and Serbian-dominated areas.
Property registrations have demonstrated a slight increase in the number of Serbs who are leaving Serb-dominated communities and moving to areas where they are a minority. Most notably in this regard is Tuzla.
BUT you have to qualify that by saying most of this increase can be accounted for by Mostar, where the Orthodox Church is being rebuilt and some families originally from the city are returning. So most of these movements aren't movements, but returns.
Still, though, there is some new movement - people who've lived in northeast Bosnia for generations, and are moving instead to Tuzla.
Now I put this thread in Christianity because I'd like to hear what Christians have to say about it, but, I still have to give other information:
The same thing is happening among Bosnian Muslims - but in reverse. Muslims who have returned to their homes in areas now dominated by Serbs are drifting away from the main Bosnian Muslim community. They are becoming more political in their beliefs and more disillusioned with the largely passive nature of the wider community.
They're constantly coming into conflict with the wider community, except - and I think this is important - in communities where enough of them have returned to constitute a majority.
Kozarac, for example, is still surrounded by territory ethnically cleansed of all non-Serbs, but the city itself is once again 15,000 strong and almost entirely Muslim. Kozarac is an important part of the Muslim heirarchy in Bosnia, fully integrated. Other communities where only small numbers have returned are the exact opposite.
So what can be done?
I've noticed this for a long time, among my friends - their complaints about sermons being too political in many churches, and openly calling for a continuation of the genocide in others. Now it's reaching a more national scale.
Prosvjeta, the organization that represents Serbs in Sarajevo, issued an official condemnation of Orthodox Church services in Banja Luka this Christmas calling on the Serbian Orthodox Church to put an end to sermons that "praise Slobodan Milosevic more than Christ Jesus".
In Tuzla, a famously tolerant and united city, Serbs were even more infuriated and banned a Banja Luka girls' folk dance troupe from performing at their Christmas celebrations.
All of this is music to the ears of most Muslims and Roman Catholics in Bosnia, especially in Sarajevo and Tuzla where the local Serb population suffered considerably, at the hands of all sides, just to remain the "local Serb population". People in these two cities are very protective over "our Serbs", as compared to "those Serbs" in Banja Luka and Serbian-dominated areas.
Property registrations have demonstrated a slight increase in the number of Serbs who are leaving Serb-dominated communities and moving to areas where they are a minority. Most notably in this regard is Tuzla.
BUT you have to qualify that by saying most of this increase can be accounted for by Mostar, where the Orthodox Church is being rebuilt and some families originally from the city are returning. So most of these movements aren't movements, but returns.
Still, though, there is some new movement - people who've lived in northeast Bosnia for generations, and are moving instead to Tuzla.
Now I put this thread in Christianity because I'd like to hear what Christians have to say about it, but, I still have to give other information:
The same thing is happening among Bosnian Muslims - but in reverse. Muslims who have returned to their homes in areas now dominated by Serbs are drifting away from the main Bosnian Muslim community. They are becoming more political in their beliefs and more disillusioned with the largely passive nature of the wider community.
They're constantly coming into conflict with the wider community, except - and I think this is important - in communities where enough of them have returned to constitute a majority.
Kozarac, for example, is still surrounded by territory ethnically cleansed of all non-Serbs, but the city itself is once again 15,000 strong and almost entirely Muslim. Kozarac is an important part of the Muslim heirarchy in Bosnia, fully integrated. Other communities where only small numbers have returned are the exact opposite.
So what can be done?