Perspectives on Building Trust among Communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Challenges and the Role of Faith Communities (original) (raw)
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2020
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a young, post-conflict and ethnically divided country in Europe. It is well known for being the scene of a conflict centred on religious divisions. For the researcher, this raises a number of interesting questions. What is the role of religious institutions in conflict and peacebuilding? Why is religion politicised? Can religious dialogue be perceived as a factor in the process of reconciling opposing ethnic communities; in this case, Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks? A section of this article is devoted to the stories of survivors from Bosniak, Croatian and Serbian families1. Each of these three ethnic groups suffered during the massacres in Ahmići, Trusina and Bradina, which took place in the first half of the 1990s. In addition, the authors analyse the role played by institutions like the Inter Religious Council in Sarajevo and the Maximilian Kolbe Foundation in order to assess their contribution to reconciliation and peacebuilding. In this regard, the purpose...
Religious dialogue and cooperation
The paper will show the results of a research on the role of religion in the reconciliation process that took place on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2012 to 2019. The first part of the paper will show the views of the general population from 2606 respondent. The second part will show a qualitative analysis of the content of the interview with the representatives of three traditional religious communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The interview was conducted from the summer of 2018 until spring 2019, with people who are prominent in their public role in society with professors of religious universities, religious school directors and religious teachers who were part of this sample, patrons of Orthodox, Islamic, Roman Catholic, Judaism and Protestant theologians. The results of the survey show that there are potentials for building a stable process of reconciliation. Primarily, the right to choose is for the common good of all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to create an atmosphere of acceptance, understanding and respecting differences of members of different national backgrounds and religious traditions. There are many ways to realize the process of reconciliation, and those that are recognized are open dialogue about the past, admitting and apologizing, recognizing the victims and respecting their religious identity, giving special attention to minority groups that feel vulnerable in certain areas. Religion has potentials for reconciliation if their believers accept both the differences and the commonalities of others. Religious leaders, more than lay people, are in a position to contribute to reconciliation.
'Invisible' Believers for Peace. Religion and Peacebuilding in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina
This doctoral thesis is a study of faith-based, civil society peacebuilding in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the postwar period (1996-2012). Religion is the prime ethnic marker for the last twenty years and as such has been widely used to divide Bosnia’s three peoples, often using extreme violence. This thesis reveals a hidden counter-movement of local, legitimate and effective peace work by believers from all three religious groups, but with the strongest input from the Muslim faithful. Bosnian society is ethnically segregated and characterized by a low level of social trust. Religion and politics are closely linked and strengthened by corrupt ties, inflaming the hostility between peoples. This study, however, demonstrates how these ‘peace pioneers’ proceed with adaptive leadership to initiate positive increments of change and create unique spaces for transforming conflict. The thesis presents and assesses these persons who activate an individual believer religious identity in combination with developed peacebuilding skills to transform conflict in their particular environments. These believers draw resources from their collective religious identities/traditions that are oriented towards peace and reconciliation while rejecting the exclusive and divisive aspects. The activities they use are colored by their faith journeys and motivation, but are also grounded in established peace practices. Consequently, this thesis breaks new ground by providing not only a new perspective on the otherwise discouraging ‘religious factor’ in the peacebuilding process of Bosnia-Herzegovina, but it also sets out multiple examples of positive change never before systematically studied or exposed.
Factors in Reconciliation: Religion, Local Conditions, People and Trust
Special edition of Journal Diskursi, Sarajevo., 2013
"Authors: George R. Wilkes, Ana Zotova, Zorica Kuburić, Gorazd Andrejč, Marko-Antonio Brkić, Muhamed Jusić, Zlatiborka Popov Momčinović, Davor Marko This study presents key findings from a survey focused on the reconciliation process in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a sample of 2060 respondents answering a written questionnaire with 78 questions. A diverse sample of respondents were found in 13 cities, selected to capture very different economic, cultural, political and geographical contexts. Individual sections of the report explain the study’s design and results, and give further detail that will be important to readers with an interest in attitudes in their city, or among different parts of the country’s population: women and men; wealthier and poorer, employed and unemployed; older and younger; more educated and less educated; more religious and less religious; former soldiers, prison camp inmates, refugees and other civilians during the war; members of the constituent peoples and minorities."
History of Inter-Religious Dialogue in Bosnia and Herzegovina: From Force-Feeding to Sustainability
Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society, 2020
Bosnia and Herzegovina has always been a multi-religious polity. While inter-religious relations were not always easy, the heterogeneity seems to be inherent to Bosnia. Significant resources were invested in the 1990s to alter that reality. The damage has been done but efforts have been made by various local and international actors to repair it. This article offers a brief account of the history of formal inter-religious dialogue in Bosnia, its main actors, and features. Major issues, types of dialogue, accomplishments and challenges lying ahead are also considered. Keywords: interreligious dialogue - Bosnia and Herzegovina - religious communities - faith-based organizations Please check the published paper with slightly different pagination at: https://brill.com/view/journals/jrat/6/2/article-p343\_6.xml?body=pdf-35540
Believers for Social Change-Bridging the Secular Religious Divide in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Believers for Social Change: Bridging the Secular Religious Divide in Bosnia and Herzegovina Zilka Spahić Šiljak _ Stanford University, Stanford, USA Faith can serve as a source of social change and can bring different groups around common ideas and the common good. Its role can be formal through official faith institutions and informal through the work of individuals who are engaged in civil society organizations. Faith has driven activists in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to work on bridging and linking believers from various religious traditions, but also non-believers who share similar ideas and concerns for the social wellbeing in their communities. The paper discusses the secular-religious divide through faith-based activism in BiH and how “relational dialogism” can help in overcoming these divisions. The International Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (IMIC) Initiative “Three Monotheistic Voices” and TPO’s initiative “A Weltethos in School” can serve as examples of how faith-based activists use religious arguments in secular non-governmental settings to pursue dialogue, peace and social change in their communities. Both initiatives gather scholars and practitioners of varying ethnic, religious and non-religious identities from the Balkans. Some of the activists are laity and theologians, while some are scholars and activists who recognize the power of religion to translate ideas of peace, dialogue and development into social and political life. Keywords: religious, secular, faith-based, relational dialogism, social change.
The Role of Religion in Peace Processes: The Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina
From Bosnia and Herzegovina to Northern Kosovo: coping with remaining impasses in the Western Balkans ; 22nd workshop of the Study Group "Regional Stability in South East Europe", 2011
From Bosnia and Herzegovina to Northern Kosovo: coping with remaining impasses in the Western Balkans ; 22nd workshop of the Study Group "Regional Stability in South East Europe"