In Hoc Signo Vinces: The politics of religion as a source of power and conflict (original) (raw)
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The Everyday of Religion and Politics in the Balkans
2018
The deeply social and political significance of religion becomes apparent when looking at how different religious traditions can challenge coexistence and toler ance in everyday life.1 Ideology-expressed in discourse and doctrine/ religious meaning, and moral values3-undergirds identity politics. As such, it is import ant to understand the place of religion in the social organization and transform ation of a given society. 4 Above all, discriminatory and stereotyping ideologies behind the categorizing processes of religious affiliations are inherent to any context, whether local, regional, or international.5 Southeast Europe provides a colorful display of the relationship between religion and politics at the level of religious leaders, state actors, intellectual elites, and ordinary people in everyday interactions. Th e importance of native language in religious offices and the pas sion for historical incursions in the everyday life of public discussions-in print media and online networks-shows the intricate interconnectedness of religion and politics. In everyday conversation, people commonly raid history to their own end, convinced that religious movements and political movements have something in common. Historical Incursions in Everyday Life People often repurpose history to legitimate their view of how the world was, is, and should be. Though such forays into history may seem innocent, often their impact on political and everyday life is not. In February 2012, the Vati can organized a world conference to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (O ctober 28, 312) and the legacy of Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity. In October 2013, the Serbian Orthodox Church also organized in Nish, the birthplace of Constantine, an even larger world conference to commemorate the importance of the Edict of Milan, in which Constantine established th e Christian movement as another official reli gion of the Roman Empire. The st ory of Constantine's acceptance of Christianity became important both to the growth of early Christianity and to the growth of Constantine's power, but it also embedded a narrative of providence within a political act that would later serve as a foundation for contemporary claims to the Balkan peoples being foundational to Christendom. Such moves are neither neutral nor unilateral. Ordinary Albanians are quick to remember June 28, 1989, when Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic used the six-hundredth-anniversary commemoration of the Kosovo Battle of 1389 to strengthen his power by exploiting the myth of the battle,6 probably not unlike Constantine did with the myth of his own dream. The narrative of a "M uslim" victory-despite both sides suffering heavy losses-is reinterpreted by Serbian nationalist politics, from the nineteenth century until today, as the emblematic Christian Serbian sacrifice at the hands of Ottoman armies. Gatherings to com memorate this myth served to justify the boundaries of Serbian holdings and any means needed to enforce them. Not surprisingly, they also glorified and sancti fied the ethno-homicidal criminals who best served Serbian identity politics.7 Such celebrations point to the mutually reinforcing-and locally contextualized nature of religion and politics and the ease with which nationalist tropes emerge as ordained and legitimate. Routinely, one hears support for the blending of religion and politics: ordinary Albanians may recall some imam in Prishtina running for president, 8 or some Kosovar politicians may advocate women wear ing Muslim headscarves to gain support among certain voters. 9 Similarly, the Serbian patriarch stated that "K osovo is the sacred land of Serbia" on Albanian national TV, on June 1, 2014, after the inauguration of the Orthodox Cathedral in Tirana, 10 where the Serbian flag was also briefly displayed. ll Many ordinary Albanians characterized this as a "brutal and unscrupulous provocation. "12 The Albanian prime minister was outraged and offended, and at his meeting with the patriarchs and primates of world Christian Orthodoxy, he demonstrably pointed his finger to the Serbian patriarch: "Your colleague abused our hospitality, he derogated our religious celebration day and he changed the evidence of our reli gious coexistence into an outdated political issue."13 Regardless of how outdated such moves may seem, incursions into history hold political clout to the exten t they make the present seem purposeful. Histo ries, however, are not without bias. Serbs can look to the churches and monaster ies built by the Nemanic dynasty to claim a territorial holding/4 just as they look to the Kosovo myth to speak of a Serbian sacrifice.1 5 Similarly, Albanians look to the efforts of the Greek Orthodox Church during the mid-nineteenth century in sq uelching the use of Albanian language as an example of systematic oppres sion. 16 There is an interconnectedness between religion and politics that repre sents both the imagined and the real state of everyday life. Religious Realpolitik On the Easter Saturday 2015 (A pril 11), when Orthodox Christians celebrated the resurrection of Christ in the Cathedral of Tirana, a prominent Albanian politician expressed his regret in the national press because the Greek archbishop of the Albanian Orthodox Church, Anastasios Yanoulatos, officiated not in Albanian but in Greek. 17 Many deacons rose to the archbishop's defense
Imposing Particular Identities: The Balkans as a Meeting Place of Ethnicities and Religions
Insight Turkey: Challenging ideas on Turkish politics and International affairs, 2018
All too often the Balkans are represented as a conflict zone and the basis of the conflict is presented as the regional multiethnic ethos that, it is argued, tends to create exclusive identities which are static and do not allow for cross-regional solidarities and congruencies to form among local peoples. Since Balkan ethnicities are primarily organized along locally-practiced religious lines, regional monotheistic religions are seen as the source of the conflicts. However, even a brief historical examination shows different patterns, where the people of the region lived in long periods of peace and solidarity while practicing their separate religious traditions. Significantly, the conflicts occurred when the Balkan people followed non-religious political processes and ideas which originated outside of the region. Hence, this paper attempts to observe the extant representations of the Balkans, examine the brief history of the region to reveal patterns of amity and enmity, and bring forth a different historical – and possible future – reality.
2012
SADRŽAJ Predgovor … 5 Sergej Flere Was the Bosnian War (1992-5) a full fledged religious war? … 7 Davor DŽALTO religion, politics and beyond: The Pussy riot case … 25 Martina Topić Deconstruction of the religious narrative: Antemurale christianitatis and the construction of Difference … 47 Darko Đogo mit naš nasušni (ili: o dometima mita i dometima demitologizacije) … 77 Zlatiborka Popov-Momčinović Faith-based aktivizam: novi praktički okvir za promišljanje projekta "demitologizacije" … 95 Nikola Knežević od kosovskog mita do mita o hrišćanskoj naciji: od deprivatizacije do politizacije religije i bellum iustum koncepta u srbiji i SAD … 111 Sergej Beuk konflikt i postkonfliktna teologija: mogućnosti demitologizacije … 139 Goran Golubović sufizam i verska tolerancija … 149 Lejla Mušić ekološki nacionalizam kao projekat rodne i religijske de(kon)strukcije u kulturi sjećanja Balkana … 163 Violeta Cvetkovska Ocokoljić, Željko Đurić, Tatjana Cvetkovski Podsećanje na krstaške ratove iz ugla vizantijskih i arapskih pisaca … 191 Branko Bjelajac o hrišćanskoj građanskoj javnosti … 209 Alma Jeftić Pogled na religijski narativ sa panoptičke distance netrepeljivosti … 229 Enoh Šeba Baptističke crkve u hrvatskoj i njihova reakcija na ratno nasilje promatrana iz perspektive kršćanske socijalne etike … 233 Urednici prof. dr Sergej Flere filozofski fakultet univerziteta u mariboru Was the Bosnian War (1992-5) a full fleDgeD religious War?
Title of Session: The role of religion in the post conflict period in the West Balkan region
2009
In contrast to the political parties which are a relatively new social phenomenon, the religiosity is a universal social one which has been incorporated in almost every significant civilization and was established on the grounds of a certain religious component. Historically, the interweaving of the political and the religious occurred much earlier than the political parties, respectively. Regarding the Christianity, this act has been directly bounded to the recognition of the Christianity as an official religion of the Roman Empire which led to an impermissible relationship between the church and the state. The Church began to neglect its holy duties more frequently by turning to secular ones. It was no longer a Church that served the people but, rather, it became a Church aspiring towards power and dominion. In the opening part of this paper we will draw attention to certain similarities in expression of both the religious and ideological awareness. By no means, the focus of this ...
In Hoc Signo Vinces : Religious Symbolism in the Balkan Wars 1991–1995
2003
Symbols—as important and very persuasive elements of contemporary national and political mythologies and their iconography—are particulary exposed during critical periods of certain nations' history. Although the role and influences of religious organizations and hierarchies before and during the last wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina were quite different, all belligerent sides also employed religious symbols in their nationalistic/political mobilizations and military