The Very "Wise King" and His Subjugated Country

     When someone mentions Bosnia and Herzegovina, I feel sick! The atrocities that took place between 1992 and 1995 come flooding back into my mind, and it makes my blood boil! But don't get me wrong, I'm not angry only at the Serbs. I'm just as angry with the Bosniaks, even more so! Why? Because the geography of Bosnia is proof of what bloody consequences can arise when Muslims become corrupted and intermingle with non-Muslims through ihtilat, that is, mixing with them. It is an identity that turns its back on the culture and tradition it claims to belong to, forgets itself in an attempt to look friendly to the Serbs and other elements and to get along with them, while never being forgotten by the people on the other side.

     Anyway... let's take a closer look at the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Bosnian War, tear down some taboos, and burst a few "bubbles"!

     Under the federation that existed during Yugoslav times, there were several ethnic and religious groups. The most different and distinct among them were the Orthodox Serbs, the Catholic Croats, and the supposedly Muslim Bosniaks. I say "supposedly" because, just as in other parts of the Balkans, their Islamic identity consisted of a few hearsay beliefs, rituals, and bid'ahs. Their identities and names were Islamic, but everything else was "non-Islamic." The collapse of the Communist and Socialist utopia, together with the Eastern European satellites of the USSR dropping away one after another, brought an end to this Iron Curtain country masquerading as a federation. And those who wanted to grab the juiciest piece of the inheritance were, naturally, the Serbs, who regarded themselves as the "natural heirs." Their nationalist streak—which was already embedded in their genes and had never brought anything good to the world—was immediately activated. The Yugoslav Army promptly became the Serbian Army. One by one, all the constituent elements of the federation were declaring independence. Encouraged by Europe's seductive assurances along the lines of "we're behind you," and with referendums and all the rest of it, the administration of Aliya Izetbegović eventually declared, "We're independent too."

     But there was a very substantial Serbian population in the territory he was sitting on, along with a sizeable Croatian population, though not quite as large. While this intoxicating "independence" process was still unfolding, the leader of the Serbs in Bosnia, Radovan Karadžić, who had previously dabbled in poetry and literature and made a complete mess of that too, openly threatened the Bosniaks in October 1991: "If you try any of this independence business, we'll slaughter you." Serbia was already eagerly waiting for precisely such a spark.

     Can you imagine it... On one side, hardened nationalists like Slobodan Milošević and Radovan Karadžić are threatening you, while you play Pollyanna and say, "Oh, they wouldn't do such a thing, and besides, our European friends will come to our rescue anyway." You then announce that you've established a predominantly Muslim country right in the middle of Europe, surrounded by Serbs and Croats, and you have absolutely nothing resembling an army! Can a person really be this naïve and so utterly lacking in foresight?

     As soon as Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence, heavily armed Serbs immediately surrounded Sarajevo in February 1992. The Bosniaks living in the capital, who had spent years believing they were on good terms with their Serbian neighbors and who drank rakiya (some sort of strong alcohol famous in the Balkans) with them during Ramadan and Eid al-Adha, as though this were some great achievements, still thought all of this was merely a military exercise.

      What happened next is well known... three years of murders, rapes, and the most brutal forms of humiliation.

The Aliya Izetbegović Bubble

     This is one of the things I find hardest to believe... A bubble that has been inflated and inflated in our country until it has become a taboo.

The so-called
"Wise King"

     Your surroundings are full of people waiting for you to make one wrong move so they can devour you, and you go ahead and do exactly what your enemies want you to do! Then the Serbs humiliate, kill, butcher, and rape people, and you respond with supposedly humanist statements. Man, what the hell is "Humanism" doing in the middle of a war?

     He supposedly invoked Islam and came out with a few passionate, rhetorical statements... and immediately became "The Wise Man," an Islamic scholar, and so on! Our supposedly conservative crowd immediately turned him into a taboo figure.

     They ignored the Islamic principles that "religion is under the shadow of swords" and "if you desire peace and righteousness, be prepared for war," and instead celebrated a supposedly "wise" leader who led his people into disaster!

     The course and outcome of events show that Izetbegović was neither a good statesman nor a good commander. The decisions he made during those troubled times often worked against the Bosniaks. The Dayton Peace Agreement, which he signed in 1995 at the end of the genocide, was also a defeat. Where is the independence? Where is the unitary state? After hundreds of thousands of people had died and hundreds of thousands of women had been raped... what remained was a chaotic, three-headed system of government!

Major Stages of the Bosnian War

     Siege of Sarajevo: It took place between 1992 and 1995. The Serbian Army positioned itself on the hills surrounding the capital. For almost three years, the Bosniaks endured a life of isolation and deprivation. Serbian snipers shot people as if they were hunting partridges.

Snipers hunting people while
somecarry on with their daily lives.

      Srebrenica Genocide: This took place in July 1995 and, followed by NATO bombing Serbian forces, ultimately determined the outcome of the war. The area was very close to the Serbian border and was also claimed by the Republika Srpska. The UN peacekeeping force stationed in Potočari, near Srebrenica, was supposedly there to protect the Bosniaks in Srebrenica. Yet the Dutch contingent stood by and, in full view, handed the Bosniaks over to the Serbs under the command of General Ratko Mladić.

The Serb butchers:
Radovan Karadzic & Ratko Mladic

     Is it possible to forget what Mladić said as he walked through the emptied streets of Srebrenica like a victorious commander?

"The time has come for us to take revenge on the Turks!"

But why the Turks? Because "Turk" meant Muslim, and "Turk" meant Ottoman.

The Most Painful Aspects of the Bosnian War

     The most disturbing aspects of the Bosnian War, at least for me as a Muslim, were the images that made me think, "Surely there can be no greater humiliation than this."

— For example, during the Siege of Sarajevo, Bosniak men trying to carry on with their everyday lives instead of fighting to the death against the Serbs who were hunting people around them almost mockingly. Fine, we understand: the man in charge has established a country without an army and is sending messages of love and peace in every direction. But come on, brother, surely there has to be a limit to this humiliation!

— Men reduced to skin and bones in places resembling concentration camps.

— That animal called Ratko Mladić walking past Dutch soldiers who could barely keep themselves from pissing their pants, then telling the people behind the barbed wire, "Don't be afraid. Nobody is going to hurt you. The buses will be here shortly, and they'll take you to a safe area." And, even more painfully, the Bosniaks thanking him and praising him.

— Those young men unloaded from the back of a truck and shot one by one! Every time I remember it, I gnaw my fingernails in rage! They killed one of you... and you waited silently. They killed a second, and you did nothing... then a third, a fourth... and eventually they made you dig the graves of your friends and yourselves... Man, it was obvious you were going to be killed. At least one of you should have made a move. Your legs weren't even tied! How could you just let these butchers slaughter you like lambs? You were going to die anyway—at least put up some resistance!

— Bosnian women who were systematically raped.

     The most important conclusion to draw from all of this is actually quite simple: You can mix with them as much as you want, become as much like them as you want, but as long as you are not one of "them," one day, when they get the opportunity, they will "weed you out"!

Whenever I hear the word Bosnia, my blood pressure goes through the roof!