SARAJEVO: A JOURNEY TO AN INTERRELIGIOUS FUTURE
Leonard Swidler and Paul Mojzes
Professors Leonard Swidler and Paul Mojzes, Editors of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, received an invitation to go to Sarajevo from the "Bosnian Academy of Science and Arts" and "Zayedno" ("Together"), an international center for the promotion of interreligious dialogue, justice, and peace based in Sarajevo. We went there to support the idea initiated by "Zayedno" of establishing a Department of Interreligious Dialogue at Sarajevo University and to offer our cooperation on a journal promoting interreligious dialogue, as well as to see about possible exchange of professors and students after the end of the Bosnian war. "Zayedno" continues to gather a small but dedicated number of Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish clergy and intellectuals in order to promote a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Our original plan was to go in May 1995, but the intensification of the war prevented our travel. As the war waned in the wake of the Dayton Peace negotiations we ventured to arrange to visit Sarajevo between December 8 and 12, 1995, with several days prior and after those dates given over to travel from and back to Philadelphia. It was difficult to get in, more difficult to stay, and more difficult yet to depart Sarajevo. Friends from "Zayedbi" arranged our flight on an UNPROFOR cargo plane (a vibrating illyushin flown by Russian pilots) from Zagreb, Croatia. Beforehand in Zagreb we met the support group of "Zayedno", Dr. Sefko Omerbasic, the head of the Muslim Community of Croatia and Slovenia, Rev. Jovan Nikolic, a Serbian Orthodox priest, and Jasminka Domas of the Jewish Community.
In Sarajevo on Saturday, Dec. 3, 1995, from 9:30 to 2:30 p.m. we attended a conference on "Religion and Statecraft" organized by the "Academy of Science and Arts of Bosnia-Herzegovina" at their building located in Bistrik no. 7. The Academy consists of about thirty-five prestigious academics elected into the Academy for an especially meritorious life of scholarship. Approximately twenty-five of us met in the unheated rooms of the Academy (nearly all public buildings are unheated and freezing cold). We sat in our overcoats, shawls, and hats and the meeting had to end earlier than planned because conditions became unbearable. Several papers were delivered by members of the academy, each of them strongly committed to a pluralistic, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious Bosnia, a legacy of the centuries of common life, which they pledged to continue to support.
On our side we expressed interest in finding concrete ways in which this determination could be supported academically and ecumenically, hoping that foundations, corporations, and individuals in the West might be interested in financing this laudable effort. We were greeted by the President of the Academy, Professor Seid Hukovic, M.D., and had individual conversations with Professor Dr. Arif Tanovic who is the Editor-in-Chief of Dijalog (a journal of philosophy), and Professors Filip Simic and Avdo Suceska.
Much to our surprise, every person with whom we spoke, and we harbor no illusions that one cannot also find those who disagree, supported the idea of the pluralistic future of Bosnia. This shows that hatred has not succeeded in breaking their basic orientation. Bitterness, yes, both at the rebel Serbs and the international community for not stepping in sooner, but hatred no; not because they are especially noble but because they are convinced of the impossibility of any other option that would avoid genocide.
The conference and our own support and dedication to ecumenism and interreligious dialogue were explicitly reported on Sarajevo TV, radio, and the newspaper. One of the two Serbian Orthodox priests who remained in the city, Rev. Krstan Bijeljac, singled us out after the conference to tell us of his displeasure with the hierarchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which fled the city and the territories not held by Serbs and still claimed to speak on behalf of the remaining Orthodox population. He felt that they had lost the moral right to speak because they simply do not understand the situation, which is radically different from what they declare in their appeals to the Serb nation and the world.
Other meetings included a conversation with Stjepan Kljuic, a member of the Bosnian Presidency who is simultaneously a member of the Opposition. An ethnic Croat, Mr. Kljuic is a dedicated Bosnian who supports the territorial integrity of that state (rather than as some other Croat and Serb politicians who want to see its partition into Croat and Serb zones respectively).
On Dec., 10, we met the head of the Islamic Religious Community, by title the Reis-ul-ulema, Dr. Mustafa Ceric. Dr. Ceric, a native Bosnian, lived in the USA six years, speaks fluent English, and has a Ph.D. from University of Chicago. He was a lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Seemingly in his middle 40s, Mr. Ceric was an eloquent and vigorous conversation partner in his office, pleasantly decorated in Arabic style. He declared himself in favor of a Department of Interreligious Dialogue at the University, but quickly launched into an attack on Western scholars of Islam whom he considers intrusive when they try to determine the 'real' nature of Islam. Dr. Ceric considers only the Muslim leadership and people capable of defining what is really Islamic and what is not. He insisted that only religiously committed Muslims who adequately reflect the Bosnian Muslim religious community should be the one's who should represent the Muslim Community, a view to which there can be little objection, provided that genuine dialogue is desired.
While it was not evident during the conversation with Dr. Ceric, others who know him contend that he is prone to combativeness with other religious communities, and has personal political ambitions. Further, some claim that in order to become the head of the Islamic religious community he carried out a veritable coup d'etat, removing the only genuinely democratically elected Reis-ul-ulema, Jakub Selimovski, an ethnic Macedonian, who was then unceremoniously dispatched to Macedonia.
Professor Swidler offered to seek scholarships for two Muslim students from Sarajevo, a female and a male, to work on a doctorate in religious studies at Temple University, to which offer Dr. Ceric gladly agreed.
Two meetings took place with Cardinal Vinko Puljic, the Catholic archbishop of Sarajevo. The first was on a Sunday afternoon at a small children's festivity when ecumenical Croat-language children's Bibles imported from Sweden were being presented. This was also an opportunity for a conversation with Dr. Mato Zovkic, a professor of New Testament at the Sarajevo Catholic Theological Seminary now temporarily located on the island of Brac near Split, Croatia. The Cardinal sat in the audience during the less than imaginative panel presentation and then unostentatiously interacted directly with the children and parents.
The second meeting was a private one the following day in his office, which definitely reflected Western artistic influence. He, like the Reis, is a man in his 40s. It is likely that the cardinal's hat was given him to underscore papal support for Bosnia, the first such honor for a prelate from this country. He seemed warmly supportive of establishing a Department of Interreligious Dialogue at the University, and "upped the ante" by suggesting the publication of an interreligious journal. He gives the impression of a humble, bright, and tolerant man who is able to enter into a serious give-and-take, unencumbered by notions of ecclesial authority and protocol. He likewise presented a strong pro-Bosnian view, maintaining that Catholics inhabited the Bosnian territory for thirteen centuries and are now threatened both by Serb aggression but also by the Dayton Peace Accords with losing ground in those parts of Bosnia that will be under Serb control.
Among others we held conversations with was Mr. Emir Hrustanovic, the head of the administrative board of the famous newspaper Oslobodjenje, Ms. Halida Hasic, a senior judge, Mr. Jusuf Hasic, a commercial manager, Ms. Amila Hrustanovic, a lawyer, Mr. Hasan Efendic, a retired army officer, and Mr. Mustafa Kapidzic, formerly a film-maker and now editor of Kult B, a journal for culture, science, and politics.
On Dec. 11, we met with Professor Tepic, the Academic Dean of the "Filozofski Fakultet" of Sarajevo University. Dean Tepic welcomed the idea of starting a Department of Interreligious Dialogue, which would most likely be administratively placed in his school. When the difficult question of funding arose, we stated that we were writing a Formal Proposal for the Establishment of a Department of Interreligious Dialogue at the University of Sarajevo with which we would be able to request assistance from Western foundations, corporations, and individuals. However, we carefully avoided raising undue hope, for, as Dean Tepic had noted, many groups from the West promise help, and then do not deliver.
A meeting had been scheduled with the Rector of the University on Dec. 12, but could not be held for we were notified that we needed to extricate ourselves from Sarajevo, as we did by separate routes. The U.N. flights proved impossible for us as they were constantly filled with soldiers. Professor Swidler was fortunate enough to learn of one empty seat in a van travelling in a U.N. armored car convoy through Serb-held territory by way of Ilidza to Split, and then to Zagreb by plane, while Professor Mojzes was able to travel later by commercial plane to Zagreb via Split. The ordeals of our return are too colorful to describe in this narrative, Professor Swidler and his companions had many anxious minutes at the Serb checkpoint as the argument waxed and the U.N. soldiers (who were Ukrainians, known sympathizers with the Serbs) sat indifferently aside. Suffice it to be said that it took both of us four days to make it back to Philadelphia.
Professor Mojzes also had meetings in Zagreb with two Bosnian professors, Esad Cimic and Sulejman Masovic, both of whom wrote contributions to his planned book on the role of religion in the war in Bosnia.
The conditions in Sarajevo were dismal. Our greatest concern was not the shelling which so devastated the city and its inhabitants, though the danger was potentially there, but the insecurity (occasional killings by Serb sniper fire do still occur) and the cold. The destruction that we witnessed piece-meal in the U.S. on our TV screens is there to see all at once. To Professor Swidler, Sarajevo looked much like Berlin when he visited it a short time after World War II, with scores of buildings just empty brick shells. He also saw village after village on his ride through Bosnia to the coast which were totally destroyed and uninhabited. Some were Muslim and some were Croat, destroyed by each other in the Croat-Muslim war. The beautiful medieval Christian-Muslim town of Mostar was absolutely ravaged. Burned out and destroyed houses, streetcars, buses, automobiles in Sarajevo came more easily to the eye than human casualties, which hit Paul Mojzes full force on his return flight when a father was carrying his ten-year old son who lost both arms and one leg as a result of the war.
Water was available only every other day. Natural gas likewise, usually on alternate days. Fortunately electricity was available every day, but its use is restricted so that few can warm up their rooms to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Cold seeps into the bones. Street cars function again and are crowded but from time to time they are still targeted by sniper fire. People are back on the streets. However, there is a police curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Cars now use roads that prior to the Dayton Agreement were definitely to be avoided because they were in the direct line of fire. The city was still virtually a concentration camp because there were few ways to leave. We were lucky to have been able to secure the services of Mr. Emir Hrustanovic, the Business Manager of Oslobodjenje (which is a diversified company rather than just a newspaper) who arranged our lodging, meals, transportation, telephones, including long-distance international calls on the separate satellite phone-lines of the company.
This trip was a challenge greater than our previous academic exchanges, visits, and research. We learned a great deal and we hope that we will make a difference to the Sarajevo academic community.
lsb -- 02/15/97