Images of the Religious Other

IMAGES OF THE RELIGIOUS OTHER Images of the Religious Other Discourse and Distance in the Western Balkans edited by Christian Moe CEIR in cooperation with the Kotor Network Novi Sad 2008 Published by CEIR (Novi Sad) in cooperation with the Kotor Network Copyright © 2008 Christian Moe Copyright to individual chapters is held by the authors Reviewers: Prof. dr. Đuro Šušnjić and prof. dr. Anne Stensvold Cover illustration and design: Marija and Marko Borović Printed by: Čigoja Štampa The Kotor Network gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via the Dept. of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the institutions mentioned. ISBN 978-86-84111-10-6 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................... 7 Introduction .......................................................................................... 9 Christian Moe PART ONE: THE OTHER IN HISTORY Images of the Ottomans and Islam in Serbian History Textbooks ........................................................... 17 Milan Vukomanović Images of the Ottomans in History Textbooks in Bosnia and Herzegovina ....................................................................................... 39 Ahmet Alibašić PART TWO: TEACHING ABOUT THE OTHER Images of the Religious Other in Religious Instruction Textbooks in Croatia .................................... 75 Ankica Marinović Images of Religious Others in Religious Education Textbooks for Primary Schools in Bosnia-Hercegovina .................................. 97 Aid Smajić PART THREE: RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY DISCOURSES The Serbian Orthodox Church’s Images of Religious Others ... 125 Zlatiborka Popov-Momčinović The Image of Woman in Religious Community Magazines in Bosnia-Herzegovina .................................................................... 147 Zilka Spahić-Šiljak Images of the Religious Other in Serbia ....................................... 167 Zorica Kuburić PART FOUR: DISTANCE TO THE OTHER Religious Distance in Croatia ......................................................... 201 Dinka Marinović Jerolimov Religious Distance in Vojvodina .................................................... 219 Zorica Kuburić Contributors ..................................................................................... 233 Alphabetical Index ........................................................................... 235 Index of Tables Table 4.1: Confessional structure of the Republic of Croatia ............................ 76 Table 7.1: Texts of female authors by subject matter ........................................ 153 Table 7.2: Texts about women by subject matter .............................................. 154 Table 7.3: Family roles of persons pictured ....................................................... 159 Table 7.4: Roles or occupations of women depicted ......................................... 161 Table 7.5: Roles or occupations of men depicted .............................................. 161 Table 9.1: Confessional structure of the Republic of Croatia .......................... 204 Table 9.2: Indicators of religiosity in Croatia 2004 (in %) ................................ 205 Table 9.3: Social distance towards the members of different religious groups (% and mean)....................................................................................... 208 Table 9.4: Religious distance according to religious affiliation, religiosity and religious practice .................................................................... 211 Table 9.5: Religious distance according to gender, age, education, place of residence and region ................................................................................... 212 Table 10.1: Desirability of confession by social role, Vojvodina ..................... 221 Table 10.2: Would you want your country's president to be… ...................... 223 Table 10.3: Would you want your spouse to be… ............................................ 223 Table 10.4: Would you want your teacher to be… ............................................ 224 Table 10.5: Would you want your boss to be… ................................................. 224 Table 10.6: Would you want your neighbor to be… ......................................... 224 Table 10.7: Would you want your business partner to be… ........................... 224 Table 10.8: Desirability of confession in role of neighbor ................................ 226 Table 10.9: Would you want a Nazarene as a neighbor? ................................. 228 Illustration Index Figure 7.1: Male/female authorship of signed texts ......................................... 152 Figure 7.2: Gender distribution of persons pictured ........................................ 159 Figure 10.1: Desirability of adherents to different religious communities as spouse ........................................................................................................... 223 Figure 10.2: Would you want a Catholic/Nazarene as a spouse? .................. 225 Acknowledgments The editor wishes to thank Mr Jan Braathu and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as project manager Professor Anne Stensvold and the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages at the University of Oslo, for making this project possible; Professor Zorica Kuburić and CEIR in Novi Sad for the effort put into publishing the results; and the authors for their valuable contributions and for their considerable patience. All chapters were originally commissioned in 2006 for the joint research project of the Kotor Network. Before this book went into print, however, versions of several texts had been published, by permission, in journals or other forms. It seems helpful to mention these other versions here. Ahmet Alibašić’s “Images of the “The Role of Religion in Identity Ottomans in History Textbooks in Formation and Social Distancing in Bosnia and Herzegovina” has been the Balkans,” Divided God and published, under the same title, in Intercultural Dialog (Ljubljana: İslâm Araştırmaları Dergisi (Turkish Dijački dom Ivana Cankarja and Journal of Islamic Studies), no. 17 KUD Pozitiv, 2008), 153–170. Chapter (2007), 103–137. A shorter Bosnian 10 is based on research in the project version was published as: “Imidž “Socijalno-ekonomske i kulturne Osmanlija u historijskim karakteristike i potencijali Vojvodine udžbenicima u Bosni i Hercegovini,“ kao cinilac regionalnog povezivanja i Novi Muallim, no. 32 (2007), 55–64. integracije u Evropu”, no. 149013, Parts of Zorica Kuburić’s funded by the Ministry of Science contributions have been published in: and Technological Development of “Slika o sebi i religijski drugom u Serbia. Srbiji iz perspektive pravoslavlja i A version of Aid Smajić’s “Images katolicizma,” Religija i tolerancija 5, of Religious Others in Religious no. 7 (January-June 2007), 41–54; Education Textbooks for Primary “Kakvo mesto daju građani Schools in Bosnia-Hercegovina” is Vojvodine religijski drugom,” published in Islamic Studies (2008). A Godišnjak Filozofskog fakulteta u part is published in Bosnian in Novom Sadu 33, no. 1 (2008), 91–108; Zbornik radova Fakulteta islamskih nauka u Sarajevu, no. 12 (2007). forms part of her book Žene, Material in Zilka Spahić- Religija i politika (Sarajevo: IMIC, Šiljak’s “The Image of Woman in CIPS and TPO, 2007), 292–304. Religious Community Magazines in Bosnia-Herzegovina” also For supplements, corrections and updates, see the homepage for this book: http://kotor-network.info/imagesbook Chapter One Introduction 1 Introduction Christian Moe This book contains the fruits of a 2006 joint research project of the Kotor Network on Religion in Plural Societies.1 The contributors come from countries of the former Yugoslavia: Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina (B&H), and Serbia. They write about “images” of religious others, that is, about conceptions, perceptions, descriptions, 1. 1 The Kotor Network (http://kotor-network.info) brings together Balkans-based scholars of religious studies. It was formed in 2004 on an initiative from the “Religion and Nationalism in the Western Balkans Project,” led by Professor Anne Stensvold at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo, and was funded until 2007 by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 9 understandings, attitudes, and depictions. The “others,” for the most part, are people who belong to a religion other than the dominant religion in their society, the latter being the religion with which the dominant ethnic nation more or less strongly identifies. Religion is a significant marker of the ethnic identities of the Catholic Croats, the Orthodox Serbs, and the Muslim Bosniaks, who are all South Slavs speaking roughly the same language.2 The former Yugoslavia was violently dissolved by wars in Slovenia (1991), Croatia (1991–1992) and B&H (1992–1995), followed by Kosovo (1999) and a brief conflict in Macedonia (2001). The post-war picture of B&H and Kosovo, in particular, has been dominated by inter-ethnic hostility that is at the same time also inter-religious hostility. Though most observers concur that these wars were not “religious” wars, religion must have played some role.3 At any rate, this cruel experience must surely have have poisoned inter-religious relations and attitudes. Readers are likely to brace themselves for grim

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