Interreligious Dialogue in Bosnia-Herzegovina1

MILAN KOSTRESEVIC Interreligious Dialogue in Bosnia-Herzegovina1 No peace among nations without peace among religions. No peace among religions without dialogue between religions. No dialogue between religions without research into their foundations. Hans Küng, Declaration Toward a Global Ethic, 1990 Introduction This article outlines and discusses the results of interreligious dialogue in Bos- nia-Herzegovina following the 1992-1995 war. To provide appropriate con- textual background, I will first discuss the historical background of the late 20th- century war, then provide an overview of relevant census data and analyse the founding of the Interreligious Council which comprises four representatives of the two Christian churches, together with two from the Muslim and two from the Jewish community. It is the activities and working groups of the Council which carry on the work of post-war reconciliation and allied interreligious dialogue. Accordingly, an analysis of the activities and projects of the Council and provides an overview and insight into challenges and tasks that are presently faced. Historical Background Prior to the Late 20th-Century War Dialogue between different religions, which has recently faced major challenges and questions, has in recent years found an oasis of peace and a potential for progress in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bosnia-Herzegovina is a country that is a mod- el and good example of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. The three mono- theistic religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) have been living there side by side for centuries (Wettach-Zeitz 2008: 110). Freedom of religion is formally confirmed and guaranteed under the Constitution (Art. 2, § 3G). A pluralist society, it is not only in the last 25 years that Bosnia-Herzegovina has seen conflict between different religious and ethnic groups. Such conflicts actually extend far back into the past and sometimes had a tendency to escalate. Ever since the conquest of Bosnia-Herzegovina by the Ottomans in the 15th century,2 and the ensuing powerful process of Islamisation, the population adhering 1 Translated from the German by Hector Davie, Bern. 2 Despite numerous protests, the Ottomans finally conquered the territory in the year 1463. Thus began the forceful Islamisation of the population. See Koller 2012. 203 STUDIES IN INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE 26 (2016) 2 to Islam has been growing steadily. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was observed that the government leaned more towards the Roman Catholic than the Serbian Orthodox Church (Samic 1960: 112). The reason for this was probably the recognition of the revolt against Ottoman imperialism as a clearly Serbian and Orthodox movement.3 By contrast, the state authorities did not see any threat from the Roman Catholic Church or could not conceive of an alliance of the Church with the ‘atheist’ First Empire of Napoleon I (Malcolm 1994: 98). How- ever, there was not only a cleft between two religions, Christianity and Islam. Relations between two great Christian churches, the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic, were also very tense, for Orthodox and Catholic clergy often agitated on behalf of competing national interests (Andric 1994: 53-54). In the event, relations between Muslims and Christians greatly deteriorated in the second half of the 19th century with the interests of Christians in the country represented by the diplomatic delegates of Russia and Austria-Hungary. During the period of Austro-Hungarian rule, the emperor received from the Or- thodox Patriarch in Constantinople and the Pope the right to elect new Orthodox bishops. In 1882, the Muslims founded an independent hierarchy. The emperor had elected the head of the community, the Reis-ul-ulema, who was also the President of the Islamic Council. The Roman Catholic Church experienced more positive developments than the other two communities. In the capital Sarajevo, for instance, the new Catholic cathedral was expanded and all four Catholic dio- ceses gained considerable benefits. Even if relations between the leaders of the different religions and confessions were not always close, this is not necessarily true of the laity. An American journalist who visited Bosnia in 1902 testifies: “The members of the various creeds live together on a friendly basis, showing mutual respect and tolerance; the courts are wise and honest, justice is guaranteed to every citizen, without regard to confession or social standing” (Curtis 1903: 257). However, ecumenical and interreligious relations deteriorated so much during the Second World War that one can clearly talk of a collapse in communications between the churches and the religious communities. The main reason can be found in long-standing struggles and battles between Croatian Ustaše, Serbian Četniks, and the partisan movement under the leadership of Tito. For this reason, contact between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches seemed almost 3 Particularly important here is the Serbian revolution against the Ottomans (1804- 1835), which ended in the adoption of the Candlemas Constitution (Sretenjski Ustav), so-called because of its signing at Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, in 1835. 204 INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA impossible after the end of WW II for political and historical reasons.4 The posi- tion of the religious communities during the atheistic communist regime of Tito and, in particular, the relationship between Croats and Serbs in the Second World War have created great difficulties for establishing contacts and for possible dialogue.5 Nevertheless, a turning point in ecumenical and interreligious relations came with the implementation of the theological content of the Second Vatican Coun- cil, in particular the conciliar documents Orientalium Ecclesiarum and Nostra Aetate (Wettach-Zeitz 2008: 111). The response of the Roman Catholic Church at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) to global modernisation processes as well as to the spread of communism was of central importance for the insti- gation of ecumenical discussion between Rome and Constantinople at the global level as well as at the local level between the Serbian Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church in Croatia (cf. also Byrnes 2001). The goal in the im- provement of relations between the two Christian churches was the “strengthen- ing of the universal Catholic Church through the unity of the Christian churches” (Wettach-Zeitz 2008: 111). After the decision of the Yugoslav Bishops’ Conference to establish a new com- mission for ecumenical dialogue, which was simply a positive reaction to the already established path of the two churches. In the event, many projects, study days, visits, and to some extent ecumenical prayers, got under way (Bremer 2003: 66). In the period between the Second Vatican Council and the 1991-1995 war in Yugoslavia, relations between three religions and two Christian denomin- 4 Conflicts at that time between the two Christian churches are still a serious problem in communication and, above all, in the understanding of the role of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac (1898-1960), who was beatified as a martyr in 1998. The movement of the Croatian clergy to canonise Cardinal Stepinac as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church (which has still not been successful) has met with strong opposition in the Serbian Orthodox Church. 5 In the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church was seen as a ‘stir- rup-holder’ for the Croatian-Ustaša regime because it had been silent on the persecution, expulsion, and murder of Orthodox Serbs or had even profited from forced conversions. The fact that before the Second Vatican Council the Roman Catholic Church had regarded Orthodoxy as a mission field gave weight to the reproaches of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Croatian Fascists had murdered 217 of the 577 Serbian Orthodox priests in Croatia and Bosnia and expelled 344 to Serbia. About 400 Serbian Orthodox churches were destroyed. 205 STUDIES IN INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE 26 (2016) 2 ations in Bosnia-Herzegovina had improved, as they did in the whole of Yu- goslavia.6 Various initiatives arose, for example at the ‘grassroots’ local level of individual clergy as well as at a high academic level where there were joint con- ferences and discussions. In numerous documents the Yugoslav government as- serted that relations among the two Christian churches and three religions were flourishing and constantly improving from the 1960s onwards (Perica 2001: 42). Through mutual visits of heads of churches and religious communities, and open participation in each other’s feast and festivals, a better relationship developed, and not just among the representatives of the religious communities.7 The Yugo- slav government reports documenting the mutual support of churches and religious communities in construction projects, various renovations, and cultural projects, sometimes even organising themselves together, are well known (Bremer 2003: 69). Even at the academic level, some ecumenical and interreligious initiatives have developed since the beginning of the 1960s. Between 1964 and 1990, there were many ecumenical symposia held every two years, especially in Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, and Sarajevo (Perica 2001: 44). Aca- demic contributions to these symposia were generally published and testify to the exchange of theological knowledge. These documents, however, also illus- trate the fact that “people often talked at each other, not to each other” (Bremer 2003: 69),

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