Does Mustafa ef. Ceric Want to Provoke a Religious War in Bosnia-Hercegovina?

Hrvatska Rijec, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina, January 16 1999

"The words such as Jesus Christ, Holy Father, Excellence and similar belong to the vocabulary of one faith, Roman Catholic, and determine particular religious terms of one faith... But it is not acceptable that Midheta Bicakcic forces muslims during central news program of RTV BiH, the program followed by people of all religious and cultural backgrounds, to listen about the crucifixion of Issa (a.s.) or Jesus. That can be done in church but not on TV BiH because Jesus is not Christ for muslims but only for Catholics, the Pope is not a Holy Father for muslims but only for Catholics, and the Cardinal is not 'his excellency' for muslims but only for Catholics... I do not understand the need for such blind sycophancy which is not even convincing to those for whom it is intended, let alone for those who do not deserve such kind of force feeding."

If you thought that the above quote was taken from one of the pamphlets by the Active Islamic Youth, you were wrong. Believe it or not, the above quote was taken from the letter sent at the end of the second millennium to the management of RTV BiH by Reis-Ul-Ulema Mustafa efendi Ceric.

TV Converting Muslims to Catholicism?!

It is unlikely that even the most diligent followers of the local events could recall a similar public statement by one of the religious leaders. Besides the statement about usage of terms from Catholic religion, Reis Ceric also expressed dissatisfaction with the allegedly inadequate presentation of [the holly month of] Ramadan. For comparison let us mention that, for example, on TV BiH the periods of Advent or Lent were not mentioned at all...

However, with the open letter addressed to the management of RTV BiH, ef. Ceric has only started a veritable avalanche of similar accusations, this time from the pens and mouths of all sorts of Bosniak intellectuals. Among the first ones to raise his voice was one of the most loyal supporters of Haris Silajdzic, professor Enes Karic. Joining Reis' dissatisfaction with Ramadan programming on RTV BiH, Karic is prepared to state the following:

"Concerning Ramadan as an act of faith, even official faith, the duty of BHT is to request from Reis-Ul-Ulema Ceric to allow direct broadcasts of all of his Friday lectures in Begova mosque. These lectures and the prayer itself could be broadcast during early evening hours so that the Bosnian public could hear and see them."

Thus, Karic put himself for a moment into the role of a TV editor, suggesting that the citizens of Bosnia-Hercegovina follow lectures by ef. Ceric every evening on their TV sets. It is interesting that it did not occur to Silajdzic's professor to suggest that during Lent, "state" TV broadcasts sermons of his excellence Cardinal Vinko Puljic. Certainly, in that case, there would be many more fighters for "the united and democratic Bosnia-Hercegovina" who would interpret these daily appearances and speeches by Cardinal Vinko Puljic as an attempt to convert Muslims in Bosnia-Hercegovina to Catholicism. However, in the case of ef. Ceric that would not be true, since Catholics, if the management of TV BiH followed the advice of Prof. Karic, would get the chance to every day (in the early evening hours) acquire new knowledge about Islam and its advantages with respect to other monotheistic religions. It is unlikely that in that case ef. Ceric and Prof. Karic would be concerned about possible conversion of Catholics in Bosnia-Hercegovina to Islam.

Serialized Program About Mosques Like a Sitcom

"The amount of programming is not the only concern. I am not satisfied with the content, the depth of analysis of the phenomenon called Ramadan. My impression is that the media have a very superficial approach. Ramadan deserves more attention from the media. Generosity [of God] should be shared with everyone. There would be no more Bosniaks had we not overcome exoticism and folklore. What we are given is banal. They keep putting us to sleep with gun fire and lighting of incense. That is a stereotype that does not get into the essence of Ramadan," says Numic in his statement for Ljiljan.

Unlike Numic, other leaders of the ruling Bosniak political party mostly avoided to take a stand regarding Reis' letter. Of course, that does not mean that they condemn it. On the contrary.

However, Purivatra and Hadzifejzovic angered the most the chief of Reis-Ul-Ulema's office and the president of the Ilmija Association of Bosnia-Hercegovina, Muharem efendi Hasanbegovic. According to him, Senad Hadzifejzovic hung up on him during one of their numerous conversations. Hasanbegovic is especially dismayed by the fact that Bosniaks living abroad were disappointed by the Ramadan programming on BHT. However, it appears that the chief of Reis' office is not all that well acquainted with the satellite program of BHT. Namely, before and during Ramadan, the satellite program of BHT includes a show "Mosques of Bosnia-Hercegovina", immediately after the main news program Dnevnik. The number of episodes in this series rivals that of any popular sitcom, such as "the Sunset beach" or "Esmeralda" [a Colombian soap popular in the former Yugoslavia]. However, Hasanbegovic either does not know that or fakes ignorance. The man who dislikes phone receivers has also issued an interesting demand about the inclusion of the religions leaders into the Governing Board of the "state" television.

The logic behind Reis and his letter is best revealed by Sarajevo Mufti Husein ef. Smajic. Without any hesitation ef. Smajic concludes the following:

"Both the Orthodox and Catholic Christians more-or-less follow their programs via SRT and HRT, respectively. Taking into account that in the past there was much more religious programming on BHT we are convinced that the amount of programming about the most recent Ramadan is insufficient. I think that currently there is very little religious content on BHT, and without religion there is indeed no feeling of belonging to a nation, patriotic feeling and culture."

Therefore, the leaders of the Islamic Community and leading Bosniak politicians do not see BHT as a common but simply their national television station. Of course, during the war and in the first post-war years they were not bothered by the fact that BHT was called state television since at that time they saw Bosnia-Hercegovina as their own state. Likewise, BHT was a Bosniak television, but at that time there was no Westendorp to see that every evening, before the main news program, TV plays a spot with the self-declared anthem of the Bosniak people "I am your son", written by Bosniak writer Dzemaludin Latic.

However, let us not be fooled. BHT is not and, having in mind the current situation, it will not be the TV station for the whole Bosnia-Hercegovina and all of its nations in the foreseeable future. The Office of the High Representative is also aware of that. Its spokesperson, Simon Haselock, regarding the Reis' letter, stated that additional pressure on the management of TV BiH is needed in order to make that TV station acceptable to the Croats in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

As far as respected ef. Ceric is concerned, with his statement he demonstrated that the correspondence with the adviser to the Croatian president, Ivic Pasalic, was not only a short detour into politics. By confusing the issues, Reis Ceric, maybe even inadvertently, made the move that could take Bosnia-Hercegovina into the ante-room of a religious war.

Statement by the Arch-bishopric Vrhbosanska

"We respect the right of Islamic leaders and their believers to give their suggestions and comments regarding the portrayal of their faith in the public media of our country. We assume that this letter was provoked by the dissatisfaction with the amount of programming dedicated to Islam in the same media at the time after Catholic Christmas, which this year coincided with the fast during the month of Ramadan. We do not agree that the mentioning of our terminology for the founder of Christian faith and Catholic dignitaries in these media represents an attempt to convert to Catholicism those viewers or listeners of the media who are not Roman Catholic Christians."