Almost nineteen years ago exactly, Serbian forces stormed the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica. Though it had been declared a UN safe area, the so-called international community did nothing to defend the Muslim municipality. Less than nothing. Srebrenica lay close to Serbia proper, and was in the path of the ethnic cleansers, who wished especially to have this borderland to themselves. Temporarily they succeeded, but ultimately they failed. Not only is the Bosnian genocide proof of the ugly reality of Islamophobia, but the Wests response to the slaughter of a people, after endless pious pronouncements of never again, was to deny Bosnians the arms necessary to defend themselves. They were not just left alone, but actively sanctioned. There at Srebrenica, some 8,000 boys and men, between the ages of 12 and 74 (according to some estimates), were butchered over 3 days. Few peoples have suffered so. Tens of thousands, in total, were killed, out of a population of 1.5 million. Some 60,000 women were raped. (Close to one in ten.) And yet. The Bosnians fought back. They took what arms they had, cobbled together an army, and resisted. They were the inheritors of an Ottoman legacy of pluralism, a history of diversity and multiculturalism that is alien to the sanitized secularism of contemporary European nationalism, which is left slack-jawed in the face of real difference. A legacy, too, that modern, puritanical Muslims, are frequently violating. From a people who embraced human difference, we have become a people who seek to purify ourselves, to flatten out differences in opinion and practice, who cannot tolerate disagreement. This violates the classical Islamic legacy, and sectarian warfare in places the Ottomans ruled is so brutal especially because of their refusal, broadly speaking, to homogenize. And yet, on the frontiers of the Muslim-majority world, the heart of Islam is defended. Sarajevo underwent the longest siege of *any city* in the history of modern warfare--some four years. And yet. The United States eventually spearheaded an intervention, a reminder of a recent time when America was clearly on the side of Muslims, an indication that civilizational clash is not inevitable. But some say Americas motives were noble. Some say because momentum was shifting to the Bosnians, and the idea of a wholly united, multiethnic Bosnia, was anathema to some of Europes most racist and passively genocidal regimes. (What else do you call a French government, for example, that was fine with ethnic cleansing a short flight from its borders?) In Bosnia, the Muslims wanted a state that embraced its peoples, not tore them apart. In Bosnia, while Muslims committed serious human rights violations, these were astonishingly few and far between. They were the victims, but they held to their values. Just because you are a persecuted people does not mean you have to become a morally bankrupt people. In the heart of Sarajevo today, you find a church, synagogue, and mosque, in closer proximity than anywhere else in Europe except perhaps for very modern structures. When Muslims were being slaughtered, their capital city starved, their women violated, their mosques detonated, their minarets toppled, their heritage erased, no one at any senior level thought to reciprocate. And just a few weeks ago, we saw a united Bosnian team compete in the World Cup, an indication of a country that refuses to be reduced to the tragedy of its past. What allows some peoples to bounce back, and others to remain hobbled by their wounds? I have been to Bosnia twice, and each time was awed by its people. Today we remember Srebrenica. Today we remember, for the next time someone tells you anti-Muslim bigotry is an excuse, consider that in the last twenty-some years, tens of thousands of Muslims across Europe, that supposedly uniquely enlightened subcontinent, have been slaughtered. Omarska. Gorazde. Pristina. Grozny. But we do not use that memory to justify human rights violations. We do not allow victimhood to define us or dictate to us. And I use this space to suggest: The best way you can remember is, if you have the health wealth and access, to go yourself. To see Bosnia. To see her people. To build an emotional bond. To isolate a people is to be a collaborator in their marginalization. See Srebrenica, if you can. Meet survivors. Hear from them. So that Bosnia does not just enter your mind, but your heart.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 13:56:59 +0000
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