There are two
aspects of this article that I find particularly interesting, especially in the
vivid and diverse community of Islam as it stands in the twenty-first century.
The first is that of Wahhabism, which is a radical school of thought; the best
and shortest way to define it is fundamentalist. The second is that the Wahhabi
have found a home in a country a little off the beaten path, especially from
American reporting in the last fifteen years: Bosnia.
Of course
Bosnia was the topic in the early nineties, but this is 2013 and
our focus in America has shifted further east and south. However many Muslim
Bosniaks (a term I also learned from this article) feel cut off from their
religious brethren and from their own country of residence. The Wahhabi
ideology, which advocates Sharia as the only way to govern, is getting
increasing support for this reason.
Some feel
that Wahhabism is a corrupted form of Islam and that “it has nothing to do with
Islam or religion," according to a protester whose name was not given. Due
to the war that ended in 1995, not only is Bosnia extremely poor, but many feel
that the present government was never intended to be a permanent solution and
is thus “in a state of institutionalized temporariness and temporary solutions”
– so says Vlado Azinovic, a security expert and journalist.
However, just
as it is possible that fundamentalists are preying on a society that is looking
for strong leadership and stability that potentially can be found in religious
rule, it is equally possible that this movement is not gaining significant
traction and that Bosniaks are not interested in a “retrograde” movement, that
they are facing future and want a secular government. Wahhabism should still be
followed closely, whatever the case.
Religious
divisions within a faith can be even more troubling than those that come from
outside. A believer feels a more intimate connection with other believers of
the same religion and thus the fighting can be as venomous as when family
members go at it – all the dirty laundry gets aired in a way that is not
possible with strangers. This is what happens especially in the debate, in
every religion, about the direction in which it should go. The internal
questions about fundamentalism in Islam garner even more attention because the
global perception, as unfair as it is, is that fundamental Islam will lead to
global terror and oppressive regimes.
While this
should be an academic discussion, when religion and government come together
the mix is volatile, no matter how one feels about separation of church (or
mosque or synagogue) and state. In Bosnia, there will always be the fear that
history could repeat itself; while for some, Islamic rule could be a balm, for
others it might represent the first step backwards twenty years. It will be
interesting, at the very least, to see what kind of a following that particular
Islamic school has and continues to get, or if it fizzles out as it does not
gain members, or if any other predominantly Muslim country weighs in on the issue.
No matter if
Wahhabism becomes part of the government (or Islam in any way), it is necessary
to pay attention and see how the Wahhabi act on the sidelines of politics and
social life. One extremely educational series I watched was on YouTube,
describing from the inside the Syrian civil war. The government was shown to
equally despise protestors as much as those it suspected to be Salafi – members
of another fundamentalist school. The danger of too much punitive action could
also present itself: in trying to prevent Wahhabism or Salafism from spreading,
the Bosnian government and its citizens should be careful not to overstep their
bounds and avoid another conflict.
Radical Islamists See an Opening in Bosnia
Posted at 3:10 on 3/1/2013
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