In the 13th century, Bosnia was a country with a Muslim majority. They live in peace with the minorities. At that time, at least 45 percent of the 4.7 million Bosnians converted to Islam. The rest are Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and others.
The stream of modernization made the Bosnians follow the European style in general. The religious identity is no longer visible. All live side by side in peace in the framework of harmony between religious believers.
Muslim life with its Islamic values gradually faded in the Balkans. Discos and bars appeared in every corner of the city. There is no distance between Muslims and non-Muslims. Starting from how to dress, hang out, to celebrate the big religious days. Everything blends in the name of tolerance.
In a diary written by Zlatan Filipovic - a Muslim girl born in a respectable family in Sarajevo who became the capital of Bosnia - told how secular Muslims were before 1992. At that time, no Muslim women wore a veil. Men are also similar to other non-Muslim men.
When religious holidays, like Christmas and Lebaran Muslims, almost all Bosnians celebrate. It does not matter whether he's Muslim or not. Bosnian children are also accustomed to western traditions, such as Valentine, April Fool, New Year, Halloween, and the like. Meanwhile, the prayer is no longer done.
Bosnian Muslims - like Indonesian Muslims who migrated from the original beliefs of Hinduism, Buddhism, and animism - came from followers of Bogomil, the heir of Heretis. This belief vanished after Islam from the Ottoman Turks came in and offered a degree of equality. Meanwhile, Bosnia itself is identified as a Muslim majority population, following the breakup of the Yugoslav federal state (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia) in 1990.
In the midst of the Bosnian Muslims' deep insecurity of an excessive lifestyle of secularism and religious tolerance, the majority Serbs embraced Orthodox Christians kept a fire in the chaff. Under the pretext of reunification of Yugoslavia in the Republic of Srpska, Serbia perpetrated massacres against Bosnia and / or Muslims.
History records Serbian action to Bosnian Muslims as the greatest genocide of modern times. The killing was done systematically. The goal is to erase a nation and ethnicity. Secular and non-Muslim styles do not save Bosnian Muslims. They were wiped out and slaughtered for their Islamic identity.
On paper, the Bosnian Federal Commission for Missing Persons recorded 8,373 Bosnian Muslim men and teenagers killed and wasted in hundreds of mass graves. As of July 2012, 6,838 victims' names were identified from mass grave excavations.
Zlatan Filipovic, a 13-year-old girl (at the start of the war) who survived the massacre that lasted until 1995 wrote her testimony. Bosnian Muslims who had not been so concerned about Islamic values were startled by an attack that began in April 1992.
Friends, relatives, and other familiar family members, sharing together, and celebrating Valentine together, now leave them, even turn to attack and kill them with Serbian soldiers.
In the midst of ruined building debris came the echoing whistle of the bullets, mortar explosions, and the tears of Muslim women rape victims. In bitterness, Bosnian Muslims began to regain consciousness and return to their Islamic identity.
Consciousness arises. Women are back in veils, men carrying guns to survive start to pray again. The Azan began to echo through the collapsed buildings. The holy book of the Qur'an that has long been stored in the closets reopened. However, they are late. They are being hunted by bullets and the end of a bloodthirsty Muslim dagger.
The onslaught that has caused Bosnian Muslims to flee to refugee camps. Srebrenica became one of the largest camps. The UN declared Srebrenica a safe zone for refugees. However, the zone is only guarded by 400 peacekeepers from the Netherlands, another version even states only 100 personnel. Nothing guarantees the lives of safely displaced Muslims.
The greatest massacre of Muslims of this modern century has even made Indonesia jolt. In early March 1995, President Soeharto and his entourage flew straight to Europe and rushed into the smoldering region of Sarajevo. Leading the largest Muslim country made Suharto conduct a "dare to die" operation even though the UN declared unable to guarantee the safety of his visit.
On July 6, 1995, Serbian troops began pounding out Dutch troops in Srebrenica and managed to enter Srebrenica five days later. Children, women, and parents gathered in Potocari to seek refuge from Dutch troops. On 12 July, Serbian troops
began to separate men 12-77 years old. They were taken under the pretext of interrogation. A day after that, the massacre took place in a warehouse near Kravica Village.
Unstoppable Malang. The blazing news of 5,000 Bosnian Muslims taking refuge was handed over to Serb forces because the Dutch left Srebrenica. Bosnian Muslims are alone among the great European countries.
Within five days, 8,000 people were killed in Srebrenica. NATO intervened after the massacre, imposing a very late peace. In Sarajevo, 11,000 people were slaughtered mercilessly for three years of assault. It is estimated that the entire victims of the Bosnian war reached 100 thousand people.
In accordance with the Dayton Accords of 1995, the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina was upheld. However, the country is divided into two parts: 51 per cent of Muslim-Croat joint territory (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and 49 per cent Serb. The United Nations also promised to prosecute war criminals in an attack later called the world's first genocide.
Former president of the Republic of Srpska (Serbia) Radovan Karadzic was arrested on 21 July 2008. Three months ago, March 23, 2016, Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He was found guilty of the slaughter of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims.
"Karadzic also committed other humanitarian crimes during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War," the ICTY ruling said, while Srebrenica's attack leader General Ratko Mladic was arrested in May 2011. He is currently on trial at the International Court of Justice.
The massacre of Bosnian Muslims under the pretext of unification of the country became a lesson for Muslims outside the Arabian peninsula, especially Indonesia. The poignant story that plagued Bosnia deservedly reminded Indonesia not to fall asleep in servitude to secularism. Because, secularism has many faces. One is to eliminate color, influence, dominance, and the rights of the majority.
When Muslim majority is weak because of identity crisis, it will be very easy to be broken down and pitted against sheep. In Indonesia itself, an attempt to get Muslims to leave a religious identity in the life of the nation and the state has existed long ago.
Later, the movement began to appear on the surface in a very massive and systematic, even by legal institutions even once. Therefore, do not be surprised if there is a Muslim who insists on insulting his religion to defend his freedom.
Do not be surprised if there are Muslims who come to insult his cleric just because the scholar did not agree with him. It is not surprising that many Muslims do not like the writings that discuss Islam's refusal of secularism. This is what happens in contemporary Indonesia, a country still inhabited by the majority of Muslims.
While there is nothing wrong with tolerance, as long as tolerance is not excessive, let alone suppress tolerance. At al-Ludd (now Tel Aviv), Palestine in 1903, some Jews came to offer fraternity and live peacefully with Arabs and Palestinians.
However, days after the 1948 declaration of the State of Israel by Europe, the Jewish people became savage along with the arrival of Israeli soldiers. In July 1948, Palestinian Arab citizens were massacred, including thousands of people who were inserted into the mosque then bombarded with antitank bullets.
That night, about 35,000 Palestinian Arabs flocked from their hometown, which later became the next massacre center: Tel Aviv. Day after day, Jews come with exodus waves all the time. Be the occupied Palestine to this day. Simple, but very extreme and cruel.
The world also notes how cruel the treatment of Muslims who become a minority. Only the United Nations and the denials of Myanmar themselves claim the killing of Rohingyas is not a genocide. Far from that, the reality tells how genocide was done in a brutal and open manner by Buddhist Myanmar to the helpless Rohingyas.
Learning from the majority Bosnian Muslims, they are becoming more religious today. In the midst of tolerance, diversity, and harmony amongst religious believers, they still pay attention to Islamic values as their identity. The bitter reality of 1992-1995 has taught them how the world beats, that the ugliness is only a few strands behind goodness.
Bosnian Muslims are no longer celebrating the new year. They are guarding themselves more than insulting the Islamic creed. Even so, Bosnia remains the only place in Europe, where there are churches, mosques, and synagogues standing side by side.
Perhaps 1.8 million Bosnian Muslims began to realize that what the Prophet's son-in-law, Ali bin Abi Talib said, "Organized crime will be able to defeat the unorganized good," it is true. Wallahualam.
Author: Ilham Tirta (Online Republika Journalist)