The head of Bosnia’s Islamic Community condemned the recent attack on Bosniaks in Pljevlja, Montenegro, which took place after three opposition coalitions took the majority in the country’s Parliament in the Sunday election, arguing that the situation reminds of a “return of the ideologies that already led to crime and genocide in this area in the 1990s.”
“The news coming from Montenegro and the anti-Muslim messages of hate which can be heard more and more often in the neighbouring country, and especially yesterday's physical attack on Bosniaks in Pljevlja, have caused unrest among members of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Husein Kavazovic said on Tuesday.
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He said that he is concerned about the “anti-Muslim and anti-Bosniak rhetoric that is for months being tolerated in public has begun to become the basis for violent attacks by organized groups that no longer hide their criminal agenda.”
“All of this reminds of a return of the ideologies that already led to crime and genocide in this area in the 1990s,” the religious leader said.
He appealed to international institutions to take the challenges Montenegro is facing seriously and to respond to “violations of the basic human rights and freedoms of Bosniaks and Muslims, as well as other minorities,” and especially to not ignore “nationalist and inflammatory rhetoric that threatens to incite new crimes” in the region.
He also called on authorities in Montenegro to provide security to its Muslim citizens, both Bosniaks and everyone else.
“We expect the Serbian Orthodox Church to distance itself from the Islamophobic speeches of those who officially act on its behalf and claim to speak from the position of the clergy. They have a special responsibility regarding everything that is happening in Montenegro these days because they have chosen to be the bearers of these processes,” he said.
