The Democratic Action Party (SDA) leader Bakir Izetbegovic said in an interview with BIR TV that the attack on the chief Imam in Kozarac, Amir Mahic, charged with spreading ethnic intolerance as one of his sermons, and the case of the mosque in Rabrani clearly speak of today's attitude towards Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that it is necessary to jointly oppose such an attitude.

Bosniaks today need a pro-Bosnian bloc, Izetbegovic said.

“We have attacks on imams, on mosques, on buildings that are being renovated, insults. Very ugly things happened, and the verbal delict is being attempted to be introduced only for Muslims, for Bosniaks,” said Izetbegovic.

The case of the mosque in Rabrani, where Neum authorities are threatening to demolish the mosque renovated thanks to donations, shows that “we are getting used to the fact that where the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) rules, Bosniaks are second-class citizens,” and that they cannot enjoy their rights.

“They [HDZ BiH] constantly talk about their own vulnerability, but when you look at how Bosniaks live in Capljina, Stolac and the like, it’s very bad. In Mostar, they gave themselves the permit for a tower for the cathedral, which is twice or three times higher than normal, it is a message of dominance. They issued themselves a permit in Mostar for the construction of a theatrr on the waqf land (a donated plot of land belonging to the Islamic Community in BiH), but they’re not granting a permit for a mosque. They place yellow tape around it so that people can’t pray inside. Because of all this, we need a pro-Bosnian bloc,” Izetbegovic stressed.

Responding to such a situation bestowed onto Bosniaks, it is necessary to act jointly, he said, “and not for half [of Bosniak political representatives] to be silent just so they would get into power, with the help of the forces that are doing this to the Bosniaks”.

In the interview, Izetbegovic assessed that even in the fifth month since the general elections in BiH, despite the promise of quick implementation of the election results and the formation of government institutions, not much has been done.

“I wouldn't even say it's slow, as much as it is bad. The pro-Bosnian bloc, which should have a natural cohesion, a common task when it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina, a bloc of parties that see Bosnia and Herzegovina [as a whole], its inter-ethnic relations, its European and NATO future, and so on, was purposely broken up,” he said.

The SDA leader believes that the speed of the implementation of election results is not so much a problem, as the problem is that the bloc was broken up due to the “greed of a part of the parties from the bloc, encouraged by foreigners” and their servility towards the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) led by Milorad Dodik and the HDZ BiH, just so they could be part of the ruling majority in the country. This, he said, made Bosniaks, patriots, lose positions [in the government].

Because of everything, he explained, a pro-Bosnian bloc that would be a counterweight to the SNSD and HDZ Bih must be re-established.

“I offered it four or five years ago to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), because I don’t see an alternative to a positive unification that wouldn’t enter into conflicts with the said duo, but would put things in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the right footing. The SNSD-HDZ duo would be unhappy if that happened, just as they are happy now seeing that Dodik's prediction that Serbs and Croats would rule over Muslims has come true. Greed is the problem, some from that bloc ran away. But I think that this pro-Bosnian bloc can happen in this mandate, regardless of the current atmosphere and this attitude towards the SDA,” Izetbegovic concluded.