Prelates and politicians in Bosnia: The role of religion in nationalist mobilisation

Nationalities Papers

Volumn 25, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 481-499

  Cohen, Lenard J ^a  

^a SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0040389210     PISSN: 00905992     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00905999708408520     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. Aleksa Djilas, "Fear Thy Neighbor - The Breakup of Yugoslavia," in Charles A. Kupchan, ed., Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe (New York: Council of Foreign Relations, 1995), p. 87. For an excellent survey concerning the impact of religious factors in historical and recent Balkan ethnic conflicts see, Josip Kumpes, "Religija i etnički sukobi na prostorima bivse Jugoslavije," in Ivan Grubišić ed., Konfesije i rat (Split: Centar za religijska istraživanja, 1995), pp. 257-280. The same author has also prepared the most comprehensive bibliography on the subject, "Religija, politika, etnicnost: selektivna bibliografija," Migracije teme, Vol. 10, Nos 3-4, 1994, pp. 251-280.
2. Aleksa Djilas, "Fear Thy Neighbor - The Breakup of Yugoslavia," in Charles A. Kupchan, ed., Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe (New York: Council of Foreign Relations, 1995), p. 87. For an excellent survey concerning the impact of religious factors in historical and recent Balkan ethnic conflicts see, Josip Kumpes, "Religija i etnički sukobi na prostorima bivse Jugoslavije," in Ivan Grubišić ed., Konfesije i rat (Split: Centar za religijska istraživanja, 1995), pp. 257-280. The same author has also prepared the most comprehensive bibliography on the subject, "Religija, politika, etnicnost: selektivna bibliografija," Migracije teme, Vol. 10, Nos 3-4, 1994, pp. 251-280.
3. Aleksa Djilas, "Fear Thy Neighbor - The Breakup of Yugoslavia," in Charles A. Kupchan, ed., Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe (New York: Council of Foreign Relations, 1995), p. 87. For an excellent survey concerning the impact of religious factors in historical and recent Balkan ethnic conflicts see, Josip Kumpes, "Religija i etnički sukobi na prostorima bivse Jugoslavije," in Ivan Grubišić ed., Konfesije i rat (Split: Centar za religijska istraživanja, 1995), pp. 257-280. The same author has also prepared the most comprehensive bibliography on the subject, "Religija, politika, etnicnost: selektivna bibliografija," Migracije teme, Vol. 10, Nos 3-4, 1994, pp. 251-280.
4. Radmila Radić, Verom protiv vere: drzava i verske zajednice u Srbiji 1945-1953 (Belgrade: Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije, 1995).
5. Radmila Radić, "Srpska pravoslavna crkva u poratnim i ratnim godinama 1980-1985," Republika, Vol. 7, Nos 121-122, 31 August 1995, pp. 1-24. See also Sergej Flere, "Rasprostranjenost i prihvatanje pravoslavlje danas," in Religija i društvo (Zagreb: Centar za idejno-terijski rad GKSKH, 1987), pp. 112-121.
6. Radmila Radić, "Srpska pravoslavna crkva u poratnim i ratnim godinama 1980-1985," Republika, Vol. 7, Nos 121-122, 31 August 1995, pp. 1-24. See also Sergej Flere, "Rasprostranjenost i prihvatanje pravoslavlje danas," in Religija i društvo (Zagreb: Centar za idejno-terijski rad GKSKH, 1987), pp. 112-121.
7. Marinko Čulić, "Pastir svih Srba," Danas, No. 386, 11 July 1989, p. 25.
8. Patriarch German interviewed in Milo Gligorijević, "Kosovo lekcije iz istorije," NIN, No. 2008 (Special Supplement), 25 June 1989, p. 5.
9. Patriarch Pavle interviewed in Milorad Vucelić, ed., Conversations with the Epoch (Belgrade: Ministry of Information of the Republic of Survey, 1991), p. 13.
10. Yeshayahu Jelinik, "Clergy and Fascism: The Hlinka Party in Slovakia and the Croatian Ustasha Movement," in Stein Ugelvik Larson, et al., eds, Who Were the Fascists: Social Roots of European Fascism (Oslo: Universitetforlaget, 1980), pp. 369-372.
11. Xavier Bolgarel, Le Parti de l'Action Democratique: de la marginalite a l'hegemonie (Paris: DEAIEP, 1993), pp. 50-51.
12. Ibid., p. 59.
13. Darko Tanasković, "Why Is Islamic Radicalization in the Balkans Being Covered Up?" Eurobalkans, No. 15, Summer 1994, p. 35.
14. Esad Čimić has suggested that from such remarks it "isn't difficult to conclude," that the creation of "some kind of Islamic, Muslim state ... is not rejected but simply postponed." "Okrugli stol-'Što je vjerski rat," in Ivan Ivan Grubišić, ed., Konfesije i rat, p. 294.
15. Xavier Bolgarel, "Le Parti de l'Action Democratique: de la marginalite a lhegemonie," p. 62.
16. Ibid., p. 67.
17. Ibid., p. 68.
18. A Bosnian Muslim view of "Bosnian Islam" cited approvingly by Fouad Ajami in Elaine Sciolino, "What's Iran Doing in Bosnia Anyway?" New York Times, 10 December 1995, Section 4, p. 4.
19. Radmila Radić, "Srpska pravoslavna crkva u poratnim i ratnim godinama 1980-1985," p. 24.
20. Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea, "Medjugorje and the Crisis in Yugoslavia," in William Swatos Jr., ed., Politics and Religion in Central and Eastern Europe (Westport: Praeger, 1994), pp. 197-208. The Croatian-American sociologist, Stjepan Meštrović, has argued that the central message of Medjugorje is peace, an expression of Croatian culture that is "still Gothic" and non-expansionist. He claims that any Croatian brutality committed following Yugoslavia's disintegration in 1991 is simply reactive nationalism to Serbia's "expansionist 'civilization,'" Habits of the Balkan Heart (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1993), pp. 128-129.
21. Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea, "Medjugorje and the Crisis in Yugoslavia," in William Swatos Jr., ed., Politics and Religion in Central and Eastern Europe (Westport: Praeger, 1994), pp. 197-208. The Croatian-American sociologist, Stjepan Meštrović, has argued that the central message of Medjugorje is peace, an expression of Croatian culture that is "still Gothic" and non-expansionist. He claims that any Croatian brutality committed following Yugoslavia's disintegration in 1991 is simply reactive nationalism to Serbia's "expansionist 'civilization,'" Habits of the Balkan Heart (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1993), pp. 128-129.
22. S. Zimdars-Swartz, Encountering Mary (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), p. 19, cited in ibid., p. 203.
23. S. Zimdars-Swartz, Encountering Mary (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), p. 19, cited in ibid., p. 203.
24. Kuharić interviewed by Marinko Čulić, "Nismo u narucju vlasti," Danas, No. 461, 18 December 1990, p. 22.
25. Živko Kustić interviewed by Davor Butković, "Iz komunisticke tiranije upali smo u jos stariji tip primitivizma!" Globus, No. 140, 13 August 1993, p. 32.
26. Globe and Mail, 9 December 1995, p. A11.
27. San Francisco Chronicle, 11 August 1995, p. A1.
28. Globe and Mail, 27 July 1992, p. A1.
29. The war in Bosnia led to wide-spread destruction of churches, church property, and even the murder of clergymen by extreme elements of all the warring sides. Most acts of church destruction were carried out as part of an effort to establish ethnically pure zones of control, particularly by Serb and Croat forces. Claims about the nature and magnitude of such activity became a regular component of the heated propaganda battle during the conflict. While such destruction and atrocities obviously illustrate a religious aspect or by-product of the warfare in Bosnia, it is extremely difficult to evaluate, comprehensively, the structure of motives and circumstances that account for numerous particular cases. Not surprisingly, the various antagonists often make claims that their side's particular religious beliefs account for a higher level of ethical conduct in the fighting. For a Croatian presentation of this position with regard to Croat-Serb fighting in Croatia, see Miroslav Vujević, "Utjecaj vjerskih normi na ponasanje u hrvatskom domovinskom ratu," Politička misao, Vol. 131, No. 4, 1994, pp. 147-153.
30. Martin Udovičić, "Hrvatska Travnička Zajednica-Travnička Provincija," in Marko Karamatić ed., Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini: uzroci, posljednice, perspeketive (Zagreb: Franjevačka teologija, Sarajevo, 1993), p. 80.
31. Independent, 5 October 1993, p. 3.
32. Cardinal Kuharić had earlier stated his views on the nature of the war in Bosnia: "One needs to clearly realize that the [Roman Catholic] Church didn't proclaim the war in the Church and that this war has completely other motives, absolutely political, that these are aggressive pretensions, and that people who are simply not open to advice from any religious community have their goal, they wish war, a war of exclusivist nationahstic policy. What can the churches do now?" Novi danas, 31 August 1992, p. 17.
33. In January 1994, Kuharić had issued a more direct criticism of Tudjman's policies in Bosnia, and also called for better relations among all nationalities, British Broadcasting Corporation Shortwave Broadcast/EE/1903/C, 24 January 1994.
34. Foreign Broadcast Information Service-Eastern Europe-95-032 [hereinafter FBIS-EEU], 16 February 1995, pp. 29-30.
35. Paul Hockenos, "Shreds Remain of Multicultura, Bosnia," National Catholic Reporter, Vol. 31, No. 20, 17 March 1995, p. 8.
36. FBIS-EEU-95-071, 13 April 1995, p. 30.
37. Boston Globe, 22 September 1995, p. 1.
38. Independent, 15 June 1992, p. 9.
39. FBIS-EEU-94-178, 14 September 1994, p. 57.
40. Karadžić interview with Paul Mojzes, "Confessions of a Serb Leader," The Christian Century, 16 August 1995.
41. FBIS-EEU-95-009, 13 January 1995, p. 43.
42. On 7 August 1995, after Croatian troops recaptured the Krajina area, Patriarch Pavle and the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church condemned the Milošević regime: "With its power-hungry actions and self-serving attitude, this same leadership trampled on all promises and guarantees it gave to the Serbian Krajina and led the nation into a blind alley."
43. Agence France Presse, 23 December 1995.