Muslims versus Muslims (minority, hell, islam, Zen)

[Djamila]

The Party for Democratic Action (SDA), an officially secular but devoutly nationalist Muslim political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has come under attack from the inside.

The party is split among a fault line that has manifested itself in many areas of Bosnian society - moderate and fundamentalist interpretations of Islam. A vast majority of Bosnians subscribe to the former, but the minority who subscribe to the latter are very vocal and use the genocide carried out against Bosnian Muslims as a sacred cover. Saying anything about them in Bosnia would evoke the same disgust as Ann Coulter's comments about 9/11 widows evoked in the United States.

Until recently, this conflict has raged behind closed doors with Bosnians presenting a united face to their friends and enemies throughout the world. Now, though, the fight has come out in the open.

Election posters featuring female Presidential and Parliamentary candidates have been defaced with messages placed to conceal their faces and cleveage. One candidate, Lejla Smajlovic:

...was assaulted outside the Bosnian Presidency. Protestors threw paint-filled balloons at her and even got into a fist-fight with security forces who whisked her away to safety. Fundamentalist protestors were furious she was depicted standing in front of a mosque without a veil in several of her election posters. Bosnian media reported only that the Presidency building had been attacked, but TV1 released cellphone camera footage of the attack.

Such expressions of religious devoutness in a fanatical sense always enrage Bosnians and have led in the past to boycotts and other measures that have completely destroyed political parties, private businesses, and religious charities. For these reasons, SDA is officially siding with the liberals but there are some signs that Bosnian voters might actually switch parties and vote instead for SDP.

We'll see how it goes. This election is a mess so far...

[Djamila]

A few of the female Presidential and Parliamentary candidates representing the SDA party.

Aida Kahriman


Šaćira Mrndžić


Dženisa Buljugić


Djamila Karačić

[Djamila]

Dunja Dizdar


Anisa Bašić


Ana Pokrklić


Adisa Gec


Good luck, ladies! Give'em hell!

[Terrywoodenpic]

I was wondering if fundamentalism was showing it's ugly head in Bosnia.
Looks like it is trying to take overthere too.
What they are doing is only what they have done elsewhere.

Good luck

[Djamila]

And another, at the residency:

Sarajevo: A protest at the President Residence

[Djamila]

A Bosnian Muslim woman passes election posters as she exits the only functioning maternity hospital in the central district of Mostar. More than a decade after the city was ripped apart along ethnic lines, the downtown core that was the front line still lies in ruins.


The children of former Arab fighters and local Bosnian women protest an election promise by the Bosnian Patriotic Party to review the citizenship of all war-era immigrants, a process that is expected to result in the deportation of more than 400 Arab men. The sign reads, "Do you not think of your children?"

[Djamila]

Bosnian Muslim girls, the children of former Arab fighters and local Bosnian women, protest an election promise to review the citizenship of all war-era immigrants. Such a process is expected to result in more than 400 Bosnians of Arab origin being stripped of their citizenship, separated from their families, and deported. Sign in front reads, "Do not walk over our rights."

[Djamila]

And there's still hope for some sanity. Youth Voices is a group mainly composed of Bosnian Muslims but also of Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Jews. Here they're protesting for an end to anti-Muslim and anti-Roman Catholic election rhetoric from Orhodox Christian policitians outside the main Roman Catholic church in Sarajevo during the call to prayer (bells ring at the same time). They release Bosnian-flag-colored balloons as a symbol for peace.

Go girls!

Countdown for the Elections

[Djamila]

Bosnian Muslim girls pass near an election poster for Dr. Bozo Ljubic of the fundamentalist Roman Catholic party, HDZ. The poster reads, "I believe in our people". Mostar's downtown core, once the front-line between Roman Catholic West Mostar and Muslim East Mostar, remains in ruins due to territorial disputes which have still not been rectified more than a decade after the end of hostilities.

[Djamila]

Bosnian Roman Catholic women walk near an election poster for the nationalist Muslim party, ZaBiH. The poster reads, "100% Bosnia and Herzegovina". This street was once the front-line in a bitter war that destroyed downtown Mostar and caused the city's once-mixed population to polarize, with Roman Catholics in West Mostar and Muslims in East Mostar. Territorial disputes about Mostar's downtown core have prevented reconstruction efforts. On the other side of the street, election posters for the fundamentalist Roman Catholic party, HDZ, can be seen.