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Religion, State and Society

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Orthodoxy and Islam in the Balkans: Conflict or Cooperation?

Paul Mojzes

Online Publication Date: 01 December 2008

To cite this Article Mojzes, Paul(2008)'Orthodoxy and Islam in the Balkans: Conflict or Cooperation?',Religion, State and

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To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/09637490802451075 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09637490802451075

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Religion, State & Society, Vol. 36, No. 4, December 2008

Orthodoxy and Islam in the Balkans: Conict or Cooperation?*

PAUL MOJZES

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ABSTRACT Relationships between Orthodoxy and Islam have been largely determined by the experience of the centuries-long subjugation of the Balkans to the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which made it dicult to weaken ethno-religious identication. The Balkan wars of the 1990s further poisoned the relationships as many Orthodox fear the advance of a militant Islam from Asia. First I survey the antagonistic views of two prominent Serbian anti-Muslim writers. Then I present attempts at dialogue and mutual understanding in terms of actual meetings that took place. There are only a few theoretical voices in the Orthodox and Muslim communities advocating dialogue and cooperation, such as those of a lay Orthodox theologian, Marko Djuric, and of a professional Muslim theologian, Ismail Bardhi.

Introduction The astonishingly intriguing and prescient Macedonian lm Before the Rain (Pred dozhdot) was made in 1996, four or ve years before the outbreak of armed conict between the predominantly Muslim ethnic Albanian guerrillas and the army, police and vigilantes of the majority Orthodox. During the Titoist period and in the rst years of Macedonian independence the two groups lived either alongside or close to each other. In the countryside they did not interact much. In some cities they lived in mixed neighbourhoods; there were integrated schools and few incidents of violence. The lm depicts the dramatic deterioration in relations between the Orthodox and Muslim populations of the Republic of Macedonia, involving rapid alienation and increasing hatred. The Macedonians in the lm manifest a close relationship with the Orthodox Church, expressed through church weddings, festivals and funerals, as well as an outward respect for the clergy, which, however, does not extend to minding the clergys appeal for forgiveness to enemies. The local men hastily accuse a 16-year old Albanian girl of murdering a man from the village (who was actually killed by his jealous wife). Their intention to kill her is justied by the bad blood between Orthodox and Muslims on account of the atrocities committed by the Ottoman Turks during the ve centuries of colonial occupation. This is a dicult view to eradicate.1 Needless to say, the Muslims have a very dierent memory of the Ottoman period, when they were a privileged people who thought of themselves as tolerant and auent. The lm ends with the death not only of the girl, but also of a renowned Macedonian photographer who has lived in
*An earlier version of this article was published in English in the journal Teme (Nis , Serbia), XXXI, 4, OctoberDecember 2007, pp. 789804. ISSN 0963-7494 print; ISSN 1465-3974 online/08/040407-15 2008 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/09637490802451075

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England and returned after many years, having been traumatised by indirectly causing the death of a Bosnian captive. Ironically, the girl is killed by her own brother and the photographer by his cousin, but both are victims of interethnic/interreligious hatred. One certainly does not need to resort to ction or lm to nd examples of confrontational encounters between Orthodox and Muslims in the Balkans.2 We should discern two major aspects of the encounter between Orthodoxy and Islam. One is geopolitical and the other is religious. For many people these two aspects are interrelated, which greatly aggravates the possibility of nding a peaceful resolution to both problems.

Conict The Geopolitical Confrontation Up to the fourteenth century the eastern part of the Balkan peninsula was predominantly Orthodox, both the ruling elite (emperors, tsars, kings, princes, aristocracy) and the populace. With the gradual penetration and subsequent occupation of the lands3 by the Ottoman Turkish Empire, the new ruling elite consisted of various levels of the ethnic Turkish aristocratic administration from the sultan down, as well as the upper social strata of converts from among the subject nationalities. This situation lasted into the nineteenth and early twentieth century when one by one, rst Serbia, then Greece and Montenegro, then Bulgaria, and nally Bosnia, Albania, and Macedonia were detached from the Ottoman Empire, a development which was welcomed by the inhabitants with the exception of the remaining ethnic Turks and those Muslims who had acquired very strong Turkish sympathies. The nascent ethnoreligious nationalistic political forces involved in the process of liberation clearly wished for as weak a Muslim political presence as possible. Throughout much of the twentieth century it seemed that any perceived Muslim threat had vanished. With the exception of Greece all these came under communist control after 1945. In the late 1980s there was growing concern among the national communist elites in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia about the asymmetrically burgeoning growth of the Muslim minorities in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia. With Titos death in 1980 and increasing decentralisation and democratisation of society, followed by the collapse of the communist system throughout Eastern Europe, the non-Muslim populations were confronted with the fact that in a democracy numbers matter in elections. With this came the worrisome reality that voters tended to coalesce around ethnic political parties, and this rapidly led to the articulation of very divergent visions about the political makeup not only of the Balkans but of the new world order. Before long fear arose about renascent Turkish/Muslim imperial ambitions and Muslim fundamentalist aspirations for world-wide Islamic rule. To many the Balkans seemed like a bridgehead for Muslim penetration into Europe. , who The writings of a prominent Serb orientalist, Professor Darko Tanaskovic subsequently became Serbias ambassador to Turkey, are symptomatic of this process , 1992, 2006a). His early essays, written of changing perceptions (see Tanaskovic during the socialist period, were relatively amiable, as he evidently followed the ocial line of bratsvo-jedinistvo (brotherhood and unity Titos slogan), but as the tensions increased, nally leading to armed confrontation during the disintegration of became increasingly hostile to Muslims and he emerged as a Yugoslavia, Tanaskovic , leading proponent of the thesis of zelena transferzala (the green route)4 (Tanascovic 2006b), envisaging an aggressive and united Islamic penetration from Turkey via the

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Muslim populations in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and the Sandz ak to Bosnia and beyond. Against this Muslim zone, he envisages a far less united and more passive Orthodox zone consisting of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece, with Russia as its protector. The Muslim population of the Balkans is viewed as a fth column, a treacherous population that will be or already is receptive to Islamic fundamentalist plans for the conquest of Europe via the Balkans. , Serbs are unwilling to return at the end of the twentieth According to Tanaskovic century to the blessings of indisputable but severely restrictive and selective medieval , 2006a, p. 58 (my translation)). Tanaskovic does not Muslim tolerance (Tanaskovic anticipate that the transformation of a moderate Islam in the Balkans will happen suddenly, but in the long run he anticipates that Islamism will take root among the Muslim population. According to him, Islamic renewal in the Balkans is a great step backward from a humanistic, civil, svetosavski5 renewal among the Serbs at the end of the twentieth century, and Kosovo, in particular, presents a mirror where the Serbs , 2006a, can see how their situation vis-a`-vis Turkey has deteriorated (Tanaskovic p. 73). s views, Samuel Huntingtons clash of civilizations clearly resonates in Tanaskovic considers the USA as an ally of the Muslims, in particular though Tanaskovic designating Turkey as the US proxy for regional policing. He believes that former empires do not lose their taste for expansionism. The political positions of people like allow of no chance for reconciliation between the two worlds: only a well Tanaskovic armed Orthodox alliance supported by Orthodox Russia and perhaps by an awakened West will save Europe from being overrun by fundamentalist Islam. One should not be deceived by his book titles, which suggest a receptiveness and openness to dialogue: on the contrary, his approach is that of a typical Orientalist writing about Islam in an eort to discern areas of possible weakness so that the Serbs will once again be able to defend themselves against their mortal enemies.6 He does not explicitly claim to be Orthodox, though he praises the Orthodox svetosavska spirituality that gives the Serbs their cultural and religious identity. A persistent and virulent attacker of Islam, in the form of alerting the na ve West to the true Islamist essence of Islam and its worldwide ambitions of total conquest, is , a former teacher of pre-military education who is now professor of Miroljub Jevtic is now being political science and religion at the University of Belgrade. Jevtic described as an Orthodox Christian, presumably by virtue of his Serbian nationality. In his typescript submitted to the author Uloga islamske verske zajednice u ratu u bivsoj Jugoslaviji (The Role of the Islamic Religious Community in the War in Former , 2005) he attempts by selective interpretation always giving the Yugoslavia) (Jevtic worst possible slant to ambiguous passages in articles published in pre-war Bosnian periodicals by both non-Bosnian and Bosnian Muslims to ascribe to Muslims a totally antagonistic position towards all non-Muslim and secular regimes, alleging that all Muslims have the sacred duty to ght an uncompromising jihad until the entire world is converted to Islam. Full support for such views is ascribed not only to the 7 (Izetbegovic , 1990) Islamska deklaracija (Islamic Declaration) by Alija Izetbegovic but also to the fairly innocuous supportive statements by Jakub Selimoski, the last leader (reis-ul-ulema) of all Muslims in the constituent republics of Yugoslavia. To , it is Muslims who were actually responsible for the dismemberment people like Jevtic of Yugoslavia, cleverly manipulating the Croats and Albanians against the Serbs. Its [the Islamic communitys P.M.] aim was not to defend Bosnia, but to form an Islamic state, not only in Bosnia but in neighbouring Serbia and Croatia by using , 2005, military means to annul the secular principle of social organization (Jevtic

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s argument is that as long as there are Muslims in the Balkans p. 5). The logic of Jevtic this kind of threat will continue since committed learned Muslims (not the average, unlearned, peaceable Muslim) must by virtue of the theocratic Muslim principle espouse such intolerance toward all other state formations. According to him the Balkans, especially Bosnia, are destined to become the centre of power from which , 2005, p. 3). As recently as October 2006 Jevtic Islam is to spread across Europe (Jevtic was attacking the Muslim custom of wearing the niqab8 as a repression of womens human rights and argued that if European countries were to permit it this would mean Europe was sentencing itself to Islamisation (Veil, 2006). The Kosovo Knot The conicts between Serbs and Albanians and between Macedonians and Albanians are primarily ethnic and linguistic, but since the Serbs and Macedonians are Slavs and Orthodox, while most of the Albanians cohabiting with them in the regions of southern Serbia and eastern Macedonia are Muslim, the conict inevitably also assumes a religious character. The religious dimension assumes maximal proportions as a result of the facts that Kosovo and Metohija (the Serb name for the province; Albanians call it Kosova) contains most of the oldest and most sacred Orthodox churches and monasteries and the erstwhile seat of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate . was located in Pec The civil strife in Kosovo and the subsequent NATO war against Serbia and Montenegro over Kosovo in 1999 are well known, but not the prior history of the conict and the radically diverse interpretations of it. It will suce to say that what began in western awareness as a partial ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians under ended as a nearly complete ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Slobodan Milos evic Kosovo under the auspices of the UN administration. Yet if it were not for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), believes Bishop Artemije of Kosovo, even the last 100,000 Serbs would have been ethnically cleansed.9 ), known for his As recently as 2002 the so-called Cybermonk Fr Sava (Janjic balanced reporting about the situation in Kosovo and his condemnation of s persecution of Kosovar Albanians, complained after internet terrorists Milos evic closed his website that the situation three years after the ending of hostilities of the Kosovo war of 1999 was a planned ethnic cleansing of Orthodox Serbs. Over 110 Orthodox churches and monasteries had been destroyed or damaged and the destruction of the Orthodox heritage was continuing, he claimed. Most horrendous are the desecrations of Orthodox cemeteries . . . graves are opened, caskets broken, and limbs of the corpses scattered . . . (my translation from German in Gstrein, 2002, p. 16). While hundreds of mosques had been newly built, not a single Orthodox church could be rebuilt at that time. In mid-March 2004 the situation became aggravated as masses of Muslim Albanians attacked and burned down more historic churches. (For a detailed description based on press reports, see Mojzes, 2004). In this pogrom 28 people were killed, 30 churches destroyed and 11 damaged, and 400 homes torched in several Serbian villages. The Orthodox political and religious leaders bitterly complained that Serbs were not being protected from those Albanians who did not desire cohabitation of the two peoples. There are, indeed, people in both camps who believe that coexistence is impossible. Anna Herbst reported that after 11 September 2001, and specically during the winter of 200203, the Christian minorities in areas where the Muslims were prevalent in

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Bosnia and Herzegovina experienced violence in the form of attacks on cemeteries, priests, nuns and the faithful. Christmas decorations were burnt, church properties were vandalised and telephone threats, provocations and personal insults were reported. Some imams urged their followers to destroy crosses and drive the swine [Christians] out (Herbst, 2005, p. 27). It is not clear whether Albanians and Serbians will be able to cohabit in Kosovo as their visions for the destiny of the province are too diverse. After all the interventions of NATO and the UN Kosovo remains the tinderbox of the Balkans: maximal conict, minimal cooperation, with enormous potential for bloodshed. The declaration of independence of Kosova on 17 February 2008 does not seem to have changed the tense and unreconciled relationship between the Kosovar Albanians and Serbs.

Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation Overview of Recent Achievements

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OrthodoxMuslim interreligious dialogue and cooperation has usually taken place in the context of wider interreligious activities and occasional personal contacts among high-ranking dignitaries.10 During the wars of the 1990s there were meetings between the heads of religious communities of the former Yugoslavia to issue appeals for peace (Mojzes, 1994, pp. 1478; see also Message, 1992). After the 1995 Dayton Accord and the Paris Peace Conference, with the assistance of the American ambassador in Vienna, Swanee Hunt,11 the top religious leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina created an Interreligious Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Medjureligijsko vijece u Bosni i Hercegovini), and naturally there were contacts between the Islamic and Orthodox representatives on the council. In regard to Kosovo, just prior to the bombing of 1999 an interreligious conference was organised by the Appeal of Conscience Foundation from New York. It took place in Vienna in March 1999, and was followed after the war by the formation of the Interreligious Council of Kosovo (Medjureligijsko vece Kosova in Serbian) in April 2000 with the assistance of the Interreligious Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the World Council of Religions for Peace. The Orthodox, Muslim and Catholic leaders made the following pledge: 1. With one united voice we once again strongly condemn all acts of violence and all violations of basic human rights. The acts that have happened and that continue to happen against innocent persons are evil and cannot be condoned in any way by any of our respective religious traditions. We commit ourselves today to pursue more active cooperation as religious leaders and among our communities. We will work to develop our own structures and means for cooperation through the Interreligious council of Kosovo. In addition we are encouraged by the fact that we will all be participating in the Kosovo Transitional Council and look forward to using that venue to further our work together. Together we support the building of strong local democratic institutions that will continue to ensure security, peace, and wellbeing for all inhabitants of Kosovo. We look to the international community to provide the necessary support for the inhabitants of Kosovo to achieve this goal. We commit ourselves to work together to rebuild the many destroyed and damaged religious buildings in Kosovo, and we appeal to our

2.

3.

4.

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Paul Mojzes friends and partners in various international agencies to assist us with the necessary resources to accomplish this essential task. Finally, we appeal to the international community to work harder on nding and resolving the situation of all the prisoners, missing and abducted persons whose unknown fate remains as one of the deepest wounds of our recent tragic conicts. (Interreligious, 2000)

5.

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That dialogue came to a virtual standstill in 2004, but there were new impulses toward Orthodox and Muslim cooperation at the level of higher clergy in 2005 and 2006 (see Interfaith, 2006; Pocela, 2006; History, 2006). With the help of outside agencies, interreligious meetings are capable of producing lofty statements. Such was the case with a meeting at the medieval Orthodox , Kosovo,12 Serbia, the ancient seat of the Patriarchate of the Serbs, monastery in Pec on 23 May 2006, hosted by the Serbian Orthodox Church, nancially and organisationally co-sponsored by Norwegian Church Aid and involving several outside dialogue experts.13 The representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church were ), Bishop Irinej (Bulatovic ), Bishop Jovan Metropolitan Amlohije (Radovic ), and Vicar Bishop Teodosije. The Muslim representatives were Mufti (Mladenovic Naim Trnava, head of the Islamic community of Kosovo, and Rexhep Boja, dean of the Islamic theological school in Pris tina, as well as representatives of the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish communities. According to Erste (2006) the representatives declared their goal to be to bring joint initiatives for reconciliation, peace, and mutual trust, and acceptance of common life through institutionalised dialogue. They expressed their convictions thus: . . . . . Hatred and war are common enemies; hatred is not freedom. It is unworthy of faith in God to regard tolerance as a necessary evil and to be satised merely to live next to each other. We are called to live with each other and to pray to nd strength to live for each other. Accept the basic premise of unity in diversity. All of us suered. We regret the suering and pray that the suering may not become another stumbling-block toward an open future but that it may become the ground for interactive togetherness and a deeper mutual responsibility before God. We condemn the destruction of all churches, mosques, cemeteries and other religious objects and are rejoicing in their rebuilding but also the rebuilding of our life, heart and spirit. We commit ourselves to regular meetings of the highest religious leaders and the conduct of interreligious dialogue, the return of all refugees, and exchanges between religious communities. (Erste, 2006 my translation and paraphrasing; I added the bullet points for emphasis.)

Whereas in Kosovo/Kosova the dialogue encounters resistance not only on an interethnic basis but also on an interreligious basis (Serbian Orthodox Metropolitan Artemije, for example, is an opponent not only of interreligious dialogue but also of ecumenism), more substantive contributions can take place in Macedonia and BosniaHerzegovina. The process of reconciliation after the wars of the 1990s was given further impulse by two conferences that took place in 2002, one in Skopje, Macedonia (1014 May) and the other in Dubrovnik, Croatia (1214 September). The major

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papers of both conferences were published in English (Mojzes, Swidler and Justenhoven, 2003; the papers of the Skopje Conference were published as a book in 2004 in the Macedonian and Albanian languages under one cover (Mojzes and Svidler, 2004); see also Justehoven, Mojzes and Saje, 2004). The low-intensity civil war in Macedonia that began with an insurrection by Albanian rebels in 2001 was resolved by intense international diplomatic and military intervention and the wise policies of the late Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski. While the major reason why a full-scale civil war was avoided was political accommodation that led to constitutional change and greater autonomy and political participation of Albanians in the governing of Macedonia, interreligious dialogue with the major religious communities also contributed to a change from distrust and belligerence among the Orthodox church leadership and the Muslim clergy to the building of trust by means of dialogue; this was promoted by Boris Trajkovski and accomplished with some assistance from dialogue partners from abroad. Subsequently, without a direct tie-in with the organisers of the 2002 conferences, a series of meetings took place between 2001 and 2007 with the assistance of support and grants from the Conference of European Churches, the government of the Republic of Macedonia, the United States Institute of Peace, Norwegian Church Aid and others. These meetings involved high-ranking representatives of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, the Islamic Religious Community, the Catholic Church, the United Methodist Church and the Jewish Community. This led to the formation of the Council for Interreligious Cooperation (Sovet za megureligijska sorabotka) in Skopje in 2002; at rst cautiously, and then with increasing commitment, this council brought about considerable progress in interreligious relationships.14 Many subsequent meetings were held, some with the facilitation of several of us scholars from abroad, and some at which members of the Council for Interreligious Cooperation met by themselves. They also organised a series of four workshops throughout Macedonia in 2006 in which most of the participants were Orthodox and Muslims (Mojzes and Swidler, 2007). Joint radio and TV interviews were given by the deans of the Orthodox and Muslim theological faculties of Skopje and there was an exchange of lectures between professors of the two schools. It is regrettable that internal diculties in the Islamic religious community are currently impeding eective cooperation.15 An Orthodox Lay Theologians Leap into the Future To my knowledge no mainstream Orthodox theologian in the Balkans has seriously wrestled with the theological meaning of Islam. However, a voice urging a reevaluation by the Orthodox in order to achieve understanding of, respect for and reconciliation with Islam has come from a somewhat unexpected source: a very modest, gentle, somewhat shy retired lawyer who is an independent lay theologian , whose works are perhaps more often published in nonfrom Serbia, Marko Djuric , 2005, 2006). Orthodox than Orthodox publications (see for example Djuric dialogue between Orthodox Christians and Sunni Muslims is According to Djuric imperative in the crisis situation that is both local and worldwide. He himself writes about Islam positively and with respect cites Quranic verses as well as classical Muslim theologians. The thrust of his critical evaluation is on the Orthodox Church, particularly the Serbian, which he is challenging to move from its Byzantine16 theological heritage to a more critical contemporary stance to meet the needs of the age. He challenges the Orthodox Church to move from dogmatic abstractions of the Patristic age and liturgical formalism to the practice of Jesus and the message

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of the gospels and epistles. The Orthodox should focus on similarities they have with Islam and perhaps more on non-theological common challenges in order for the dialogue to be successful. He points out that at times some of the apostle Pauls writings showing dependence on Gods grace parallel Muslim emphasis on the mercy of God. answers the question whether the Muslim is an enemy of the Orthodox in the Djuric negative despite the fact that the Serbs experienced the Turks as enemies for centuries, urges the Orthodox not to during which bloody confrontations occurred. Djuric equate Muslims with the Ottoman conquerors. The Muslims are our neighbours, not those who are distant. It is impossible to love God without loving ones neighbour. The Quran (5:126) states that Christians are the closest friends to Muslims. Orthodox dogmatic inexibility is the most serious obstacle to dialogue and , necessitating a critical stance toward the improved relations, according to Djuric , 2005, p. 94). He hierarchy and a more prophetic rather than apostolic stance (Djuric calls for a Pan-Orthodox Council, which, like the Second Vatican Council, could help the Orthodox Church to nd fresh voices rather than continuing to occupy the ghettoised space between the westernmost reaches of Islam and the easternmost bravely criticises St Sava, the founder of Serbian reaches of Catholicism. Djuric and Orthodox autocephaly, and recent theologians like Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic , who frequently equated the Serb national interest with the Orthodox Justin Popovic calls this the Serbian original and were intolerant to everything non-Orthodox. Djuric sin. The way to overcome it is to advance a theology of coexistence (suzivot, life together). One must use divine revelation in an ecumenically useful way so that mutual tensions can be relieved. Emphasis should not be on truth but on righteousness , 2005, p. 102). Serbs and love, which alone can bring peace to the Balkans (Djuric must repent for Srebrenica and ask forgiveness from the victims, for this alone will make reconciliation possible. Currently not enough attention is being paid to the concepts of unity and togetherness. Because no ocial contacts exist the only , advances are made in private conversations in which agreements are possible (Djuric 2006, p. 105). There is an Abrahamic ecumenism nurtured by some non-Orthodox circles from which Orthodoxy should learn, because the traditional Orthodox position vis-a`-vis Islam is not promising for improved relationships; there is a need to adapt and modernise theology and inspire it with the spirit of contemporary times. Examples such as Pax Christis work of reconciliation between the French and Germans, the work of Quakers and Catholic rapprochement with Jews and Muslims should be emulated in order to overcome traditional Balkan unforgivingness and brutality which , 2006, p. 106). Sincere have led to the bloody settlement of disputes (Djuric reconciliation is impossible without prior repentance and a request for forgiveness. Nothing can change until the Orthodox lift the anathema on Muhamedanstvo (Muhammedanism). For the time being the Serbian Orthodox Church remains svetosavska17 and Byzantine.18 The Orthodox Church needs a good visionary like John XXIII in order self-critically to come to grips with its theological heritage , 2006, p. 108). In a manner reminiscent of Christians asking what it means to (Djuric raises the question of what it means to be be a Christian after the Holocaust, Djuric Orthodox after Srebrenica. His answer is to pray for forgiveness and peace as the sole measure of belonging to Christ, as a church that considers itself a fortress of peace which will not permit the state and its own militant hierarchy to be instrumentalised , 2006, for state and nationalist goals that usually disturb international peace (Djuric p. 109). If the Orthodox Church persists in interpreting its dependence upon God as a formalism and remains Christian in words but not in deeds, if Muslims persist in

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seeing themselves primarily as not being in Christian error, and if both do not avoid the synthesis of state with religion, then conicts will persist. Only by following the Abrahamic reliance on faith in God can the two religions come nearer each other. The View of A Muslim Theologian from Macedonia To my knowledge no Muslim theologian has ventured so boldly into interreligious , nor has a Muslim theologian gone beyond cliche s reconciliation as Marko Djuric about the religions of the Book and the recognition by Islam of previous divine revelations, including the prophetic one about Jesus as a precursor to Muhammed. Nevertheless there is one who has had the courage to break out of the conventional moulds. Ismail Bardhi, an ethnic Albanian citizen of Macedonia, who received his theological education rst in Sarajevo in Bosnia and then in Ankara in Turkey, is not only an active participant in interreligious dialogue in Macedonia19 but also an astute analyst of the Balkan way of life. Like others, he points to the great diversity of peoples and religions in the Balkans and the constant churning of tragedies and diculties throughout history as people arbitrarily claim what is mine or yours, ghting in the name of religion, though not respecting religion at all (Bardhi, 2007). Places of worship are being destroyed by one antagonistic religious community only for them to be rebuilt again by the other community. During Ottoman rule Balkan people were dierentiated by religion whereas currently they comprise various ethnic and religious identities, which means that some national groups are religiously nearly homogeneous while others are heterogeneous.20 In recent decades there have been political, economic, demographic, ethnic, social and cultural changes, but the most signicant have been natural population growth (due to high birth rates) and migration. These factors have caused great regional disruptions. After the Second World War some ethnic groups increased signicantly in proportion to the total population, while others decreased. The question arises as to how these local trends will be aected by global trends, by universal and perennial religious and transnational civilisational developments over against local or provincial religiosity and culture (Bardhi, 2007, p. 2). Bardhi maintains that transitory local identities must be inspired by authentic original values stemming from Abrahamic roots and by the limitless divine gift of human freedom. The destructive virus which he calls the marital relationship between church and state, religion and nation, nation and nationality, idea and ideology (Bardhi, 2007, p. 3) has resulted in ospring that are unsuccessful human societies. This virus has caused a particular mutation in the Balkans: the inversion of the roles of politicians and religious leaders. In the Balkans politicians speak in the way that religious leaders should and vice versa. Heavenly truths are transposed into political interests in the statements of religious leaders, whereas politicians translate their daily political interests into eternal verities. What politicians present as divine purpose is in fact political self-interest frequently achieved by undemocratic means. The voice of the politicians prevails in telling people what righteousness and truth are, while religious dignitaries simply add their amen. Bardhi believes that during the Ottoman period the relationship between Islam and Orthodoxy was more metaphysically grounded than it is today, when such grounding is needed once again. He notes no perception of the need for a relationship between the approaches of the two religions, either in the form of interreligious dialogue or at the deeper theological level. He argues that this lack of spiritual communication

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cannot be supported by the basic teachings of Islam or Christianity but that it is grounded in the primitivism of the local environment. In the past, even when there was lack of communication between these two religions there was mutual repect, but lack of communication today has led indirectly to genocide (Bardhi, 2007, p. 4). Bardhi concludes his remarks by regretting the fact that whereas the Balkans used to be the place where East met West and both proted from the interaction, now it is being invaded by some very dubious emissaries from both East and West who are spreading equally dubious hybrids of quasi-culture and quasi-religiosity; less and less can one hear the chords of traditional spirituality and of original domestic culture. In another essay, Bardhi proposes Islamic humanism as a foundation for interreligious dialogue (Bardhi, 2003). Islamic humanism understands human beings in an existential relationship with God and determines a positive attitude toward other peoples of the Book. Its humanism accepts the same basic values as do other forms of humanism, namely freedom, justice, peace, peaceful-coexistence in the society, solidarity, tolerance, etc. (Bardhi, 2003, p. 67). Bardhi points out that interreligious dialogue used to be regarded with great suspicion in Macedonia, even as a lie; however, if carried out in a spirit of equality and full participation, it is capable, for the rst time in the history of Macedonia, of leading to an increase in human rights and liberties. By being Gods servants we can avoid being each others slaves, concludes Bardhi. While Bardhis assessment may strike one as wistful, harking back to better times in the past, nevertheless it arms both Islamic and Orthodox spirituality as compatible and genuinely valid. In a March 2008 lecture at Rosemont College Bardhi pointed out that the perennial conicts in the Balkans show that one cannot dismiss deep human needs and cultural values, but expressed his condence that In this time of globalisation and religious pluralism, Muslims, Jews and Christians are called to make a hermeneutical turnaround by which they will reexamine, reread and reinterpret their own as well as their common religious tradition and history, so that their dierences may change into mutual enrichment and their joint values may contribute to the building of a more polite world and a better future. (Bardhi, 2008, p. 5 my translation)

Concluding Remarks The desire for revenge and continued ethnic cleansing is sometimes so strong in the Balkans that neither cohabitation nor cooperation seems likely in the long run. Despite glimmers of light from the creation of interreligious councils in BosniaHerzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia, and from interreligious conferences abroad , Vienna, Geneva, Tirana, New York) and within the former (Budapest, Pec Yugoslavia (Sandz ak, Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Pris tina, Skopje, Ohrid, Tetovo, Strumica, Prilep and others), there is not much reason for great hope that the cohabitation of Orthodox and Muslims in the Balkans will lead to wider religious cooperation and dialogue in the foreseeable future. The main reasons for this are the lack of visionary leadership and of a critical mass of educated religious leaders, as well as the inertia that is the result of centuries of suspicion, hatred, wars and oppression. The Serbian Orthodox patriarch is old and most of the bishops around him are oriented to the priority of protecting the ock. There are very few ordained Orthodox theologians who are willing to break out of the mould and play a role in the dialogue

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is one of the few, but is mainly occupied with with Muslims (Radovan Bigovic is too marginal a gure to gain a attempts to modernise Orthodoxy). Marko Djuric hearing in his own country, among his own people, but perhaps, like the prophets of old, may be appreciated by a future generation. He is fully aware that the Orthodox hierarchical structure reserves all formal initiatives for dialogue with non-Orthodox to the hierarchy; even priests are limited in their ability to interact without permission by their bishops, while laypeople have the freedom but neither the inuence, education nor precedents for such dialogues with Muslims. , the well-educated reis-ul-ulema The same is the case with Muslims. Mustafa Ceric of Bosnia, is too bent on defending Islam and too interested in power politics among the three communities to play the role of reconciler. There are some moderate Muslim and Nedz theologians (Adnan Silajdz ic ad Grabus) in Sarajevo whose role will be to , 2003), but they seem hold out promise that reconciliation is possible (see Silajdz ic unlikely to be trailblazers. In Tirana Archbishop Anastasios is very ecumenically minded, but is sickly and too busy rebuilding the Orthodox Church of Albania from the shambles of the Hoxha regime. The leadership of the Macedonian Orthodox Church is too wrapped up with its attempts to extricate itself from the Serbian Orthodox canonical bond and its near-total isolation by the Orthodox churches of the world. Metropolitan Archbishop Stefan, the head of that church, is well-meaning but cautious. The leading Orthodox theologian, Ratomir Grozdanoski, currently dean of the Orthodox Theological Faculty in Skopje, is warm-hearted and outgoing to the Muslims, but his professional eld is the New Testament, and like so many others he has been assigned too many tasks to be able to provide robust interreligious leadership.21 In any case, the hierarchical structure of the Orthodox Church all but precludes the possibility that someone other than the top leader can accomplish much, and even he is subject to the Holy Synod, which is capable of putting a stop to activities of which it is suspicious. The Islamic religious community in Macedonia is gripped by a desperate powerstruggle in which the moderates have been marginalised. Jakub Selimoski, the former reis-ul-ulema of all Yugoslavia and the most skilled diplomat, barely survived as the Muslim representative on the Council for Interreligious Cooperation. The best educated ethnic Albanian Muslim theologian, Ismail Bardhi, who understands the theological foundation of common humanity under One God, has been relieved of his position as dean of the Faculty of Islamic Sciences and has been unemployed for the past two years.22 For the Muslims, the great issue is how to resolve the tug-of-war between a more radical Middle Eastern form of Islam coming from Saudi Arabia (Wahhabism), Egypt, Libya and Iran, and a moderate self-conscious European Muslim orientation that wishes to integrate itself into a contemporary European mentality.23 For the Orthodox, the dilemma of orientation is similarly schizophrenic: whether it should follow a Byzantine and/or Russian theological and ecclesial orientation or a more Central European one. If the Middle Eastern orientation among the Muslims and Eastern orientation among the Orthodox prevails, the clash of these two civilisations would seem to be inescapable. After three cycles of genocides in the twentieth century, further genocides to end cohabitation are a possibility, though not a probability. If the European orientation prevails in both communities, their cohabitation will be likely to continue; it will be fraught with tensions, but of the creative kind that may lead to cooperation and dialogue. One may dare to hope that the common desire of all Balkan communities to be part of Europe will prevail and that eorts in that direction both locally and

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internationally (supported by proponents of conict management and dialogue from abroad) will not only make cohabitation possible but perhaps mean that it can be followed by reconciliation and cooperation through political negotiations and interreligious dialogue.

Notes
1 This memory, whether accurate or imagined, is projected into the present as well as the future by the Orthodox collectively on all Muslims regardless of their ethnicities, not only in Macedonia but also in other Balkan countries. 2 A clarication of the terminology may be needed for those who do not know the Eastern European ethno-religious linkages well. In Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, the word Serbian is more or less interchangeable with Orthodox, though there is a minority of ethnic Serbs who are not Orthodox; and the words Croat and Catholic are likewise more or less interchangeable, though there are Croats who are not Catholics and, of course there are Catholics of other nationalities, such as Italians, Hungarians or Albanians. In Bosnia and Herzegovina the terms Muslim and Bosniak are pretty much synonymous. In Macedonia one needs to distinguish among Macedonian citizens who may be ethnic Slavic Macedonians or Albanians or Turks or something else, but in this paper, where the focus is on religion, the word Macedonian always refers to the vast majority of ethnic Macedonians who are Orthodox. Most of the ethnic Albanians in Macedonia and Kosova are Muslims, though there are some Catholics and Orthodox Albanians. In this paper we are looking only at the Muslim Albanians. 3 Contemporary Albania, parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Moldavia and Wallachia. revealed that he had accidentally found a small Albanian e migre brochure in a 4 Tanaskovic second-hand bookstore in Istanbul that contained a map of the Balkans with a green arrow projecting from Turkey to Europes heartland by way of the Balkans. From this publication developed the suggestive concept of the green route of Islamic penetration and Tanaskovic control of the West. 5 Svetosavski is the adjectival form of St Sava, the greatest Serbian patron saint, who epitomises all positive virtues. The Serbian Orthodox Church regards it as descriptive of its nature and as a sign of superiority even over other Orthodox churches. is a professor of Orientalism at the Philological Faculty of Belgrade University. 6 Tanaskovic He served as ambassador of Serbia-Montenegro to Turkey from 1995 to 1999 and then as (2007). Serbias ambassador to the Vatican. For his continued attacks on Islam, see Tasic s recent views claiming that Islamists determine the For an English version of Tanaskovic (2008). events in the Muslim world, see Trifkovic wrote this work in the 1960s when he was a young 7 The late president of Bosnia Izetbegovic lawyer. A Muslim dissident, he was put on trial by the Yugoslav regime in 1983. 8 In the Balkans the veil is better known as the hijab, but both terms are in use in dierent parts of the Muslim world. 9 A statement made in Days Made of Fear: Films About Kosovo and Metohija, a Ronin DVD produced by St Lukes Serbian Orthodox Mission, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada, with no date but with segments lmed between 2001 and 2005. I regret that I do not have a similar video made by Albanians. The lm leaves a clear impression that no reconciliation is taking place between the Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo. , the mufti of Serbia, told the author of his 10 In the summer of 1993 Hamdija Jusfuspahic personal communications with Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church in order to resolve problems between the two communities. 11 For a testimony that the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina did not destroy all interethnic and interreligious relationships, see Hunt (2004). Even better witness is found in a book written by Titos granddaughter (Broz, 2004).

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12 I am using Kosovo (Serbian) and Kosova (Albanian) interchangeably. 13 The Lutheran bishop Gunnar Stalsett, who moderated the meeting, Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, ecumenical ocer of the Orthodox Church in America, and Jakub Selimoski of Skopje, former reis-ul-ulema of the Islamic Community of Yugoslavia. The source of this report is Erste (2006). 14 The present author, together with Leonard Swidler, the Institute for Interreligious Intercultural Dialogue and the Journal of Ecumenical Studies of Philadelphia, played an important facilitating role in this process. 15 An apparent takeover of the top leadership roles (reis-ul-ulema and dean of the School of Islamic Studies) by extremists does not bode well for the dialogue, unless it turns out to be temporary. As late as August 2008 a Muslim source from Macedonia indicated a standstill in interreligious meetings. is using the term Byzantine only in pointing out the traditional classical Orthodox 16 Djuric heritage mediated to the Serbian Orthodox from ancient Byzantium. He is not alluding to any subsequent accommodations between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Muslim authorities during the Ottoman period. uses this term in a mildly critical sense. 17 Here Djuric is contrasting the traditionalism of his own 18 See footnote 16 for clarication. Djuric Orthodox Church with what he perceives as the greater willingness of the Catholic tradition to update itself and creatively encounter the modern world. 19 The interreligious dialogue in Macedonia formally has ve participants Macedonian Orthodox, Muslim, Catholic, Methodist and Jewish but the largest groups are the Orthodox (to which nominally about 60 per cent of the population belongs) and the Muslims (about 30 per cent). The interaction of these two groups is crucial, while the other three play more of a buer role. 20 The Macedonians, for example, are homogenously Orthodox, while the Albanians are religiously heterogeneous (P.M.). 21 As the president of the Council for Interreligious Cooperation for 2006, the year of the most intense activity of the council, he was behind the organising of four regional interreligious workshops: no mean achievement. 22 Conrmed by a telephone call from Bardhi on 27 August 2008. 23 Since Islam arrived in the Balkans mostly mediated by Turkish Muslims the Balkan practice of Islam resembles much more the Turkic model than the Arab or Iranian. Hence the importation of Arab and Iranian mosque-building styles, styles of clothing and more or stricter practices seems alien to Balkan Muslims, who appear more comfortable with the Turkic traditions and are denitely eager to express their ethnic identity through this form of Islam.

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