Post War : The Ignorance and the Religious Intolerance.

Although I don’t know how to start this off, I’d like to begin with telling you a little bit about myself so you’d know just a little something about me, and what I’m trying to get at here. My name is Elena Becirovic. You might be thinking, “she’s serbian” because of my first name but my last name probably threw you off. I’m actually 100% Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) even though my first name doesn’t say so. I’m only 15 years old and I’m living in Pennsylvania, USA. I was born in Tuzla, Bosnia and my family is from Vlasenica. I go to a regular high school, in a regular school district. I get the same education as every other teenager in the United States. I’m going to let you all know, I’m not incredibly intelligent or gifted. I’m not trying to be a smart ass, just trying to prove a point and if proving a point leaves me with a bunch of hate messages, that’s fine. I told you yesterday to make sure to check my blog for this post. It has to do with the Bosnians and Serbians bashing on one another and being very, very ignorant and hypocritical. I know, I know, I’ve said some shit about Serbs before too, but I’ve never tried to start anything on purpose. I’ve never said anything that was directed towards the Serb people in general, only directed towards the Chetniks. If you read on, you’ll probably be shocked with what I have to say. Bosnian pride all the way but I will never have so much pride to the point where I’m being a complete bitch about every other nationality. I’ve matured, and I’ve become so much tolerant of other religions, nationalities and races. I respect everyone, or try to at least. Let’s get into a little bit of history…

Here’s the deal; if any of you paid any sort of attention in World History, you’d understand. Knowledge is key. Listen to what your parents tell you, obviously, but don’t think that’s everything. Do some studies first to really understand what happened because what your parents say is just their opinion. Let’s go back to the Ottoman Empire, the reasoning as to why Bosnians are Muslim. The Ottoman Empire was one of the longest lasting empires, ever. The Ottomans were Turks, which were Muslim. The whole empire was of Islamic faith, for the most part but the Turks were tolerant of non Muslims. The ruler at the time, who ever that may be wanted to expand the Empire, so they moved into Europe, specifically the Balkan area. The Ottoman rulers built a strong military by developing an elite guard called janissaries. They were recruited from the local Christian population and were converted to Islam. They served what was called the sultan. Like I said before, the Ottomans were generally tolerant of non Muslims which made up a minority with in the empire but they did have to pay a tax. They were free to practice their religion or to convert to Islam. When the Ottoman Empire spread to the Balkan area, taking Bosnia away from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a large number of non Muslims converted to the Islamic faith. Were they forced? Who knows, but they converted, so they were Christian at one point because at that time, Europe was mainly populated by Christians. What I’m trying to say is, Bosnians were Christians at one point, we did convert, we weren’t just born into the Islamic faith to begin with. Now let’s talk about Yugoslavia. There were 6 republics all together with about 20 ethnic groups, give or take. I’m tired of hearing about Tito and how he was “bad” . Ask your parents about him, they’ll say everything was perfect when he was president. Life was great when Yugoslavia was a communist country. Everything and everyone was at peace until Tito’s death. Ethnic tensions grew in Yugoslavia. People started hating each other because of religious intolerance, something that wasn’t much of a problem under Tito’s rule. As far as I know, The Serbs attacked Bosnia for a few reasons. The Serbs tortured and massacred thousands of Bosnian men and boys. I guess you could call it an “ethnic cleansing” but because I’m Bosnian, I’ll just say genocide because that’s basically what it was. They raped and killed many, many young girls and women. Did we deserve this? No. Us Bosnians didn’t “fight”, we defended our country from the brutal attacks. Under the command of Ratko Mladic, the Army of Republika Srpska invaded Srebrenica, which was a safe zone and massacred about 8,000 Bosniaks. Some argue that the lives lost in Srebrenica aren’t as much as the Serb lives lost around the area when we attacked and burnt down their homes. But we were just defending our country, we are the victims. I was watching an English documentary on the war in Bosnia on a Bosnian channel yesterday and what I saw was so horrible and saddening. This little village, full of Bosnians and Serbians who lived together and got along perfectly had to be separated because of the war. Best friends that have known each other since their kiddie days left each other. A Bosnian man left his Serbian best friend who lived in that village because of the war. There wasn’t any tension, but because that village was in the Serb Republic of Bosnia, the Bosniaks left. It was heartbreaking. It was a very pointless war and so many people from both sides lost their lives. Those people should still be living right now, no one deserved to die, Serbians too. The only people I actually hate is Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic. 

Enough about the history though, let me rant about how ignorant people from both sides are. It’s disgusting to see how many Bosnians call Serbians pigs or bastards or anything along those lines. We look at them like they’re the devils, but they’re not. The Chetniks are, but you cannot blame a whole nationality for someone elses wrongs. It’s even more disgusting to see Serbians saying all the Bosnians should have died, should have been shot and killed or even worse, say there wasn’t a genocide at all and we were the ones at fault. The way our generation thinks goes back to the persons upbringing. If their parents seriously hate the other ethnic group, they will raise them to hate them too. They’ll raise them with having too much pride for their country to the point where they’re being disrespectful and ignorant. I’m good friends with a Serbian girl at school, she’s such a sweetheart & her parents are good people. I can’t hate her for something the Chetniks did years and years ago. My family has a few Serbian friends, we wouldn’t drink coffee with them all the time, but we’d stop by each others house and say hi every once in a while. My cousin like very good friends with a Serbian guy. Both in their early 20’s, big partiers, do tons of stuff together, always go out and this guy has so much pride for his country but he’s still friends my cousin who has pride for his country, Bosnia. But if you think about it, if something were to ever happen, even if we weren’t hateful, we would turn against each other if there was another war between Bosnia and Serbia. It’s terrible to think about it but it’s reality. Some people get the satisfaction of starting a bunch of shit on tumblr or facebook about the genocide, and it’s really immature of them. I hate when I’m reading comments or questions that are full of hate and ignorance and the person replies with more hate and ignorance that it’s just hypocritical all together. I know I’ve said things before but I would never ever under any circumstances come at a Serbian with so much hate. They aren’t wrong for anything. It’s the Chetniks fault, but Karma’s gonna get them. Mladic and Karadzic will get it even worse, I pray to God they do. The only time of year where I have so much hate is July 11 which marks the anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre but I’ll never take it out on a Serb. I’ll just cry all day and pray that the Serbs that DID do this get what they deserve.

Here’s just my outlook on everything. There’s a lot of history involved and the only way to understand most of this tragedy is to know the history. Personally, republika srpska in Bosnia shouldn’t even exist but it does and we’re all friends & neighbors. Too many Bosnians ans Serbians on tumblr barely know anything, they just know what they were taught by their parents who have different views on everything. I say we all stop being so ignorant and be tolerant of other religious groups and nationalities. Bosnian pride alllllllllllllllll the way, but I know how to be respectful. I try not to cross the line. I’ll never forgive or forget, but I accept that it happened, and we’ve all moved on. Many lives were lost to something so pointless on both sides, innocent people were killed. This was basically the Holocaust, just not as bad and we weren’t Jewish. Should this happen again? I honestly hope not. I think I’ve listed all the main points but knowing me, I probably forgot something. I hope no one got offended with what I had to say, but if you have any questions or comments, go to my ask box (Ass & Titties). Thanks for reading♥