For years, I have been trying to understand the source of diversity in our country, but not as a bad and terrifying thing. I find this situation a remarkable example of a multicultural state that has already survived centuries. Unfortunately, many times in history religion and nationality have been used as a catalyst for conflicts, but at the same time they have defended themselves together against bad individuals.
Many people say that religion was the reason of war, and that all problems were caused by it, and that many religious leaders spread hate and raised tensions. However, these rumors are just a poison that our youth was fed, instead of being told the reality and true spirit of our country.
Today, those examples of true values of our homeland still exist, and they haven't perished. In every angle of the triangle of our country you can find those stories. There is an enormous number of them. In a small village near Prozor, a town in Herzegovina, Muslims and Catholics have lived together for decades. Unfortunately, this village represented the front line between two armies in war, but the people moved on, and continued to live together, to raise their families, to start a new life. The bad infrastructure of this area caused there to be no bus lines to the town of Prozor, where the church for Catholics is. That makes a big problem for Catholics in this village, not only because there is no church in the village, but also because they have no possibilities to visit the church on Sunday. However, in the village there is a mosque, and the imam of this mosque travels with his car to Prozor every Sunday. After he had found out for their problem, he offered himself to drive them on Sunday pray in church.
Meanwhile, in northern Bosnia in multicultural village where those two communities also live, a local Francis priest organized help for a Muslim girl, who was ill. On TV, the catholic priest and imam said: "We are all humans!" The church has collected money, together with the local Islamic community.
In eastern Bosnia, during the war, an orthodox priest saved two Muslims, including an imam, from being executed.
You may ask yourself: “Why did I start counting those examples like numbers?” As I said, the number of really positive stories is enormous, if one really wants to see and hear them. With this article, I want to make the readers pay attention about all prejudices about all religious groups they’ve heard of, not only in our country, but in the whole world. We must not spread those prejudices about religions, which are only based on TV reports about some crazy individuals.
"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend," and you just cannot love until you see the other side of the coin.