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Lessons from Bosnia — Part 6
Religion
Whether you are religious or not, religion is something we’ve all had to discuss at some point or another. It’s just one of those worldwide topics that prevails no matter what. Some might argue that the world would be a better place if religions didn’t exist at all. I’m not so sure. Each and every prophet I’ve ever heard of came to a bad society, where people were just nasty to each other. Yet, all of those prophets left their society in a better state. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. That sounds like a pattern. However, whether I’m right or wrong is irrelevant. Religions do exist and we have to live with that and, hopefully, make the best of it.
In Bosnia, there are two main religions, Christianity and Islam. However, Catholics and Orthodox Christians are treated as two separate religions. Hence, in this article, I will also treat them as two separate religions.
While in Serbia/Croatia people are Serbs/Croats irrespective of their religion, in Bosnia it’s not so simple. Generally speaking, Serbs follow Orthodox Christianity, while Croats are Catholics. However, that is NOT to say that all Orthodox Christians in Bosnia are Serbs or that all Catholics in Bosnia are Croats. As I said previously, we do not have a definition of what is a Croat or a Serb in Bosnia. What this does show is that religion has been nationalised to…