Community and Interfaith Dialogue in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

This chapter analyses interreligious dialogue in Bosnia and Herzegovina, taking the view that the most meaningful dialogue should happen at the local level, between ordinary people. For the dialogue to take place, it is necessary to establish places defined as mjesto susreta where people can meet without fear to share their experiences of life and religion. Given the divisive legacy of the last war, which has lingered for nearly 30 years, building suživot, or meaningful coexistence and togetherness, is still in a process of becoming. To draw attention to the obstacles in which everyday life unfolds, I analyse the ways in which dialogues, interfaith and others, are spatialised in the towns of Stolac and Kotor Varoš, while arguing that the segregation of neighbourhoods in small geographical communities perpetuates a strong polarisation which prevents a naturally occurring dialogue. In line with more recent scholarly work and the theme of this edited volume, I argue that a spatial distribution of new neighbourhoods, alongside physical borders that overlap with ethnic and religious boundaries in post-war communities, is one of the main obstacles to establishing mjesto susreta and consequently to the emergence of interfaith dialogue. The chapter argues that a community paradigm should be integrated into the study of interreligious dialogue. Furthermore, the chapter proposes a ‘silent dialogue’ formulation for the conditions with a strong legacy of the war, which incorporates both peaceful coexistence and absence of localised violence.