Bosnia: Lessons to Remember

Praise be to Allah (SWT) and Blessings on Prophet Muhammad (SAW)

O you who have committed [to Allah]! [When it comes to political relations] do not take for your bosom friends people who are not of your commitment-quality. They spare no effort to corrupt you; they would love to see you in distress. Vehement hatred has already come into the open from out of their mouths, but what their hearts conceal is yet of a more serious magnitude. We have indeed made the ayat [thereof] clear to you, if you would but use your reason. [Ali ‘Imraan, 3:118]

A sad anniversary is that of July 1995. the day of the other holocaust that the world does not commemorate, or would rather we forgot. It was on 11 July 1995 that hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Bosnia were massacred by Bosnian Serb Christians and buried with the help of tractors in mass graves. All the while, Europe looked the other way, pretending it was a civil war, which brings to mind the words of Allah (swt):

[…] Vehement hatred has already come into the open from out of their mouths, but what their hearts conceal is yet of a more serious magnitude.[…] [Ali ‘Imraan, 3:118]

For the first time, the world witnessed ethnic cleansing, the genocide of a people for their conviction in La ilaha illa Allah. More than 100,000 were martyred, massacred without a flicker of conscience; more than 60,000 women and girls were raped and held captive until they gave birth, not counting the 1.5 million people left homeless. Adding to the horror were the so-called UN-designated "safe havens," which turned out to be grounds for orgies committed by the Blue Helmets.

The genocide lasted four years. Thousands of Muslims were imprisoned in detention camps, tortured, and starved to the bone. 800 mosques were destroyed, numerous waqf properties were annihilated, and the Sarajevo Library was burned down. Meanwhile, the despots and dictators who held sway over Muslim countries turned their backs on their brothers and sisters in distress.

What lessons have we drawn from these sad events?

The main lesson is found in Surah An-Nisa (4), verse 144:

O you who have committed [to Allah’s power]! Do not take the deniers of the truth [pertaining to Allah’s power and authority] for your allies in preference to the committed muslims! Do you want to place before Allah a manifest proof of your guilt?

The timid response of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, later the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, demonstrated the inability of Muslim countries to assert themselves. Muslim heads of state suffered, as the British magazine Impact described in May 1995, from an Acquired Confidence Deficiency Syndrome.

It must be observed that this syndrome seems to have evolved into a pandemic. Emboldened by the indifference, indeed the lethargy, of those at the head of Muslim nations, other countries have emulated the Serbs. Ethnic cleansing and genocide are being carried out openly elsewhere. This amounts to plain and simple betrayal by Muslim despots and dictators, done for the benefit of their Western masters.

Denounced since 1990, the genocide in Kashmir continues, and has even spread to Assam, India, where thousands of Muslims are interned in concentration camps modeled on the Chinese system, after their homes were destroyed for failing to prove their Indian nationality.

In East Turkestan, more than a million Turkic-speaking Uyghur Muslims are held in concentration camps, tortured daily, and subjected to brainwashing aimed at forcing their sinicization. This is islamophobia in its most execrable form.

Nor should we forget the fate of the thousands of Rohingya Muslims, whose homes were burned to drive them from their country, Myanmar. Since then, shuttled from one refugee camp to another, they face daily persecution, even the refugee camps themselves have been set ablaze.

And what of Palestine?

The genocide in Gaza, which has now lasted 30 months, and the motives of the executioner of Tel Aviv to expel Palestinians from their land, with the unconditional support of the psychopath of the Oval Office, should concern us all.

Another lesson to draw from this perpetual massacre and the systematic elimination of a people is, without doubt, the reinforcement in the Muslim mind of the concept of the Ummah. This concept, difficult for younger generations, and not only them, to grasp, has come a long way since the Bosnian genocide. Influenced by colonial ideas and the fragmentation of the state into nation-states, themselves founded on race, ethnicity, or tribal belonging, we allowed ourselves to be convinced that this was the best way to advance the Ummah. The Bosnian genocide had the merit of triggering, following the genocides that came after it, a reconsideration of the concept of the Ummah: a global Ummah sharing the same conviction in Allah (swt).

The concept of the Ummah is unique to Islam. It transcends race, physical appearance, languages, borders, social status, and every difference that may exist among human beings. We are thus part of a single, global Ummah. Reviving this concept will allow us to reclaim our status as the best of communities.

The indifference, indeed the lethargy, of the Muslim community, as well as of the Muslim world, in the face of the many attacks against Muslims, and the rise of islamophobia, stems from a lack of understanding on the part of some, or the carelessness of others, regarding the fundamental concept of the Ummah.

Allah (SWT) declares:

And [as for] the committed muslims, both men and women, they are close to one another: they [all] stand for the ma‘ruf and oppose the munkar, and standardize the salah and institutionalize the zakat, and defer to Allah and His Apostle.[…] [At Tawbah, 9:71]

In this way, Allah (SWT) makes clear to us that those who hold conviction in His power are bound by their beliefs and their actions, and are obliged to support one another in difficult times. When we observe, among Muslims here and elsewhere, indifference and a lack of belief in their ability to bend the Israeli economy through actions that require no great sacrifice such as boycotting, we can conclude that, for some, the concept of the Ummah remains unclear. Are we discouraged by the number of dead and wounded? Have we become numb to the distress and atrocities committed against our brothers and sisters? It is urgent that we rid ourselves of this Acquired Confidence Deficiency Syndrome.

You are indeed the best community that has ever been brought forth for humanity [for its well-being]: you require [and authorize] the doing of the common good and you disallow [and interdict] the common wrong, and you are committed to Allah.[…] [Ali ‘Imraan, 3:110]

Why do we doubt the word of Allah (SWT)? As the best Ummah and witnesses for humanity, it is our duty to assert ourselves and translate our conviction into action, by cultivating activism.

The Ummah lives in humiliation. Despite its conviction in Allah (SWT) and its determination to make Allah's deen prevail, the Ummah is crippled by the traitors who govern it. Having signed on to the Abraham Accords, these governments have submitted to their Zionist enemies. Worse, as accomplices of their masters in the West, they dare to impose upon Muslims an Islam stripped of the fundamental concept of Hisbah, stripped of the will to make Allah's deen prevail, and deprived of the capacity to wage jihad, whether intellectual or military.

Have we learned the lessons of Bosnia, and those of Gaza? The scale that islamophobia is now reaching should concern us all.

May Allah help us and guide us.