Entoni Šeperić (Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina), 12 September 2003

“Does it really work? Is there a future for inter-religious peace work?” These are the first questions that people ask when they hear about Abraham – an association for interreligious peace work from Sarajevo that we are running. It is difficult to imagine what kind of impact it can have within a context marked by fear, pain and grief, where emotions run high and no social or political stability are in sight. What is the purpose and use of interreligious dialogue or peace work when everything falls apart in an ongoing conflict, which is at times extremely violent and destructive? There is little hope put in efforts for coexistence and bridge-building. Peace and reconciliation initiatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina face a context of deeply rooted and sometimes opposing historical and cultural narratives, ethnic or religious fervor and take place in an atmosphere of mistrust and opposition, where personal experiences and mechanisms of social pressure do not reinforce, but rather undermine, efforts to resolve conflict.

Bridge is a strong metaphor. Bosnia, being a synonym of a torrent, which gradually becomes a calm and peaceful river, cannot exist without bridges. Bridge connects two sides of a river; open and walkable from either left or right, two sides never become one or lose themselves. Because it is a nexus that enables communication, bridge is an open place where differences meet, but do not lose themselves in the process. One river side never becomes the other. They remain different in their identity, but also become united – because there is a bridge that connects them. They remain different, but it is not a difference intact by the other – because identity grows and matures through the other.

When communication between sides is dying out, bridges are susceptible and often chosen targets. One can just recall the memory of the Old bridge in Mostar, or famous novel "The Bridge over Drina" by Ivo Andrić, a Nobel Prize winner; in times of exclusion and violent destruction, bridges become vulnerable and often brought down into a river. Two sides, once bridged and connected, often remain isolated and distant. Cain did not kill Abel, as Elie Wiesel puts it, he killed Cain in Abel. Therefore every murder is a suicide. People who bring their bridges down remain isolated and distant; they decide to kill the others in themselves.

When Abraham started, as an initiative of local Jews, Christians (Orthodox, Catholic and Reformed), Moslems and other people of good will to promote the process of reconciliation through interreligious peace work in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it became a bridge and an open place where differences meet. Our common inspiration – the historical figure of Abraham, Аврам, Ibrahim, םהרבא, our father in faith – resembles our program goals and challenges. Our common ground, i.e. the values of Abrahamic/Ibrahimic spirituality is our original challenge: faith in One God, fight against the old and new idols, hospitality, peace-building, becoming a stranger and a traveler in the world, standing against indifference, competing in doing good deeds… It was a brave vision, a vision of a bridge that enables communication between opposed sides and a vision of an open place where one would not seek unity at the expense of differences, and should not hold to its difference at the expense of unity. It was a vision deeply rooted in historical and cultural paradigm of coexistence in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Or in what we thought it was.

So far we learned that coexistence in our case was always more than a fiction and less than reality, or it was something in between. Affection for others in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as Ivo Andrić boldly states, was always on the brink of hatred, if not one and the same. Stuck between its history and future, Bosnia and Herzegovina succumbed to a dying paradigm of coexistence. Is it true that it succumbed to an ideal for which it didn’t find enough strength, courage and honesty to live upon? No doubt, it will remain an open but essential question, probably the only important question in history of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

(To get to the website of the Abraham inter-religious peace project, click here.)