Thoughts on a Meaningless Crime

Amila, Denmark:

The report of the burned down mosque instantly brought back images from the blown-up mosques I had seen in the 1990s, some of them historical monuments hundreds of years old. If the fire was set deliberately, I'm extremely angry at whoever did it. Only 37 Muslims have returned to their homes in this village after the war, so if we're talking about arson then the perpetrator is one of the biggest cowards I've ever heard of. I'm very proud of the people who used the ruins of the mosque for prayer on Eid al-Adha anyway. This is the second time their ancient mosque was burned, I hope they never have to see that again.

Sarah, Portugal

You say this was a meaningless act of vandalism. I agree with you. Anyone could have done this. That's the problem with extremism. It's really easy for a small group of individuals loosely organized to engage in violent actions that will have an impact much stronger than what would be the weight of such groups if they only behaved in a legitimate way.

The fact is that, if you make a quick google search, you will find other episodes of extremists' violence in the Serb entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Still, we can always say that this is the consequence of a climat of tension, that in turn instigates extremists to engage in vandalism and other forms of violence. If so, the awser to incidents like this would be simple and obvious: civil society would strongly repudiate such actions, a wave of solidarity would be felt, and then the police and the judicial authorities would take care of the situation and hand this as a common hate crime (even if motivated by religious or ethnic hatred). But we know nothing like that is going to happen.

Hate crimes, even when committed by small apparently insignificant groups or even by 'lone wolves' have usually two characteristics: one, usually the targets of hate crimes are not mainstream society, which in turn allows mainstream society to act as a mere bystander instead of rallying with the targeted groups or individuals, second, the perpetrators tend to feel that they can get away with their deeds. Bullies are cowards by definition, so we need to look at the mainstream of society to understand what is it that feeds their perception of impunity. Usually it's fear of the bullies, indifference towards their targets or a combination of both.

But this line of arguing leads me to the idea that all society is guilty. That's a dangerous and wrong conclusion, in fact one that serves the extremists. Extremists' goal, when they engage in violent actions, is not merely to hurt their victims, but also to hijack mainstream society, to condition its reaction in a way that may feed the radicalization of otherwise moderate people. This means that actions such as this one are extremely useful for the radicals to occupy the place that was supposed to belong to the moderates, while allowing those radicals to portray themselves as moderates.

The question, then, is, how to support the real moderates and fight the fake ones. This is where europe is failing and it has been failing constantly since 1991. So, to answer your question, as a European I mostly feel ashamed. Reversing the effects of genocide in Bosnia has never been a priority, and it should be.

Bobby, The United States

It is both sad and pathetic to hear about this. I don't know why they burned down this mosque, but there is no reason good enough. Sure there are Islamic extremists, but most all Muslims are wonderfully kind people and have every right to practice their faith. It wasn't that long ago, Christianity was a religion of violence and political stranglehold - and it still is in many ways. We must learn to see people as individuals,and not persecute a group of people, regardless of race, religion or nationality.

Owen, The UK

The burning of the Faziagica Kula mosque is a very bad sign. Unless there was some very local issue involved which I don't know about, it's clearly an act of provocation and evidence that the war criminals and their disciples who live in Republika Srpska are confident of their own impunity. I hope the Office of the High Representative will be goaded into taking action.