ELIAMEP’s South-East Europe Programme Research Fellow, Julianne Funk, recently published a chapter in the edited volume Reconciliation in Global Context: Why It Is Needed and How It Works (ed. B. Krondorfer), by SUNY University Press, 2018.
The chapter, co-authored with Z. Spahić Šiljak, is entitled “Bringing Faith into the Practice of Peace. Muslim Paths to Reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina” (pp. 105-127).
Abstract
This paper explores the role of Muslim believers in peacebuilding and reconciliation and their struggle to challenge the imposed ethnic and religious divisions in post-war, secular Bosnian society. We argue that from 1990 onward (post-communism), discursive framing of visible religiosity as incompatible with a secular neo-liberal understanding of the role of religion in public life discouraged many believers from connecting their faith to the pursuit of peace and vice versa. International donor politics and local civil society initiatives also failed to consider religion a relevant factor in peacebuilding processes. Most faith-based initiatives began to flourish only in the last decade. In a context where ethnic identity is colored by religion, a small number of faith-based peacebuilders are counteracting the results of ethnic cleansing. The most visible and active of these are Muslims. Their reconciliation work arises from personal faith that provides not only vocation, but also unique techniques and methodologies. The authors’ own stories are included.
Read more about the volume here.
