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Gay festival during Ramadan angers Bosnia Muslims
By Maja Zuvela (Reuters, 29/8/2008)
SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Plans to hold Bosnia's first gay festival during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan were denounced by the Muslim community on Thursday as an affront to religious feelings.
As in most of the Balkans, there is little tolerance for homosexuality in Bosnia, where for many it remains a taboo.
"Such an event dangerously threatens our religious feelings. It is not appropriate to hold it during the Ramadan," said Ezher Beganovic, a journalist with the Islamic magazine Saff.
Beganovic has spearheaded a debate about next month's four-day festival. He said in an article this week that the "festival of homosexuality", which is regarded as a sin and disease in Islam, could cloud the holy month of Ramadan and promt angry reactions from believers.
Organisers said the festival was planned a year ago without aiming to provoke.
"This is the festival of arts and culture and there are many believers in our population as well," said Svetlana Djurkovic, who heads the "Q Association" promoting the rights of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual population.
"It coincided with Ramadan unintentionally."
Sarajevo, a symbol of multi-ethnic co-existence and tolerance before the 1992-95 Bosnian war, is now predominantly Muslim.
One academic argued that the lack of sexual tolerance has contributed to the region's violent past.
"The lack of sexual freedom has made people in the region very prone to war mongering and crimes," philosophy professor Ugo Vlaisavljevic told a weekly newspaper.
Djurkovic said the reaction to a gay festival would have been the same, not matter when it was held.
"This is a traditional society in which most people still do not accept the existence of different sexualities or identities," she added.
Slovenia is the only former Yugoslave republic to legalise registered same-sex partnerships, while no other allows gay marriages and most have no laws protecting sexual minorities from discrimination.
Gay festival during Ramadan angers Bosnia Muslims
By Maja Zuvela (Reuters, 29/8/2008)
SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Plans to hold Bosnia's first gay festival during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan were denounced by the Muslim community on Thursday as an affront to religious feelings.
As in most of the Balkans, there is little tolerance for homosexuality in Bosnia, where for many it remains a taboo.
"Such an event dangerously threatens our religious feelings. It is not appropriate to hold it during the Ramadan," said Ezher Beganovic, a journalist with the Islamic magazine Saff.
Beganovic has spearheaded a debate about next month's four-day festival. He said in an article this week that the "festival of homosexuality", which is regarded as a sin and disease in Islam, could cloud the holy month of Ramadan and promt angry reactions from believers.
Organisers said the festival was planned a year ago without aiming to provoke.
"This is the festival of arts and culture and there are many believers in our population as well," said Svetlana Djurkovic, who heads the "Q Association" promoting the rights of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual population.
"It coincided with Ramadan unintentionally."
Sarajevo, a symbol of multi-ethnic co-existence and tolerance before the 1992-95 Bosnian war, is now predominantly Muslim.
One academic argued that the lack of sexual tolerance has contributed to the region's violent past.
"The lack of sexual freedom has made people in the region very prone to war mongering and crimes," philosophy professor Ugo Vlaisavljevic told a weekly newspaper.
Djurkovic said the reaction to a gay festival would have been the same, not matter when it was held.
"This is a traditional society in which most people still do not accept the existence of different sexualities or identities," she added.
Slovenia is the only former Yugoslave republic to legalise registered same-sex partnerships, while no other allows gay marriages and most have no laws protecting sexual minorities from discrimination.
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Bosnia Angry Over Gay Festival
IslamOnline.net & News Agencies (28/8/2008)
SARAJEVO — In a rare show of inter-ethnic unity, Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats were united on Thursday, August 28, in condemning the first-ever gay festival to be held in the former Yugoslav republic.
"It is unnatural, sick and deviant behavior," said Rajko Vasic of the Social Democrats, who hold power in Bosnia's Serb entity of Republika Srpska, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The former Yugoslav republic's main religious and ethnic groups are infuriated by Queer Sarajevo Festival that will be organized by next month.
The controversial four-day event, to open on September 24 in the capital, Sarajevo, will tell through films, exhibitions and panels the life stories of gays and lesbians in the country.
"Bosnia is a conservative society," Amir Zukic, of the Party of Democratic Action, Bosnia's main Muslim party, told the local newspaper Dnevni Avaz.
"I doubt that such an event would be accepted."
Islam considers homosexuality to be clearly sinful.
Islam teaches that believers should neither do the obscene acts, nor in any way indulge in their propagation.
Bosnia, a small country on the Balkan Peninsula, is home to three ethnic "constituent peoples": mainly Muslim Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats.
Out of Bosnia and Herzegovina's nearly 4 million population, some 40 percent are Muslims, 31 percent Orthodox Christians and 10 percent Catholics.
Provocative
Ivo Tomasevic, a Croat leader, said the festival runs against the norms of the conservative Bosnian society.
The event is organized by "a small group of people promoting ideas which do not represent basic values," said Tomasevic, the Secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Bosnia.
The festival will be held at a time Bosnian Muslims are observing the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
"We respect freedom and tolerance," Zukic, of the Muslim party of Democratic Action, said.
"But the festival is a kind of provocation since it is taking place during Ramadan."
Ramadan, the ninth month on the Islamic lunar calendar, will fall this year in September.
In Ramadan, which is dedicated for spiritual growth, adult Muslims, save the sick and those traveling, abstain during daylight hours from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset.
After breaking their fast, Muslims attend Tarawih, a special nightly prayers.
Muslims also dedicate their time during the holy month to become closer to Allah through prayer and self-restraint.
Many men perform i`tikaf (spiritual retreat), spending the last 10 days of the month exclusively in the mosque.
It is also customary for Muslims to spend part of the days during Ramadan studying the Noble Qur'an.
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