Tension mounts in Bosnia over gay festival
Associated Press Worldstream - September 5, 2008 Friday 4:27 PM GMT

By AIDA CERKEZ-ROBINSON, Associated Press Writer

SARAJEVO Bosnia-Herzegovina - Posters condemning homosexuals have appeared in Sarajevo ahead of this month's first-ever gay festival in Bosnia, prompting an international organization to condemn what it called "attempts to incite violence."

Two Muslim imams have been quoted as criticizing the timing of the five-day festival, which opens Sept. 24 and will occur during the holy month of Ramadan.

Islam prohibits homosexuality, and Sarajevo is at least 85 percent Muslim.

Neither the head of the Islamic Community in Bosnia, Mustafa Ceric, nor his institution has officially reacted to the festival, which will include films and art exhibitions. But two local imams in Bosnia have condemned it.

"We will not grab them by the neck on the street, but we have to say: This is immoral ... a promotion of ideas that are in violation with religion," Seid Smajkic, an imam from the southern city of Mostar, was quoted as saying in Friday's Dnevni Avaz, a daily newspaper.

Another local imam, Sulejman Bulgari, said on television Thursday night that the Quran forbids homosexuality and that the holy book is clear about that.

Neither imam was available for an interview on Friday, the Muslim day of worship.

Several posters have appeared in the streets of Sarajevo this week, saying "Death to Gays." Police quickly removed them.

On Friday, the Bosnia mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said it is concerned that politicians have not reminded the public that local laws forbid discrimination regarding sexual orientation.

"The mission strongly condemns attempts to incite violence against any group within Bosnia and Herzegovina," the OSCE said in a statement, adding that the anti-gay posters "are intended to do just that."

Local human rights organizations and intellectuals are supporting the festival, but some have questioned its timing regarding Ramadan.

One of Sarajevo's leading intellectuals, law professor Zdravko Grebo, said the organizers should have taken Muslim concerns into consideration. "Why this finger right in the eye? However, it's not a reason to cancel it," he said.

Slobodanka Dakic, an activist of the Bosnian Q Association, a festival organizer that promotes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual rights, said there was no plan to antagonize anyone. But she also said the event will not be canceled nor rescheduled because of Ramadan.

Bosnia is supposed to be a secular society in which events are not planned according to religious calendars, she said at a news conference in Mostar.

Dakic also said she believes the gay festival is important for Bosnia because it fights xenophobia.

Showing one of the "Death to Gays" posters to reporters, she said: "Is this Ramadan? This is why the festival is important."

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