Sarajevo Essays

Politics, Ideology, and Tradition

By Rusmir Mahmutcehajic

Subjects: European History
Paperback : 9780791456385, 300 pages, January 2003
Hardcover : 9780791456378, 300 pages, January 2003

Alternative formats available from:

Table of contents

Preface

1. The Question

2. Tolerance, Ideology, and Tradition

3. Ignorance

4. Paradigm

5. Europe's "Others"

6. The Extremes

7. In Bosnia or Against It?

8. On the Self

9. Whence and Whither?

10. The Decline of Modernity

11. Changing the State of Knowledge

12. At the Turn of the Millennium

Afterword

Notes

Bibliography

Index of Names and Terms

By the Same Author

Draws on the Bosnian situation to argue for a reconciliation between modernity and tradition.

Description

One of Bosnia's leading intellectuals explains the Bosnian experience by critiquing the politics and ideology that brought about the great destruction—both material and spiritual—of Bosnia and Herzegovina. These incisive and theologically profound essays address the confrontation between the West and Islam as the author explores the realm of humanity's long-standing search for the roots of evil in the dual nature of mankind to gain insight into ways of achieving peace. By drawing on the Bosnian situation, the author explores questions of identity and otherness, knowledge and transcendence, authority and authoritarianism, and tradition and fundamentalism, and he argues for a reconciliation between modernity and tradition for the benefit of modern coexistence, not just in his native land but throughout the world.

Rusmir MahmutcŒehajicŒ is Professor at Sarajevo University, President of the International Forum "Bosnia," former Vice President of the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and former Minister of Energetics, Mining, and Industry. He is the author and translator of many works, including most recently, Bosnia the Good: Tolerance and Tradition and The Denial of Bosnia.