Bosnia: Croatian flag burned in cartoon protest

Submitted by WW4 Report on Sun, 02/12/2006 - 06:15

Bosnian Muslims burned the Croatian flag in front of the country’s Sarajevo embassy Feb. 8, in a protest over the publication of the Danish cartoons in a Croatian weekly magazine. Hundreds of Bosnian Muslims also protested at the Danish, Norwegian and French embassies. Protesters also called for a boycott of imports from countries which have published the cartoons. No violence was reported, but the Croatian embassy has requested special police protection from Bosnia's government. (DTT-NET, Belgium, Feb. 8)

Thousands of Muslims also took to the streets in Serbia and Macedonia Feb. 10 in anti-cartoon protests. The Danish flag was burned in the protest at Novi Pazar, in southern Serbia. Hundreds also protested in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, in front of the daily newspaper Vreme, which has published the cartoons. (DTT-NET, Feb. 10)

See our last posts on the cartoon controversy and ex-Yugoslavia.

Details

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Mon, 02/13/2006 - 00:49

Our reader Ivo Skoric of BalkansNet, asked which Croatian publications printed the offending cartoons, offers this analysis:

That was Nacional (a right wing weekly) and Svijet (a used-to-be women's magazine that is today the bottom of the cesspool of Croatian journalism, akin to the US National Enquirer). Following the flag burning, and the threat of protest here in Zagreb (where a seizable portion of Bosnian Muslims live, and where the largest mosque in the Balkans was built with Gadafi's money), Croatia's prime minister Sanader went on the national TV in prime time to apologize to Muslims world-wide (I mean he saw that even Bush did so...), and to warn those responsible that Croatia is lucky if Arab countries don't impose a boycott (which would kill the economy, since oil is already twice the US price). Being busy with other things, I never saw the original cartoons, that sucks, because now nobody will publish them!

Hi Bill

Submitted by Daniel on Tue, 02/14/2006 - 01:29

Hi Bill,

No need to generalize by saying: "Bosnian Muslims burned the flag..." First of all, they are Bosniaks, not "Bosnian Muslims". Second, 50-100 protesters do not represent millions of Bosniaks living in Bosnia and abroad. Therefore, neither Bosniaks nor "Bosnian Muslims" burned the flag. The flag was set on fire by a very small group of Bosnian protesters in Sarajevo. That's all. Not a big deal. Flag burning is part of "free speech", it happens not only in Bosnia, but in the United States too.

This cartoon controversy should stop - it's so damn stupid.

Daniel
Srebrenica Genocide Blog

Personally...

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Tue, 02/14/2006 - 03:24

I'm always more comfortable when people burn their own flag. Burning someone else's is too predictable (and safe).

The story didn't say the Bosnian Muslims. Just a few.