International Conference: Current Security Challenges for the Western Balkan Region Addressed by Means of Joint Responsibility and Cooperation Vladimir Ajzenhamer: The Western Balkans and the Islamic Schisms The Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina INTRODUCTION Religious divisions are signicant historical something which is primarily connected with the heritage of the Islamic world, which is still, to a Middle East. This region represents booth cradle large extent, heavy burden for mutual relations of the Islamic faith and the root of its division. between the"countries of Prophet Muhammad". On the other hand, Balkan Muslims, as authentic These divisions determine not only the nature of and"autochthonous" European Muslim relations between Islamic countries, and the populations, have never, until recently, faced this rules of the foreign affairs"game" in the Islamic kind of division. world, but they also determine their internal political turmoil. The"Earthquake" of Arab spring After the Turkish conquest of this part of which, for two years now, shakes the Middle Europe, under Ottoman rule a signicant number East, is one of the latest examples, in a long of Christians converted to Islam. One part of the series of examples, of how the divisions among local Slavic population has embraced new Muslims create, not only a reality, but also the Islamic religion, and life in this region was future of this region. getting, slowly but surely, completely new and different physiognomy, marked by the spirit of Without understanding the Islamic schism it is Sunni Islam. Due to centuries of stability of 32 impossible to understand uprising against Assad in Syria, or give an answer to the question why Ottoman Empire, and lack of religious reform movements in this part of the"Islamic" world, Arab countries such as Qatar, UAE and Saudi Balkan Muslims remain mainly aware of Sunni Arabia supports the rebels in this country, and Islamic teaching and practice. The other at the same time violently suppress the interpretation of Islam remained remote and revolution in Bahrain. Without an understanding exotic to them. of these issues it is impossible to understand the complex relationship between Saudi Arabia But before we deal with the problem of and Iran, two Middle Eastern states which both encounter of Balkan Muslims with Sunni-Shiitas claim the right to be considered as the divisions, it is necessary to rst illuminate the guardians of"true" Islam. Through the lens of key features of the oldest divisions between the Middle Eastern version of the"Cold War", an followers of the Prophet Muhammad. expression which can most suitably describe relationship between these two countries in the past few decades, best reects the depth and signicance of the religious divisions in the Islamic world 20 , and above all, the importance of the Sunni-Shiitas divisions. However, it is important to emphasize that the Sunni-Shiitas division, and diverse consequences which this rift carries, is 20 Frequent public concerns made by Saudi Arabia on growth of Iranian inuence in the Middle East strongly support this remark. At the donor conference for the reconstruction of Gaza, held in early March 2009, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al'Faisal called for Arab unity in suppressing the growing Iranian inuence in the region. Saudi calls for anti-Iranian and anti-Shiites mobilization in particular have gained in strength during the current"Arab Spring", when Gulf Arab monarchies faced the danger of strengthening of the Iran-Iraq-Syria-Lebanon(Hezbollah) Shi'as axis.