The recent events at Srebrenica highlight old differences and hatred between the various people of ex-Yugoslavia and should best serve as a harsh lesson against impositions, especially of religion.

The Balkans suffered greatly during the Ottoman Empire’s drive for expansion. In an effort to control the inhabitants, Islam was imposed with strict discipline and thousands had been exiled or slaughtered. In the present age we have a similar situation in Syria and Iraq with the so-called Islamic State repeating history.

To complicate matters, the vast area also involved Catholic and Orthodox Christians. It was thus mainly a three-pronged warfare.

The Austrian Hungarian Empire had managed to control, to a certain extent, the animosities, but in turn the old hatreds had given rise to the World War I. The Serbs, Orthodox Christians, are very proud people and feel they should control all the Balkans.

From infancy children are indoctrinated against the Islamic overlords and thus, when the occasion arose, sought vindictiveness for the suffering endured in the past. Will this sequence ever stop?

By no means of the imagination must one try to justify any massacre, but at least we should learn that one massacre will eventually lead to another. I know it is a very tall order, but religious strife must be contained. People should be free to follow any religion, but the various religious leaders, directly or not, keep instigating division. Each religion will do its utmost to avoid losing any of its adherents.

No wonder Karl Marx andothers had declared “religion is the opium of the masses”. It is absolutely essential, though very difficult, to get the major religions to seek a common platform and unite their people. On the other hand, certain religious leaders keep on feeding and fanning the glowing embers.

The two major rifts in Christ-ianity and Islam provide fertile ground for more animosity. When will people come totheir senses and appreciate that the chain of hatred and vindication will never solve this perennial problem?

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