“For me there is no nationalism and patriotism, for me one and the other are outrageous. Usually it’s people who are naïve that fall for such things, those on the other side of the iron curtain. However, it’s the planners and managers who dictate how it suits them, in order to realize their goals, whether they be political or economic, it’s clear as a day”, says in a conversation for CIVIL Media theologian Husein Ademi, replying to the question – what nationalism and patriotism mean to him.
He stressed that as a theologian, he sees nationalism as a destructive occurrence that limits a person’s viewpoint, thinking, mentality…and by inertia leads him towards inflicting injustice and violence to the “different one”, to simply have dominance over that one.
“Why? In order to fulfill his goals, and doesn’t care at all about the “different one” who doesn’t speak his language, or is not familiar with his traditions, or doesn’t respect his customs…And now how can you have and build some kind of feeling of patriotism, to feel some loyalty or love towards a country when you know that this entire issue is usurped by people who don’t care at all about how things are going and what kind of future we will leave our children”, added Ademi.
Ademi says that as a clerk he is guided by what is written in the Quran – “O mankind, indeed We have created you from one man and one woman, and made you into peoples and tribes, so that you may know one another”.
“To know one another, that means that we need to cooperate together, but with some kind of nationalism or patriotism, that all falls into water, and people are losing all moral values and are not in a situation of getting to know one another, let alone cooperate. The question is what are we going to do with such mentality, and what have we left to the future generations?”, he adds.
Ademi says that debates need to be organized in order to reduce nationalism, but not by politicians, because those debates are doomed. We need debates by professors, academic citizens, political analysts, intellectuals…People who have a proven democratic level, who care for harmony and democratic values.
“We need debates on the topics nationalism and religion, because that nationalism often finds support in religion, not as a teaching, but from clerks who in cooperation with certain political structures want to use the historic moment and cause national hatred, and after certain time, find excuses in the religion. The Islamic Religious Community and the Macedonian Orthodox Church need to organize a joint debate and leave room for intellectuals to simply talk about these topics, because only in this way we will come to a solution”, outlines Ademi.
Dehran Muratov
Editing: Biljana Jordanovska
