Bosnian choir takes on war and hostility with Muslim hymns

ISTANBUL — One choir in Bosnia defies the very notions of
hatred, racism and discrimination, being the voice of three nations
whose sons and daughters were shooting at each other just 18 years
ago.

The terror of the Bosnian war is still alive on the streets of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, filled with poignant images of bullet holes
on the facades of buildings and other structures laid completely to
waste. The Sultan Mehmed Fatih Ensemble, whose repertoire consists
of Muslim hymns, called ilahis, stands amidst and against this past
hatred and atrocity with its members of Croatian, Serb and Bosnian
origin. The members are all students at the Ilidza School of Music
and each of them stands as a testimony to what tolerance, love,
dialogue and brotherhood can achieve.

They breathe in the peace the Ottomans brought to Balkan soil,
singing ilahis from a united heart, “La ilaha ilAllah” (“There is
no deity except God,” a part of the Muslim proclamation of faith
called the Shahadah, or being a witness). They don’t care if they
are criticized by those who find it hard to understand how a person
of Orthodox or Catholic faith can praise the name of Allah and the
Prophet Muhammad.

Dajana Aladzuz, a Catholic choir member of Croat origin, says
she was taught by her parents to respect differences. “I didn’t
know what an ilahi was when I first began. I thought they were just
songs. When my teacher told me about the message of Allah and the
Prophet Muhammad, I felt different spiritually. I tried to sing
more beautifully because now I know what these are and I feel
them.”