Images of Religious Others in Textbooks of Religious Education for the Public Primary Schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

The course of Religious Education and its respective textbooks for pupils of public primary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina could certainly make a considerable contribution to rebuilding mutual trust between Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims — the three major religious traditions of the country in the post-war period. Obviously, the extent of success in this regard will largely depend on how the Religious Education literature portrays the members of other ethno-religious communities in the country. Our analysis has shown that the greatest space for religious others is allocated in the textbooks of Catholic Religious Education. In general, textbooks of all traditional religious communities in the country tend to avoid direct negative evaluation of religious others, preferring rather to address their teachings and history of mutual encounter in a respectful manner. Exceptions, however, do exist and they are often concerned with how confessions and religious orientations other than traditional Catholic, Orthodox and Islamic are portrayed. Similarly, history and historical categories remain to be the main factors vitiating the portrayal of Muslims in Catholic and — especially — Orthodox textbooks. Accordingly, history textbooks might prove to be the main battle field in the future textbook revisions.