The Bosniak Academy of Sciences and Art, BANU, the Bosniak National Council in Montenegro, the Bosniak National Council in Serbia, Bosniak Cultural Association and a group of other Bosniak organizations submitted an initiative to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro “to launch proceedings for banning and removing of two books “the Mountain Wreath” (in Montenegrin: Gorski vijenac) written by Petar I Petrović Njegoš, as well as “Hourglass” (in Montenegrin: Peščanik) by Danilo Kiš from syllabi, in accordance with their legal authorizations”. The same request was sent to the ministries in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia.
In the initiative’s justification they said that “the content of these books for years represented a scientific and literary basis for creating the nationalist and other anti-civilizational relations, especially towards Islam and Muslims,” writes Dan, a daily.
According to these organizations, Njegoš, as one of the greatest Serbian and Montenegrin writers, as well as Kiš, a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and of Jewish origin, with their books, that is, “hatred towards Islam and Muslims”, provoked hatred and conflicts between peoples living on the territory of former Yugoslavia.
The initiative compared the above-mentioned books of Njegoš and Kiš with Hitler and added that they strongly opposed any award should ever have names of these two writers.
The Ministry of Education, on the other hand, answered to the request by stating they did not intend to change the existing syllabus and curriculum.
