Why Are We Seeing a Repetition of Humanity's Darkest Hours? | Opinion

After the Holocaust, the world said "never again." But in 1995, 8,372 Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) were killed in Europe's the first genocide since World War II.

I know because I lived through the Bosnian war and its cruelties.

Twenty-eight years ago in the quest for a "Greater Serbia," Bosnian Serb forces systematically murdered thousands of Bosniak men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica. On the other side of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) in the town of Bihać, my world shattered; starved, bombed, dehumanized, and besieged, my family and I were targeted by the joint military enterprise of Bosnian Serb and Serbia's forces that included former neighbors, teachers, and even classmates.

Forever changed by nearly 1,200 days of starvation and bombing, at the age of 20, I moved to the United States in search of a better life. Since then, I hoped the world would ensure genocide would never again cast its dark shadow.

But my hopes were in vain.

In 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, using rhetoric that inspired the worst genocide and war crimes this century. As Russian forces retreated from the Ukrainian town of Bucha last year, hundreds of bodies were uncovered, including children.

Yet, it's not just Ukraine where the memory of Srebrenica is ignored.

Since 2014, the Chinese government has carried out a methodical and targeted campaign of imprisonment, cultural vandalism, and forced sterilization against the Muslim Uyghurs of the eastern Xinjiang province—amounting to ethnic persecution and eradication on an industrial scale. Despite the campaign, under the guise of "deradicalization," being characterized as genocide by the United States, Britain, France, and Canada, Xinjiang province continues to see huge drops in annual birth rates.

But why are we seeing a repetition of humanity's darkest hours?

Glacial and inadequate justice, the proliferation of genocide denial, and a severe failing in neutralizing divisive narratives that target minorities are just some of the reasons for this global escalation in identity-based, targeted violence.

For example, justice for the victims of Srebrenica, and other war crimes in Bosnia, has been shamefully slow. So slow that Slobodan Milošević, the Serbian President indicted for genocide and war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo, died before his trial's conclusion in 2006.

To prevent these travesties of justice, world leaders must immediately strengthen the mechanisms which investigate, apprehend, and prosecute perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity. The recent success in widening the war crimes convictions for Serbia's government officials, Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović, prove not only that Serbia was the aggressor with the intent to permanently eradicate non-Serbs, but also that when justice is served, the horrors Bosniaks lived through are globally recognized.

This is why we should applaud the recent opening of the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression (ICPCA) – which will seek prosecutions for the horrors of Ukraine. But other courts like the International Criminal Court (ICC) need stronger enforcement assistance so perpetrators can be brought to justice.

But even when justice is served, the trauma of surviving a genocide is something that never leaves you. And nothing triggers that trauma like genocide denial.

This is why state actors, particularly the United States, should adopt resolutions—supported across political spectrums—recognizing the Bosnian Genocide. Alternatively, the denial and even encouragement of genocide will continue to inspire targeted violence, extremism, and hate.

In Bosnia, despite the evidence and convictions of both Bosnian Serb and Serbian wartime political and military leaders who partook in the joint criminal enterprise to permanently eradicate non-Serbs, genocide denial by Serb nationalists and their international allies is rife. This trend is now replicated in Ukraine, with Russia quick to blame the Bucha atrocities on Ukrainian forces, a view now shared by millions of pro-Russian sympathizers globally.

The West should be concerned. The divisive political discourse in the U.S. today is not dissimilar to the narratives used to justify the 1990s extermination of Bosniaks. Distressingly, these narratives are even leveraged by far-right groups to recruit members and carry out acts of targeted violence in the U.S. and Europe.

This is why we must tackle the harmful narratives that lead to genocide in the first place and why I am the proud director of the International Interfaith Lab at Columbia University, which exists in partnership with the world's largest Islamic NGO, the Muslim World League (MWL). The secretary general of the MWL, Dr. Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, is an internationally recognized leader in interfaith coexistence who led the first-ever delegation of senior Islamic faith figures to Auschwitz, sending a powerful message to those—especially in the Muslim world—who continue to propagate Holocaust denial. Through his support, I have created a research laboratory to design evidence-based programs that prevent intolerance and extremism.

And in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, my team and I have also designed a training program for U.S. educators to undermine hate narratives and combat targeted violence by instilling resilience to hate at an early stage.

Ultimately, I have seen first-hand the horrific results of unchallenged othering and dehumanization narratives. On this year's Srebrenica anniversary, on July 11, world leaders, policymakers, educators, and civil society leaders owe it to our histories, to survivors, and future generations to take high-profile steps to strengthen justice for victims and push back against the rising tide of extremism.

This is the only way to ensure the 21st century will not be as bloody and tragic as the last.

Dr. Amra Sabic-El-Rayess is a professor at Columbia University. She is an expert on a range of issues including interfaith collaboration, anti-Muslim racism, educational displacement, and hate prevention.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.