Emir Suljagic writes, “Despite what some in the policy and media circles in the West try to argue, what happened to us Bosniaks a quarter-century ago was not a footnote, a mere anomaly, in European history. Just like the mass murder of European Jewry in the 1940s, the mass-murder of Bosniaks in the 1990s was a direct consequence of the faulty and highly dangerous way “Europeans” define their identity. Muslims – together with Jews – have been playing the role of Europe’s “other” for centuries.

The myth that has been built on the perception of Muslims as the inferior, aggressive and at times dangerous “other” was undoubtedly one of the core reasons for Bosniaks’ suffering. Today, the same dangerous myth is being used by the far right across Europe and beyond to blame Muslims for the world’s many deep-rooted problems. Srebrenica survivors, like my mother, are perhaps the ones best placed to tell the world what this type of hate and dehumanisation can lead to. … In the face of this threat, it is up to our generation to prevent one from taking place again and to ensure that the lives and sacrifices of my mother, Ahmo Husic, and other Bosniak survivors have not been in vain.”