Spiritual Assistance During Two Refugee Crises in the Republic of Macedonia
Main Article Content
Abstract
Abstract: This paper offers an analysis of spiritual assistance offered in times of crisis. It is based on research and interviews conducted in the early months of 2009 and provides insights into the role played by both NGOs and publishing houses during two refugee crises in the Republic of Macedonia. Their motivation to intensely engage in helping the refugees was greatly due to their religious convictions and was imbued with spiritual connotation. Based on a number of interviews conducted with the engaged parties, this paper also includes the religious discourse of the imams[i] during these two major refugee crises that happened in the Balkans. Through various means of action, both the organizations and the imams attempted to convey a religious message that would provide psychological strength to the victims of these crises in the region, as well as to restore their faith in keeping their community alive and returning safely to their homes. Much of the religious messages and the religious discourse in general, aimed at giving both spiritual support and teaching patience, as well as giving the victims a sense of belonging to a community, and therefore triggering their awareness to preserve it. Some aspects of the 2001 conflict in Macedonia, which bring in the questions of nationalism, nationalist agenda and patriotism, are also be brought into focus, especially as it can shed some further light on the different agendas of both humanitarian and spiritual assistance in times of crisis.
Keywords: spiritual assistance, refugee crisis, Islamic literature, piousness, religion, sense of belonging
Downloads
Article Details
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
3. While AEER adopts the above strategies in line with best practices common to the open access journal community, it urges authors to promote use of this journal (in lieu of subsequent duplicate publication of unaltered papers) and to acknowledge the unpaid investments made during the publication process by peer-reviewers, editors, copy editors, programmers, layout editors and others involved in supporting the work of the journal.