A Muslim Extremist Ran Up Behind Me in Bosnia

I was walking alone in Bosnia, in the countryside far from the capital city of Sarajevo. It was night, and I had a few kilometers of walking to reach the small village, a collection of ~100 unpainted houses on the hillside, where I had booked a stay.

 

I heard running footsteps behind me. My mind immediately returned to Tanzania where two men with machetes had attempted to mug me. “Damnit, not again.”

 

It was a man ~30 years old, well-built frame, and I had all my possessions in my backpack and nowhere to run but into the cold, dark, unknown countryside of Bosnia. If he had a knife or a gun, escaping the situation wouldn’t be easy.

 

Thankfully, he was a Bosnian Muslim Extremist.

 

1. Extremely Welcoming

 

He invited me into his home, as he saw I was walking alone into the countryside. His family had recently build a new house on their property, and it was empty. He brought me some sleeping bags, and the house had a heater, refrigerator, and hot water.

 

“In our religion, a man on the road is a holy man. And in Bosnian tradition man in the road is our host. It was dark, and I think my duty was to help a stranger.”

 

2. Extremely Generous

 

When morning came, he brought food to the house and we ate together. When I went into the town of Maglaj to work every day, he told me to sit in the café where he worked, and whenever he was there he didn’t let me pay for anything I ate or drank, shaking his finger and smiling every time I pulled out my wallet.

 

3. Extremely Friendly

 

He, his father and I sat and drank coffee in the mornings, speaking German and English and learning to count 1-10 in Bosnian. I truly enjoyed these conversations, and they made me feel so at home.

 

 

4. Extremely Interesting

 

He and his father had lived through the Balkan wars, building guns from car parts to fight armies with tanks and airplanes. His father still has a piece of granite lodged in his arm.

 

“Forgive, but never forget.”

 

5. Extreme Hobbies And Pets

 

His father grows extremely hot peppers, the Carolina Reaper (1,569,383 Scoville Heat Units) the hottest in the world.

 

 

He owns ‘Sultan’, an extremely big dog and the largest I have ever met.

 

 

A True Bosnian Muslim Extremist

 

Bosnia has a reputation for being a ‘ticking time bomb’ of jihadi extremists waiting to pounce on Western Europe, but I will remember the extremely good people I met in Bosnia who searched for a traveler in the dark to make sure he was safe.