MEDIA OF THE ISLAMIC COMMUNITY

Institutional launching and developing newspapers, journals, newsletters, bulletins and periodicals, broadcasting stations and then respectable web sites and portals within the Islamic Community proceeded fairly slowly. For example, it took as long as 50 years from the formation of the Islamic Community to the launch of its first official journal or a newspaper. Radio of the Islamic Community began to broadcast programs 88 years after the establishment of the first radio station (in the USA in 1920). Radio Vatican was formed in 1931. Print media, newspapers or journals which appeared in the second or the third decade of the 20th century were formed within the class associations of ulama (“Mualim”, “Hikmet”). A chronic lack of fund, and an unfavorable social environment over a long historical period, restricted freedoms and social marginalization of the Islamic Community essentially inhibited any determined engagement in launching and developing media of the Islamic Community. “Although Communist authorities rhetorically supported religious freedoms, the Islamic Community did not manage to renew or launch any Islamic journal in the first postwar years” (Bećirović, 395). Besides objective reasons and limitations, one must not ignore a lack of own initiative and creativity, perhaps also of a serious institutional recognition of the importance of media for the achievement of the mission of the Islamic Community.

Out of the media which have appeared or are still active in the Islamic Community, the following ones can be singled out by their significance: Glasnik, Takvim, Preporod, Muallim, MINA, Radiotelevizija Islamske zajednice BIR (Radiotelevision of the Islamic Community BIR) and web-portal of the Islamic Community.

Glasnik

Glasnik is the official journal of the Riyasat of the Islamic Community. It is published bimonthly. The first issue was printed in January 1933 and it was published regularly until 1945. After a five-year interruption, Glasnik began to be published again in 1950. Another interruption occurred in 1993, due to the war. Since the beginning of 1994, Glasnik has been published regularly.

The initiator and the first publisher of Glasnik was the Supreme Eldership of the Islamic Religious Community of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Over time, changes in the organization of the Islamic Community reflected on its full title, and today it is published as Glasnik Rijaseta Islamske zajednice u Bosni i Hercegovini.

Glasnik publishes official documents of the bodies and institutions of the Islamic Community: decisions and conclusions from the sessions of the Riyasat, the Council, Mufti Council, Constitutional Court, decrees on appointments of imams and muftis, appointments of directors of institutions, annual performance reports and other official acts and documents.

Besides the official part, Glasnik regularly publishes texts about various Islamic topics, articles about general and cultural Muslim and Bosniak history and literature, translations from Oriental and European languages, texts from other academic and research fields interesting for Muslims. Raisu-l-ulamas, muftis, muderrises, imams, muallims and many other prominent cultural and public personalities have had their works published in Glasnik.

Takvim

The Supreme Eldership of the Islamic Community published the first issue of Takvim with calendar calculations for 1934. until 1942 Takvim was published by the Supreme Eldership of the Islamic Religious Community, in three scripts: Latin, Cyrillic and Arebica. From 1943 to do 1948 Takvim was published by Sarajevo bookstore owned by Ahmed Kujundžić. Takvim was then published as a supplement to the official Glasnik of the Islamic Community in the form of a calendar with Ramadan vaktijas (prayer times) and in 1951 the Supreme islamic Eldership ceded publishing of Takvim to the newly established Ilmiyyah Association. Ever since, textual contributions have accompanied the calendar part and a single almanac entitled Takvim began to be published. Since 1997 Takvim has been published by the Riyasat of the Islamic Community.

Takvim is one of the publications of the Islamic Community with the largest circulation and an almanac with the largest circulation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Besides the calendar part, Takvim has been publishing writings in the fields of Islamic disciplines, culture and tradition, contemporary Muslim issues, those of socio-political and philosophical-ethical nature, and has thus become a recognizable medium of the Islamic Community and a credible annual publication.

Preporod

Islamic newsletter Preporod is published twice a month (on the 1st and the 15th day of a month). The first issue of Preporod was published on 12 pages on 15 September 1970, as a journal of Ilmiyyah Association for the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Husein-ef. Đozo was its editor-in-chief. On 1 December 1979 the Eldership of the Islamic Community in BiH, Croatia and Slovenia became the publisher of Preporod. From the mid-1990s it was published by the Riyasat of the Islamic Community and since February 2019, by the Media Center of the Islamic Community.

Due to its coverage of the religious, jamaat and spiritual life of Muslims in general, Preporod has been a distinct witness and a written archive of happenings in the Islamic Community and among Muslims. It has published a large number of stories about religious life in many jamaats of the Islamic Community, Muslim countries and Bosniak diaspora. Preporod published reports on war activities and suffering of the Islamic Community and Muslims, covered the return of displaced Bosniaks and renewal of jamaats in the postwar period, and published a huge number of relevant authorial texts and contents from the field of religion and culture, essays, reviews, editorials, interviews with many prominent intellectuals from across the world. Associates and authors of articles in Preporod include almost all the significant professors at madrasas and faculties, officers of the Islamic Community, imams, muftis, raisu-l-ulamas and prominent Muslim intellectuals.

 Muallim

The first issue of Muallim was published in Sarajevo in October 1910. It was launched as a newsletter of Muslim, muallim and imam society for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Muallim was initially a journal for education and class interests of muallims and imams in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The journal, which has considerably contributed to the development of educational ideas in these regions, was published in several sequences: from 1910 to 1913, from 1990 to 1998 and since 2000 up to now when, after a two-year interruption, its publication has been continued in the new form of a journal for upbringing and education and with a changed title, Novi Muallim.

Since 2000, Novi Muallim has been defined as a journal for upbringing and education, and has particularly focused on topics and issues of Islamic education and upbringing in preschool institutions, primary and secondary schools, military and other institutions.

Novi Muallim is an indexed journal which publishes academic and professional papers and studies. It is published quarterly.

Muslimanska informativna agencija – MINA

Muslim News Agency (MINA) is an agency of the Islamic Community which deals with informing public on the activities and happenings in the Islamic Community, as well as with publicizing relevant information pertaining to Islam and Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

MINA began operation in Sarajevo on 4 November 1991. Its first editor-in-chief was Enes Durmišević. Establishment of a news agency was aimed at breaking the peculiar blocking of contents of religious character and information on religious life. “Thus, its basic focus will initially be on publishing a biweekly bulletin in English as well as occasional information, for local public, on some most significant events in the political, economic and cultural life of Muslims, particularly in the work of the Islamic Community”, the information of its establishment said.

MINA forwards information and contents pertaining to important activities in the Islamic Community and to the position of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina to media, and thus informs public at large about them.

Since February 2019 MINA has been operating within the Media Center of the Islamic Community. 

Radiotelevizija Islamske zajednice BIR

Radiotelevizija Islamske zajednice BIR is the first electronic medium of the Islamic Community. It was formed pursuant to the Decision of the Council of the Islamic Community of 9 November 2006. Broadcasting of experimental radio programs began on 10 January 2008, of regular programs on 11 February; from 21 April 2008 programs were broadcast daily, from 7.00 to 19.00, while since 1 March 2009 they have been broadcast all day. Broadcasting encompasses religious, educational, children, youth, musical, sport programs and news.  

On the first day of the Ramadan in 1441 according to the Hijra calendar, i.e. on 24. April 2020, programs of BIR television began to be broadcast. RTV BIR is a family radiotelevision station, with Islamic values and a platform through which the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina maintains contacts and communication with Muslim and Bosnian and Herzegovinian public.

Web-portal Islamske zajednice

A thorough approach to the development of the website of the Riyasat of the Islamic Community began in mid-2006, when the decision was made on establishing a separate office for a web-portal within the Secretariat of the Riyasat and on opening a job of editor of the portal. Riyasat had previously launched the website www.rijaset.net, which was later renamed as www.rijaset.ba. Late in 2006, the first version of the reformed website, i.e. portal of the Riyasat was launched, and in the second half of 2008 Riyasat website in English was added. In this way, the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina implemented the full Internet presentation in English for the first time.

The web-portal regularly published texts and news of diverse contents and topics, occasionally polemic ones and posted many official documents of the Islamic Community.

Upon formation of the Public Relations Office of the Riyasat in March 2009, Riyasat's web-portal www.rijaset.ba made up a single organizational unit with the office. In the second half of 2015, web-portal www.rijaset.ba changed the domain into www.islamskazajednica.ba and was conceptually set up as the official portal of the Islamic Community, which mainly has the official character or pertains to the official activities of the Islamic Community  .

A significant place in the publishing activity of the Islamic Community is occupied by the almanac Anali Gazi Husrev-begove biblioteke (Annals of Gazi Husrev-beg's Library), as a professional journal with the longest tradition. It was launched in 1972 and it primarily deals with Islamic academic disciplines and other fields related to the library holdings and historical material from the cultural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Faculties of the Islamic Community publish their own proceedings, while students of madrasas publish school newspapers; in this respect, one can single out the newspaper of students of Gazi Husrev-beg Madrasa Zemzem, launched in 1968, which has since exceeded limitations of a students' newspaper and gained broad readership among Muslims in many parts of Yugoslavia.

Besides the listed media, an important role in the promotion of Islam and Muslim values in these regions was played by some of the journals which were published for a short time and are no longer active. They include Hikmet, a journal for religious-theological and cultural-historical issues from Tuzla. The first issue was published on 7 April 1929 and the last one on 14 November 1936. In 1993, Tuzla Muftiship re-launched the journal, but it ceased to be published in April 2001. Journal entitled El-Hidaje, of the ilmiyyah organization in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia with the same name, was published from December 1936 to 25 February 1945, and published original articles, translations, khutbas, news from the Islamic world, reports of Mawlid festivities etc. Islamska misao, a journal for Islamic issues, philosophy and culture/journal for Islamic studies, theology and information science was published from 1 December 1979 till May 1993. It played an important role in informing and educating Muslims.

References:

• Bećirović, Denis (2012), Islamska zajednica u Bosni i Hercegovini za vrijeme avnojevske Jugoslavije : (1945-1953), Zagreb – Sarajevo: Bošnjačka nacionalna zajednica za Grad Zagreb i Zagrebačku županiju, Islamska zajednica u Hrvatskoj – Medžlis Islamske zajednice Zagreb.

• “Prva muslimanska informativna agencijaˮ, Glasnik Rijaseta Islamske zajednice u SFRJ, br. 5-6, 1991, str. 805.

• Tucaković, Ekrem (2018), Odnosi s javnošću u funkciji ostvarenja cilja Islamske zajednice, Sarajevo: El-Kalem.