OVERVIEW OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ISLAMIC COMMUNITY IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Prof. Mustafa Imamović, PhD

“... The issue of the legal position and internal organization of the Islamic Religious Community arose only after the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878. A separate religious organization did not exist in Bosnia and Herzegovina before the Austro-Hungarian occupation because the Ottoman state itself was Islamic. The unity of the members of Islam was based on the religious solidarity and the obligation to adhere to Sharia rather than on a strictly formal hierarchy of religious organization. Belonging to the Islamic community was expressed by recognizing the supreme rule of Ottoman sultan as the caliph, i.e. the religious leader of all Muslims. In reality, all religious affairs were managed by Istanbul mufti, with the title of shaikh al-islam, as sultan's (caliph's) representative in the field of religion and law, called Mashihat, i.e. the Office of shaikh al-islam in Istanbul, as the supreme authority for valid interpretation of religious doctrine.

Austro-Hungary immediately began to work on the establishment of separate religious hierarchy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the aim of separating Muslims from Constantinople and thus solidifying its position in the occupied country. Immediately after the occupation, Austro-Hungarian authorities considered Husein Nur-ef.  Hafizović, who happened to hold the position of the supreme Sharia judge in Sarajevo at the moment of occupation, as the supreme representative of the Islamic religious community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Pursuant to provisions of the Treaty of Berlin, Austro-Hungary was bound to respect the freedom of religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Article 2 of Constantinople, or the so-called Novi Pazar Convention of 21 April 1879 guaranteed Bosnian Muslims the right to freely maintain contacts with shaikh al-islam in Istanbul. Having in mind these documents and Islamic tradition, Muslims naturally resisted the breakdown of religious relations with Constantinople. Austro-Hungary generally agreed that the shaikh al-islam can appoint religious officers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, though only from among locals. This is why Austro-Hungarian authorities prevented the arrival and inauguration of Ahmed Šukri ef., a former Rumelian kadiasker (chief judge), who was appointed Bosnian mufti on 18 June 1880. After a long hesitation and various diplomatic maneuvers between Vienna and Istanbul, on 22 March 1882 shaikh al-islam appointed Sarajevo mufti, hajji Mustafa Hilmi Omerović, Bosnian mufti, whereby the Sublime Porte indirectly acknowledged the need for establishing an Islamic supreme authority in the occupied country. Austro-Hungary confirmed the appointment by issuing a royal decree of 17 October 1882.

Hilmi ef. Omerović was appointed the first rais-ul-ulama of the Islamic Religious Community (IRC) of BiH. At the same time, tsar appointed the first four members of Ulama Majlis. Qadis Hasan ef. Pozderac, Mehmed  Nezir ef. Škaljić, Nuri  ef. Hafizović and Husein ef. Ibrahimović were appointed members. In this way, the institution of Riyasat was established in BiH, as a unique example of such an institution in the Islamic world.

It was immediately followed by the Order of the Joint Ministry of Finance of 24 October 1882, pursuant to which the organization of the administration of religious and waqf affairs of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina was implemented. Religious officials were not elected but appointed. Tsar appointed Rais-ul-ulama and members of Ulama-majlis, while other officials were appointed by the Land Government in Sarajevo. Religious bodies were not independent, since the authorized government commissioner could change their decisions. In mid-March of 1883, the Joint Ministry of Finance appointed the Temporary Commission for organizing waqf affairs in BiH, and Sarajevo mayor Mustajbeg Fadilpašić was formally appointed its chairman. In reality, Commission was headed by two permanent government representatives. In this way, the entire work of waqfs was under permanent control of the government.

Muslims were very dissatisfied with such a position of their religious and waqf organization. Another reason for the dissatisfaction were proselystic activities of Catholic church, which aggressively propagandized christening of Muslims. In such a situation, a protest assembly of Mostar citizens took place on 5 May 1889 following kidnapping of a Muslim underage girl by some nuns. The assembly marked the beginning of the struggle of Muslims of BiH for religious and waqf-mearif (religious education) autonomy. Mufti of Herzegovina Ali Fehmi Džabić led the autonomy movement. Muslims managed to obtain religious and waqf-mearif autonomy after ten-year-long efforts, writing memoranda, negotiation with the Land Government and sending delegations to Vienna and Istanbul. On 15 April 1909, the government finally issued the “Statute for Self-governing Administration of Islamic Religious and Waqf-mearif Activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, which took effect on 1 May the same year.

All religious and waqf bodies established pursuant to the “Statute of Autonomy” were self-governing. Waqf-mearif bodies in the Muslim municipality (jamaat) included jamaat assembly and jamaat majlis. They elected waqf-mearif committees, which in turn delegated their representatives in the Waqf-mearif Board, as the supreme body in the affairs of Muslim endowments and education. Management of religious affairs was the responsibility of Ulama-majlis, which was chaired by raisu-l-ulama. Out of three candidates who were voted by the Hodžinska kurija (electoral body), Austrian tsar appoints one raisu-l-ulama. In every district there was one mufti, who was appointed by the Land Government upon the proposal of Ulama-majlis. However, a dispute arose at a point about who was supposed to issue the manshur (spiritual investiture) to raisu-l-ulama. After a short opposition by Austro-Hungarian government, the dispute was resolved in favor of Muslims, which was the only possible way pursuant to Sharia law, and the manshur was to be issued by shaikh al-islam.

Immediately upon passing the “Statute of Autonomy”, the current, second in a row, raisu-l-ulama Mehmed Teufik ef. Azabagić voluntarily retired. In mid-1910, the third raisu-l-ulama, the first elected pursuant to the “Statute of Autonomy”, hafiz Sulejman ef. Šarac was inaugurated. Only two years later, the same electoral body which elected and proposed him for this high position requested his resignation. Under the pressure by his associates, Land Government ultimately coerced it in early August 1912.

In 1913, despite opposition by the Land Government, Hodžinska kurija unanimously elected Mehmed Džemaludin ef. Čaušević as raisu-l-ulama on two occasions. Tsar ultimately confirmed it with a decree of 27 October 1913. Čaušević received the manshur at a ceremony in the Imperial Mosque on 26 March 1914. Election of Čaušević for raisu-l-ulama coincided with the end of the Balkan Wars, when Sandžak was divided between Serbia and Montenegro and thus a relatively large number of Muslims found themselves governed by the two new states. Upon the ultimatum of great European powers, Serbia recognized the freedom of exercising Islam by Article 79. of the Ordinance on organization of liberated regions of 18 August 1913, though no separate regulations were passed pertaining to the organization of the Islamic Religious Community. The only thing that happened was that the former mufti seated in Niš was granted the title grand mufti. In reality, despite the general legal freedom of religion, Islam was not on equal footing with Orthodoxy, which was considered the state religion. With respect to Montenegro, no special regulations pertaining to Islamic community were passed after the Balkan Wars. It was believed that the issue was generally and practically resolved by paragraph 3 of Article 129. of the Constitution of Montenegro of 19 December 1905, pursuant to which the “internal administration of Muhammad's religion is responsibility of Montenegrin mufti”.

Unification, i.e. formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (SCS) was followed by a very complex situation from the viewpoint of the organization of the Islamic Community, waqf management and Muslim religious life in general. Pursuant to Article 10. of the Treaty of Peace with Austria concluded in the western suburb of Paris Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 10 September 1919, the Kingdom of SCS undertook some obligations pertaining to its citizens of Islamic religion. Although not explicitly articulated, these obligations primarily pertained to the protection of status of Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina and preservation of their religious and waqf-mearif autonomy. In the Treaty of Saint-Germain, the Kingdom of SCS basically undertook three obligations toward its citizens of Muslim religion. The first was to regulate issues pertaining to their family and personal status according to “Muslim customs”. Secondly, “Government of SCS undertakes to ensure the protection to the mosques, cemeteries and other Muslim religious establishments, to assure full recognition and facilities to Muslim pious foundations (waqfs) or charitable establishments then existing”, and “to not refuse any of the necessary facilities for the creation of new religious and charitable establishments which are guaranteed to other private institutions of this kind”. Finally, government of SCS undertook to take steps to appoint raisu-l-ulama for the whole country.

Although the Treaty of Saint-Germain was officially proclaimed temporary on 10 May 1920 and, upon passing the Vidovdan Constitution, the permanent law, the Kingdom of SCS did not fulfill any of the three obligations during the first ten years of its existence, and some of them not even later. With respect to the first obligation, Article 109. of the Vidovdan Constitution included a general proclamation that family and inheritance affairs of Muslims “shall be adjudicated by Sharia judges”; however, except in BiH and partly in Montenegro, there were no Sharia courts in other parts of the country. Pursuant to a legal regulation of 30 January 1922, grand mufti in Belgrade was granted the position of the supreme Sharia judge for Serbia and Montenegro, since at the same time the position of grand mufti of Montenegro was abolished. Even after passing the single Law on Sharia Courts on 21 March 1929, their introduction in Serbia and Montenegro was protracted. Thus, in September 1932, the Supreme Authority of the Islamic Religious Community sent a petition to the government saying that in “South Serbia” (Macedonia, Kosovo, parts of Sandžak), in many places there were no Sharia courts, although the legal deadline for their constitution had long expired.

With respect to care for Muslim religious institutions, mosques, cemeteries and waqfs, as early as in 1921 raisu-l-ulama Dž. Čaušević requested that “Islamic buildings which now house military or civil offices, be returned to their original purpose”, and that Muslim cemeteries should be given the same protection as the other ones. In the 1920s, as well as later, the Supreme Authority of the Islamic Religious Community collected many data on destroying and seizing mosques and their turning into military warehouses, scout halls and schools, and putting crosses on them.

In many places authorities dug up and desecrated Muslim cemeteries. Very often, waqf property was seized and given to Serbian education endowments, while the material from the razed waqf houses was used for constructing state-owned buildings. Besides, work of sibjan-maktabs, i.e. primary Islamic schools, was often hindered.

Finally, with respect to the obligation to appoint raisu-l-ulama for the whole country, the government formally recognized Džemaludin Čaušević as the religious head of all Muslims in the Kingdom of SCS, though it did not allow him to exert any influence over religious affairs outside Bosnia and Herzegovina. In all other parts of the country, management of the Islamic Religious Community was maintained by the Ministry of Religions, where Hasan Rebac was the head of Muslim department.

With respect to the legal regime of waqf property the “Statute of Autonomy” was in force in BiH, while for the other regions the Law on Waqf Management was passed on 28 February 1922, pursuant to which the Ministry of Religions was entrusted with management and supervision authority for waqf affairs. Upon the proposal of relevant mufti, the ministry appointed district waqf boards. The ministry appointed even those religious officers who were paid by waqfs from their own funds. The surplus of revenues of individual waqfs went to the Central Waqf Fund within the Mortgage Bank in Belgrade, and in principle it was supposed to be used for the needs of the Islamic Religious Community in Serbia and Montenegro.

After all, it can be concluded that there was not a single Islamic religious organization in the Kingdom of SCS from 1918 to 1929. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Islamic Religious Community had autonomy within which it freely managed its religious, waqf and education affairs. On the other hand, the religious organization of Muslims in Serbia and Montenegro was actually a separate part of state administration, delegated to resolve marital and some proprietary affairs of Muslims.

Soon after the proclamation of dictatorship on 6 January 1929, the regime decided to implement a single organization of the Islamic Religious Community for the whole country and thus put all the Muslim religious bodies and affairs under its direct control. This, essentially political operation was consigned to Milan Srškić, PhD, the Minister of Justice, whose department came to include religious affairs as well upon the beginning of dictatorship. Srškić planned first to reorganize the Islamic Religious Community and put it under control of the Ministry of Justice, and then to bring pro-regime people into the leadership of Muslim religious organization.

The first part of the plan, reorganization of the Islamic Religious Community and its placement under the control of the Ministry of Justice, was implemented by means of the Law on the Islamic Religious Community of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia of 31 January 1930. The Law nullified the “Statute for Self-governing Administration of Islamic Religious and Waqf-mearif affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. In this way, the religious, waqf and educational self-government of Muslims was revoked in Bosnia and Herzegovina. When the Law came into effect, raisu-l-ulama for Bosnia and Herzegovina, grand mufti for Serbia and Montenegro, members of Ulama-majlis and all the muftis were held at the disposal. The Law provided that raisu-l-ulama with the seat in Belgrade, members of two ulama-majlises, in Sarajevo and in Skopje, and nine muftis were to be appointed by the king with his decree. In this way all religious affairs were given over to religious officials and bodies appointed by the state. However, waqf-mearif affairs were not even given to some appointed bodies but were put under direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice, as the highest administrative level in all the matters of Muslim religious endowments and schools.

Raisu-l-ulama Čaušević immediately saw through Srškić's intentions and strongly objected to them. After a long and exhausting correspondence with Srškić, where he was humiliated and treated like a common public clerk rather than the head of one off the three most significant religious communities in the country, Čaušević requested to be retired. Pursuant to Royal decree of 6 June 1930, upon the proposal of the Minister of Justice, raisu-l-ulama Džemaludin Čaušević was sent off to retirement. Srškić thus opened the space for implementation of the second part of his plan, i.e. bringing people loyal to the regime to the leadership of the Islamic Religious Community. As early as on 12 June 1930, the retired mufti of Tuzla and Banja Luka Ibrahim ef. Maglajlić was appointed new raisu-l-ulama with the seat in Belgrade, pursuant to the royal decree. The ceremony of his inauguration took place in the Bajrakli Mosque in Belgrade on 31 October 1930, in the presence of king, members of the government, diplomatic corps and many delegations from the country.

Organization of the Islamic Religious Community was regulated by the Constitution which was imposed on 9 July 1930. Pursuant to legislation of the 6 of January, religious bodies of the Islamic Religious Community included: jamaat imams, muftis, two ulama-majlises, one in Sarajevo and the other in Skopje and the Supreme Islamic Authority in Belgrade headed by raisu-l-ulama.

The Constitution reduced the number of muftis to nine, with seats in Banja Luka, Tuzla, Sarajevo, Mostar, Pljevlja, Novi Pazar, Prizren, Bitolj and Skoplje respectively. Ulama-majlis was the main body through which “management and supervision of the entire religious, religious-educational and cultural life was done”. Ulama-majlis of Sarajevo was in charge of the territory of muftiships of Banja Luka, Tuzla, Sarajevo and Mostar, while ulama-majlis of Skopje was in charge of those of Pljevlja, Novi Pazar, Prizren, Bitolj and Skoplje. In analogy with the existence of two ulama-majlises, there were also two waqf-mearif councils, in Sarajevo and in Skoplje respectively, with their management boards and waqf directors, all of whom were directly appointed by the Minister of Justice. Lower waqf bodies included district waqf-mearif committee, the members of which were appointed by the competent waqf-mearif council and finally, as the only election body, the jamaat majlis which was elected by the assembly of jamaat members, and which took care of the needs of its jamaat.

A new situation for the Islamic Religious Community arose upon the dissolution of the 6 January regime at the so-called elections of 6 May and, on 24 January 1935, upon the entrance of Mehmed Spaho, PhD,in the first government of Milan Stojadinović, PhD, where Spaho was given the department of the Ministry of Transportation. As one of prerequisites for the inclusion of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization in the government, Spaho requested a revision of the legislation of 6 January, return of the seat of raisu-l-ulama to Sarajevo and removal of his own political opponents from the religious and waqf organization. In line with the agreement between Spaho and Stojadinović, as early as on 28 February 1936 the Legislative Decree was issued whereby the Law and Constitution of the Islamic Religious Community were repealed. Only two weeks thereafter, on 14 March 1936, raisu-l-ulama Ibrahim ef. Maglajlić was sent to retirement. A new Constitution of the Islamic Religious Community was passed on 24 October 1936, and thereupon professor Salih Safvet Bašić was appointed the first naib of the Supreme Islamic Authority seated in Belgrade.

Since, at the time, there was no caliphate or Istanbul mashihat, Maglajlić was awarded the manshur by a special Council for Manshur, composed of the members of Ulama-majlis, representatives of waqf-mearif councils and members of Sarajevo and Skoplje supreme Sharia courts. From that time, on, the practice that the manshur was granted by a special council or board for manshur was established.

Pursuant to the Constitution of 1936 muftiships were revoked, as well as the duality in the organization of the Islamic Religious Community, with two ulama-majlises and two waqf-mearif councils and two waqf directorates. Instead, Constitution provided for the formation of a single ulama-majlis directly with raisu-l-ulama and a single directorate of waqfs for the whole country, and generally strengthened the role of the layman factor in the management and affairs of the Islamic Religious Community. In 1937 Waqf Council and members of the election body for the election of raisu-l-ulama were elected. This election body met on 20 April 1937 and, pursuant to the Constitution, elected three candidates for raisu-l-ulama: Fehim ef. Spaho, president of the Supreme Sharia Court in Sarajevo, Ahmed ef. Burek, mudarris of the Gazi Husrev-beg Madrasa and Muhamed ef. Tufo, a professor at the Islamic Sharia-theological College. Based on this proposal, king's lieutenants appointed Fehim ef. Spaho raisu-l-ulama of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, by a decree of 26 April 1938. F. Spaho received the position of rais from the first naib Salih ef. Bašić on 6 May, and the ceremony of inauguration and awarding the manshur took place in the Imperial Mosque in Sarajevo on 8 June 1938.

During Spaho's term of office, in April 1941, Yugoslavia was caught in the Second World War, when the Islamic Religious Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina faced severe religious-political problems and ordeals. Some Muslim priests were from the beginning dissatisfied with the so-called Spaho's Constitution of the Islamic Religious Community of 24 October 1936, primarily with the fact that the constitution effectively took away from members of ulama many positions, primarily in the proprietary, i.e. waqf affairs, and opponents labeled it as layman's. Hakija Hadžić, an old opponent of Spaho brothers, attempted to make use of this dissatisfaction of some hodjas with the new organization of the Islamic Religious Community. When the so-called Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was proclaimed on 10 April 1941, Hadžić believed that his moment had come. He was the first person from BiH who, with several like-minded people whom he found among some Muslims and Croats, went to welcome Ante Pavelić. He returned from Zagreb with powers of attorney from Ante Pavelić according to which he, together with priest Božidar Bralo, was entrusted with civil administration in BiH (the so-called Poglavnik's committee for the Drina Banate).

Making use of this position, as early in June 1951, Hadžić organized a religious survey which was intended to help draft a new law and constitution of the Islamic Religious Community in line with the so-called hodja concept, which was formulated as early as in the years immediately preceding the war F. Spaho was formally invited to participate in the survey as raisu-l-ulama, but he did not come to any session. Only two of his followers attended only two sessions: Hazim Muftić, PhD, as the Waqf director, and Mehmed Ali Ćerimović, a member of Ulama-majlis. The other participants were mostly the people whom Hadžić trusted. The survey composed a “draft of the legal provision on religious-education autonomy” which Ante Pavelić was supposed to confirm as a law.

A special delegation led by Ademaga Mešić and Mehmed Handžić, president of the Association of Ilmiyyah “El-Hidaja”, submitted the draft to Pavelić on 7 August 1941. On this occasion Pavelić expressed his willingness to allow regulation of “spiritual matters” according to wishes of the delegation and invited its members to come to Zagreb again to attend opening of a mosque.

Every effect of this delegation was annulled by the fact that as early as the next day Pavelić officially received raisu-l-ulama Fehim Spaho, with Hazim Muftić, PhD, director of Waqf and the mufti of Zagreb Ismet Muftić.

In late August 1941, head of the former Yugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO) Džafer Kulenović entered the government of the NDH and from that time until the end of the war managed to block any further Hadžić's efforts to change the existing Constitution and organization of the Islamic Religious Community. In the meantime, on 13 February 1942, raisu-l-ulama Fehim Spaho died, and Hakija Hadžić strove to replace him by some of his men. Dž. Kulenović and his followers insisted on the requirement that a new raisu-l-ulama not be elected during the war and succeeded in it. Thus, Salih ef. Bašić, prof., found himself at the position of naib, i.e. acting raisu-l-ulama, for the second time and remained at the position until September 1947. In extremely hard days of the war Bašić very wisely and bravely managed affairs of the Islamic Religious Community, primarily caring for his people and religious officers as their leaders.

Disregarding sometimes perfidious promises and sometimes threats and intimidations by ustasha regime, he persistently declined any changes in the organization and structure of the Islamic Religious Community while the war was going on. He bravely refused several Pavelić's requests for the Supreme Islamic Authority to sign an epistle against the People's Liberation Movement.

A special task that the IRC had to deal with during the war was the issue of the mosque in Zagreb. The idea of building a mosque in Zagreb is rather old and it arose long before the establishment of the NDH. Diaspora of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Zagreb, though small, was formed as early as before the First World War, although Islam as a religion in Croatia and Slavonija was legally recognized only on 27 April 1916. After the proclamation of the NDH, plans for building a mosque in Zagreb were revived. A. Pavelić first proposed to Zagreb mufti Ismet Muftić that Orthodox church at the Preradović Square be turned into a mosque upon appropriate remodeling. Muftić emphatically refused the proposal. Thereupon, ustasha authorities proposed to adapt Meštrović’s monument in Zagreb downtown dedicated to King Petar I  Karađorđević for a mosque. This idea, as a distinctive freak of architecture, was temporarily put into practice. Allegedly, a group of Muslims from Zagreb managed to advise Meštrović about it through unidentified channels and asked his permission. Meštrović did not send any response to this message. Irrespectively, the mosque was built despite many open protests by Catholic hierarchy, who were particularly opposed to building a mosque in Zagreb downtown. Due to these protests, the opening ceremony was continuously postponed. After a long delay, the mosque was finally opened in the summer of 1944.

After great human suffering during the Second World War and material destruction, which particularly affected waqf property, religious life was slowly revived in the country. After the postwar circumstances in the country fairly stabilized, work began on drafting and passing the new Constitution of the IRC, which was adopted at the session of the Supreme Waqf Assembly in Sarajevo on 26 August 1947. Pursuant to this constitution, on 12 September 1947 the first postwar raisu-l-ulama Ibrahim ef. Fejić was elected. For the first time in the history of Riyasat, the ceremony of promotion and awarding the manshur took place in the Bey's instead of the Imperial Mosque in Sarajevo.

Over the following ten years Ibrahim ef.  Fejić worked on improving the IRC in the conditions of proclaimed freedom of religious beliefs and separation of religion from the state. Due to the discrepancy between the normative and actual conditions, tasks which faced Fejić and his successors at the position of raisu-l-ulama, Sulejman ef. Kemura and Naim ef. Hadžiabdić, were by no means easy or simple. Regardless of all difficulties and complexity of relations with the so-called social community, i.e. the state, and of all the turmoil within the Islamic community, during their terms of office as raises, Muslim religious life, education, culture and publishing boomed. In this respect, Islamic Community proved to be the first and fundamental, both religious and cultural-education institution of all Muslim people.

Constitution of 1947 was amended several times (on 16 January 1949; on 12 April 1950 and on 4 December 1955). At the session of the Supreme Assembly of the IRC in Priština on 5 November 1969, its new constitution was passed, pursuant to which the IRC was named only the Islamic Community (IC), since it was concluded that the word Islam implies the concept of religion. Pursuant to the constitution, bodies of the IC are boards as basic administrative bodies and muftis as chief religious personalities in their area. Higher bodies include councils and authorities.  The Council is the supreme body of the IC in a republic, and Authority is its executive body. There are four councils and four authorities. The Council in Sarajevo, composed of 30 members, encompassed BiH, Croatia and Slovenia. The Council in Priština, composed of 29 members, managed the IC in the so-called Serbia proper, Kosovo and Vojvodina. The IC in Montenegro was managed by the Council in Titograd with 26 members. Finally, due to its distinctive needs, the Islamic Community in Macedonia has its separate Statute which is based on the Constitution of the IC. The Council of the IC in Macedonia was composed of 20 members, with the Authority and its chairman. Each town in western Macedonia, 13 of them, has its board of the IC, while in Štip there is one for whole Macedonia.

Finally, at an emergency session of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Community in the SFRY in Sarajevo of 12 April 1990 the new Constitution of the Islamic Community was passed. Besides, this, the so-called Ramadan Constitution, implemented a thorough reorganization of the Islamic Community.

Article 11. of the Constitution of the Islamic Community provided that its property primarily consists of waqfs, and in this respect great hopes were hanged upon the process of de-nationalization, i.e. returning the once seized, or simply usurped waqf real estate. The war temporarily hindered the process.

Pursuant to Article 18., bodies of the IC are following: boards and muftiships of the Islamic Community, councils and mashihats of the IC, Supreme Council of the IC, Riyasat of the Islamic Community and raisu-l-ulama. The board is the basic body of the IC on the area of several jamaats, while the muftiship is the chief religious body on the area of several boards of the Islamic Community. Pursuant to Article 29., Councils are the supreme representative bodies of the Islamic Community on its area and there are five of them: in Sarajevo for BiH, in Priština for Serbia, in Skoplje for Macedonia, in Podgorica for Montenegro and in Zagreb for Croatia and Slovenia. The term of office for members of the council is four years. The Mashihat is the executive body of the Council of the Islamic Community. The supreme representative body of the Islamic Community in the country is the Supreme Council, which consists of 46 members who are elected in the way that the Council in Sarajevo delegates 13 members, the Council in Priština 12, the Council in Skoplje nine and the Councils in Titograd and Zagreb six members each. Their term of office is four years. The executive body of the Supreme Council is Riyasat, with the seat in Sarajevo, which also reflects the religious unity of members of the Islamic Community in the whole country.

Finally, pursuant to Article 46., raisu-l-ulama is the religious head and the highest representative of the Islamic Community in the SFRY. He chairs sessions of the Riyasat. The extremely unfavorable effects of this constitution became obvious even before the crisis and the complete dissolution of the SFRY, since it disturbed the structure and balance of the Supreme Council and the Riyasat at the expense of Bosnian Muslims. It had considerable consequences in the practical religious life of members of the IC and Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina in general.

Finally, regardless of the past and the useful experience it gives us, every situation is historically always new, and the same is true of the present one. In all the five described cases there has been a state which more or less imposed organization to the Islamic Community as an arbitrator, in line with its own interests. Today, at the critical time for Muslims of Bosnia, the Islamic Community is able to decide about its organization by itself. It is a special historic responsibility of all the members of the Islamic Community and of all Bosnian Muslims...”

Source:

• Mustafa Imamović „Pregled razvitka Islamske zajednice u Bosni i Hercegovini“, Glasnik Rijaseta Islamske zajednice u Republici Bosni i Hercegovini, number 1-3, January-June, year LVI/1994., pp. 53 - 63.