By Jean-Arnault Dérens
During the Balkans war there was much talk of foreign mujahideen coming to fight in Bosnia-Herzegovina; and a few tiny “emirates” survived in remote areas until the end of the 1990s (1). Although the events of 9/11 mostly ended this, a few radical organisations remain active and there are still some militant foreign Islamists living in Bosnia.
The main problem facing the authorities in Sarajevo is that of foreign volunteers who were rewarded for their war service with Bosnian citizenship. Since some turned up in Guantanamo Bay, there has been strong international pressure to review these naturalisations.
But the Islamist influx never really established itself, even if the visibility and social importance of Islam have increased: Bosniacs are now just over 50% of the population of Bosnia-Herzegovina, compared with 43.5% before the war.
The head of the Muslim community is the energetic Grand Mufti, Mustafa Effendi Ceric. He has secured the return of property held in vakuf (2), more mosques are being built, and a vigorous system of religious education has been established, notably the Faculty of Islamic Theology in Sarajevo. His views are unusual in contemporary Islam. In 2006, at a conference in Istanbul, he delivered a Declaration of European Muslims, explicitly recognising religious diversity and even the right not to believe (3). Ceric is powerful and adept, and capable of significantly expanding the scope of Muslim thought. His vision seems to be strategic.
The single Islamic community of the former Yugoslavia, led by the Grand Mufti of Sarajevo, disintegrated with the old socialist state. In 1993 Ceric established and took the head of an Islamic community of Bosnia-Herzegovina; similar bodies emerged in Macedonia and Montenegro. The situation in Serbia is more confused: two rival organisations contest the leadership of Islam in Sandjak, and an independent Islamic community has emerged in Kosovo. Over the past two years, the Islamic communities of Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina have formed a strategic alliance; and the more powerful of the two rival organisations in Serbia now recognises Ceric’s spiritual authority.
The intellectual authority of the Islamic community of Bosnia-Herzegovina seems indisputable across the former Yugoslavia, and throughout the Balkans. It has the largest financial resources, the most effective organisation, and the most securely established publishing and educational institutions. Ceric’s ambition is to reunite all the region’s Muslim institutions under his authority; further European integration would make him one of the EU’s leading religious dignitaries.
But the concept of European Islam is slippery. Ceric refers to a glorious past, like that of Muslim Spain and Sicily. He places particular emphasis on the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, which he regards at a symbolic level as an equivalent of the Jewish Holocaust. But he may struggle to reconcile Balkan Hanafi Islam and its Ottoman tradition with the heterogeneous Islam practised by immigrant communities in western Europe. A few years ago Ceric proposed a European Islamic university in Mostar, in Herzegovina; but the staff could only come from the Arab Muslim world. He has to practise a double discourse: depending upon who he is speaking to, he finds himself defending either the uniqueness of Islam or the specificities of European Islam.
During the Balkans war there was much talk of foreign mujahideen coming to fight in Bosnia-Herzegovina; and a few tiny “emirates” survived in remote areas until the end of the 1990s (1). Although the events of 9/11 mostly ended this, a few radical organisations remain active and there are still some militant foreign Islamists living in Bosnia.
The main problem facing the authorities in Sarajevo is that of foreign volunteers who were rewarded for their war service with Bosnian citizenship. Since some turned up in Guantanamo Bay, there has been strong international pressure to review these naturalisations.
But the Islamist influx never really established itself, even if the visibility and social importance of Islam have increased: Bosniacs are now just over 50% of the population of Bosnia-Herzegovina, compared with 43.5% before the war.
The head of the Muslim community is the energetic Grand Mufti, Mustafa Effendi Ceric. He has secured the return of property held in vakuf (2), more mosques are being built, and a vigorous system of religious education has been established, notably the Faculty of Islamic Theology in Sarajevo. His views are unusual in contemporary Islam. In 2006, at a conference in Istanbul, he delivered a Declaration of European Muslims, explicitly recognising religious diversity and even the right not to believe (3). Ceric is powerful and adept, and capable of significantly expanding the scope of Muslim thought. His vision seems to be strategic.
The single Islamic community of the former Yugoslavia, led by the Grand Mufti of Sarajevo, disintegrated with the old socialist state. In 1993 Ceric established and took the head of an Islamic community of Bosnia-Herzegovina; similar bodies emerged in Macedonia and Montenegro. The situation in Serbia is more confused: two rival organisations contest the leadership of Islam in Sandjak, and an independent Islamic community has emerged in Kosovo. Over the past two years, the Islamic communities of Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina have formed a strategic alliance; and the more powerful of the two rival organisations in Serbia now recognises Ceric’s spiritual authority.
The intellectual authority of the Islamic community of Bosnia-Herzegovina seems indisputable across the former Yugoslavia, and throughout the Balkans. It has the largest financial resources, the most effective organisation, and the most securely established publishing and educational institutions. Ceric’s ambition is to reunite all the region’s Muslim institutions under his authority; further European integration would make him one of the EU’s leading religious dignitaries.
But the concept of European Islam is slippery. Ceric refers to a glorious past, like that of Muslim Spain and Sicily. He places particular emphasis on the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, which he regards at a symbolic level as an equivalent of the Jewish Holocaust. But he may struggle to reconcile Balkan Hanafi Islam and its Ottoman tradition with the heterogeneous Islam practised by immigrant communities in western Europe. A few years ago Ceric proposed a European Islamic university in Mostar, in Herzegovina; but the staff could only come from the Arab Muslim world. He has to practise a double discourse: depending upon who he is speaking to, he finds himself defending either the uniqueness of Islam or the specificities of European Islam.
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