Introduction
While the solutions found by Bosnian Muslims cannot be simply copied elsewhere, West European Muslims should study their institutions and intellectual legacy – and learn from their recent past that isolation equals destruction.
Islam has been continuously present in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) since the early 15th century. Accepting Islam at the hands of the Ottoman scholars and Sufis meant the adoption of the Hanafi madhhab in Islamic law, Maturidi thought in theology, and related Sufi orders.
Until 1878, B&H was part of the Ottoman state, which was organized according to the principle of organic unity of religious and political authority.
Things changed dramatically for Muslims in 1878 when Ottomans handed over Bosnia to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
That was a cultural earthquake, which caught Muslims totally unprepared. After initial confusion and wavering between migrating and staying, the majority decided to stay and started to organize within the existing political system.
This process was supported and even initiated by the Austrian authorities. In 1882, the emperor appointed the first Bosnian Rais al-‘Ulama, religious leader. Five years later a school for Shari‘ah judges was established. During the following three decades, Bosnian Muslims fought for the autonomy in education and waqf affairs which they eventually won in 1909. For the next hundred years, Bosnian Muslims continued to struggle for the preservation of their autonomy and, at times, their very identity and survival.
The two most difficult periods were from the end of WW II to the late 1960s and 1990s. In the late 1960s, the political and economic situation in Yugoslavia generally improved, and religious communities regained some of their freedoms. (...)
Ahmet Alibašić, Lecturer, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Sarajevo
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