WAHHABISM IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

Sarajevo US Embassy shooter identified as Wahhabi Islamist, 28 Oct 2011

WAHHABISM AT THE DOORSTEPS OF EUROPE  

Part One

Wahhabism in BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (BIH) is an alien, small, but according to some sources growing tendency within BIH. It is relatively successful in recruiting young ‘converts’ from within the BIH moderate Muslim tradition circles. Wahhabism identifies mainstream BOSNIAN Muslims as false Muslims and even as enemies. It has some potential to result in growing, and even violent confrontation with moderate Muslims and non-Muslims alike. This could have serious ramifications for BIH in its efforts to maintain a pluralistic society, as well as complicate the International War on terrorism, by providing an ever safer environment for transient terrorists. If the Wahhabi reportedly growth tendency is not effectively stopped and reversed by the indigenous Muslim structures, the challenge of Wahhabism in BIH will have serious implications for the rest of EUROPE.

For most INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY (IC) personnel, dealing with any kind of Islamic issue is something they still are trying to get used to. Part of the local media, often biased by nationalistic or/and political interests, have tried to present the problem of Wahhabism in BIH as a growing tendency that is a threat to safety and security not only in the country but also in the rest of EUROPE. These media have used a discourse very similar to that used at the beginning of the 90’s, changing the term ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ by ‘Wahhabism’. On the other hand, media close to the BOSNIAK establishment have tried to ‘hide’ any evidence of the Wahhabi presence in BIH, or at least to play down the importance of the phenomenon.

Most of the information gathered until now is based on the regurgitation of media or biased spread of rumours without further confirmation, as well as personal experiences and witness accounts. A serious analysis must try to define who is a real follower of Wahhabism, in order to avoid misinterpretations. Only then can proper proposals be developed for stopping the ‘reported’ growing tendency, and reversing it.

This is an analysis of Wahhabism in BIH, intended to represent original thinking about the real picture of the Islamic community in the country and not a ‘regurgitation of open-source wisdom’.

FOREIGN MUSLIM COUNTRY SUPPORT THROUGH NGOS 

Islamic Community Center in Sarajevo

During and just after the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BIH) the relationship between the BOSNIAK part of the new state of BIH and the Muslim world were elevated to an unprecedented level. The financial support coming from foreign Muslim countries undermined the power of the well-organized and structured BOSNIAN Islamic community. The Islamic revival that began in YUGOSLAVIA in the 70’s decade, which was developed in the framework of the local Muslim institutions and tradition, turned during and after the war to a more politicized revitalization influenced by foreign elements as the Arab fighters and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from the MIDDLE EAST.

The Official Islamic community has been taking control of Islam in BIH since the end of the 1992-95 war. However, the Islamic Community has recognized the presence of religious organizations outside its control, and that one of these organizations is an obstacle for the legitimate activities of the wider Islamic Community.

Besides efforts on behalf of the Islamic Community to counter Wahhabi influence, ordinary believers are very often staunch opponents of Wahhabism and that might be the really insurmountable obstacle in front of Wahhabism in BIH. Since the end of the war the largely secular and European attitude among the BOSNIAKS has caused friction with foreign Islamic extremists. Different reports on incidents involving moderate and radical Muslims have shown that Wahhabi communities are willing to use coercive methods to spread their radical ideas. Traditional Muslims have also demonstrated that they can use radical methods to counter the spread of the Wahhabi movement in BIH.

Assessments show that, despite their efforts, the Wahhabi movement does not have many supporters in BIH. The general population is afraid of their fundamentalist approach towards religion. BIH Muslims want to maintain the local traditional and moderate version of Islam. This could change however the minute the already fragile economic situation in BIH changes for the worst and the young generation of BIH has nowhere to turn to. Recruitment techniques by radical Islamic elements are cleverly orchestrated through a complex network system that allows luring moderate young Muslims into becoming part of their organizations by offering scholarships, money and work.

ELEMENTS OF THE LOCAL MEDIA PORTRAY THE PROBLEM OF WAHHABISM IN BIH AS A GROWING THREAT AGAINST THE SAFETY AND SECURITY WITHIN BIH AND PERHAPS WITHIN THE REST OF EUROPE.

While the predominance of traditional ‘BOSNIAK’ Islam is widespread, the Wahhabi movement has established itself in some areas of BIH. Some radical groups have been determined in their efforts to publicly confront the role of the BIH official Islamic Community and its control over Islamic religion in BIH, using their radical Wahhabi interpretation of the Koran. Their actions have drawn the attention of both local and international media and security services.

An element of the local media, that often shows nationalist or political bias, has tried to show the problem of Wahhabism in BIH as a growing threat against the safety and security within BIH and perhaps within the rest of EUROPE. This media element has used a theme that is similar to that used at the beginning of the 1990’s, in changing the term ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ to ‘Wahhabism’. To counter this, media close to the BOSNIAK establishment, have tried to ‘hide’ any evidence of the Wahhabi presence in BIH or, at least, to downplay the significant of their influence.

ISLAM IN BIH: SHORT HISTORICAL REVIEW

THE OTTOMAN PERIOD

Islam in BIH was introduced by the Ottoman Empire. From 1463 to 1878 this empire ruled the area. So, the history of Islam in BOSNIA is intimately connected to the history of Islam in the Ottoman Empire. The State within the Ottoman Empire, like other Muslim empires before, was organized according to the principle of organic unity of religious and political authority. They did however introduce an unprecedented hierarchy of Muslims scholars or Ulama. Muftis, Mudarris and Imams, together with judges, Qadis, and Friday prayer preachers, or Khatibs, were under state jurisdiction and they were very often state officials. Because this rigid organisation, there was little autonomy in interpretation and practice of Islam in BOSNIA.

The Ottoman troops also brought the Sunni Islam and the official legal school to the Ottoman Empire: the Hanafi School of Jurisprudence. The Hanafi is one of the four Sunni legal schools. It is the largest one and it is followed by approximately 30 percent of Muslims worldwide. This school is predominant in TURKEY, northern EGYPT, LEVANT, and amongst the Muslim communities of the BALKANS, CENTRAL and SOUTH ASIA, CHINA, RUSSIA and UKRAINE. Hanafi School has been considered by many authors as the most open-minded School. Early Hanafism was associated with the partisans of Ra’y (translation: Opinion). Other schools, however, especially Hanbalism, that wanted to base everything on formal reports about the prophetic Sunna, grew out of the party of Hadith. This has been cast as ‘rationalism vs. traditionalism’. According to the Hanafi School, the Iytihad, or individual reasoning, is often a used source of the Sharia, or Islamic Law, together with customs or 'Urf, hence a degree of flexibility in interpretation.

THE HABSBURG PERIOD

In July 1878 the Congress of EUROPEAN powers held in Berlin, gave Habsburg monarchy the right to occupy and administer BOSNIA. The BOSNIAk resisted the occupying Habsburg forces but their three-month resistance was eventually crushed in October 1878.

The relations between religion and state in the Habsburg monarchy were based upon the concept of ‘recognized religious communities’ which was adopted in 1874. According to this concept, the state guarantees freedom of conscience, belief and private manifestations of religious beliefs and practice.

The Habsburg government introduced this concept in BOSNIA. Six religious communities were given the status of ‘recognized religions’: Islamic, Serbian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Evangelic and Judaic. The status of Islam dramatically changed. Instead of being the basic principle of social cohesion as it was in the Ottoman times, it now became one of several ‘recognized religions’ within a non-Muslim state. The BOSNIAKS became a religious minority instead of being a part of the ruling elite.

This change brought about a new challenge to the BOSNIAKS: to build up a system of the administration of Islamic affairs that would not be identical with the organization of the state. Christians and Jews in BOSNIA were in comparative advantage. Under the Ottomans they already had a separate communal organization, which enabled them to easily adapt to the Habsburg regime. Relying upon Ottoman heritage and responding to new challenges during the first two decades of Habsburg rule, the BOSNIAKS built a new administration of Islamic affairs. This system included religious hierarchy or 'ilmyya, religious education or maarif, endowments or waqf and sharia courts for religious issues.

The system was gradually built through the struggle over the prerogatives for the appointment of key officials, allocation of funding and the running of institutions. The struggle ended on 15 April 1909 when the Habsburg monarch approved the Statute for autonomous administration of Islamic endowments and educational affairs.

The basic features of the administration of Islamic affairs envisaged in the Statute of 1909 were the creation of a council of ulama headed by the Rais Ul Ulama and the introduction of autonomy and elections into the administration of endowments and religious schools.

THE KINGDOM OF YUGOSLAVIA

In 1918 the Habsburg monarchy disintegrated and BOSNIA was incorporated in a new South Slav state, initially called the KINGDOM OF SERBS, CROATS AND SLOVENES and later renamed as the Kingdom of YUGOSLAVIA. The administration of Islamic affairs in BOSNIA, as developed in the Habsburg times, continued to function. The Muslims in other parts of YUGOSLAVIA had a separate religious administration.

This state of affairs lasted until 1930, when the new regime of the Yugoslav King Aleksandar Karađorđević decided to introduce a unified administration of religious affairs for all Muslims in the country and virtually took over the control of that administration, according to his ideology of ‘Yugoslav Unitarism’, which viewed different South Slav ethnic groups as one nation and attended to eliminate any organization alongside ethnic criteria.

The state control over the Yugoslav Islamic Community was, to some extent, relaxed in 1936, when a BOSNIAK-based political party, the YUGOSLAV Muslim Organization, joined a coalition government in Belgrade. The relaxation of state control over the community did not mean the return of autonomy from 1909. Rather, a new type of influence was introduced, that of a Muslim political party.

According to the 1936 Yugoslav Islamic Community Constitution, the seat of Rais Ul Ulema, which had been moved during the previous period to Belgrade, returned to Sarajevo.

THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND THE TITO PERIOD

The World War Two broke out in 1939 and the Nazis and their collaborationists occupied BOSNIA, together with other parts of YUGOSLAVIA. The leadership of the Yugoslav Islamic Community stuck to the policy of keeping the existing administration of Islamic affairs intact until the war ended.

The end of the war in 1945 was accompanied by the change of state organization and political regime in the country. The Unitarian concept of YUGOSLAVIA was replaced by that of federation, kingdom by republic and parliamentarian democracy by socialist ‘people’s democracy’. These changes greatly affected the position of Islam, as well as other religions, and the organization of the Islamic community.

The socialist regime proclaimed ‘the separation of church from state’ and the principle that ‘religion is a private affair of the citizens’. These principles of secular state were interpreted in socialist practice as subjugation of religious communities to state as ‘allies of the capitalists’ and the persecution of those known to be believers.

The change affected in the social, political and legal positions of religion in BOSNIA affected all segments of the administration of Islamic affairs. First, Sharia courts were abolished (5 March 1946) and the Islamic law lost its binding legal force for the Muslims.

Second, in 1952 the government closed all elementary religious maktabs and left only one secondary school, the ‘Gazi Husrevbeg’ Madrasa in Sarajevo, to prepare future imams and khatibs. Religious instruction to the ordinary believers could be given only during weekends in mosques and even that legal possibility was restricted by the policy of the local authorities.

Third, waqf property was largely expropriated and nationalized between 1945 and 1958. During the late 1960s, the socialist regime in YUGOSLAVIA became more liberal. Consequently, more space for activities was given to religious communities. At the same time, the Federal Constitution of YUGOSLAVIA of 1968 gave more power to federal units. These developments found their reflection in the Constitution of the Islamic Community of 5 November 1968.

By Juan Carlos Antúnez