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
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