BOSNIAN MUSLIM POET'S CALL FOR "ISLAMIC" REVIVAL LEADS TO PROTESTS
BBC Monitoring International Reports - January 13, 2005

Text of report by Alenko Zornija: "New Calls for Islamization of B-H" by Croatian newspaper Vjesnik on 13 January

Sarajevo: During events commemorating the 468th anniversary of the Gazi Husrev-Begova Madrasa (school) in Sarajevo, the oldest institution of learning and education in B-H (Bosnia-Hercegovina), the well-known author Dzemaludin Latic conveyed messages that have led to a flare-up of controversy over calls for the Islamization of Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Latic, who was sentenced together with Alija Izetbegovic in the famous 1983 communist trial of Muslim intellectuals, said that right now Bosnian Muslims are "probably the freest Muslims in the world". He called for a "Bosniak cultural revolution and the revitalization of Islamic-Ottoman civilization". He added that the time has come for some of the madrasa's students to write novels about the bitter but heroic fate of Muslims in the Balkans, and he expressed his support for the creation of a "strong and orderly state, of a Muslim media system, and of a Bosniak cultural society".

"Sun on a cloudy day"

"When will we stop trembling before the enemy's boots and tanks? When the madrasa's students, in Allah's name, assume political administration over their beloved nation and in their Bosnian state," Latic said. "Our Islamic civilization has been undergoing destruction throughout the Balkans for 130 years. This is the Islamic and the Ottoman culture and civilization that is being reborn in its glory and momentum, like the sun on a cloudy day, on the European continent," the poet declared.

Latic concluded by quoting Garodi, to the effect that because of the fire of free thought Europe is the best place for Islam, and he said that B-H, the entire Balkan region, and Turkey could join the EU in the coming years, and in that case "one in three inhabitants of that community would be Muslim".

Croat and Serb suspiciousness

In a commentary in the Bosnia-Hercegovina edition of Slobodna Dalmacija , Latic's statements were construed as a call for the "Khomeini-ization of B-H" or of those parts where Muslim Bosniaks are in the majority. "Dzemaludin Latic would simply restore the Ottoman age in B-H. They would carry out a 'Bosniak cultural revolution,' for which they need an Islamic university and Sarajevo as a pan-Islamic centre in Europe."

But to what extent can Latic and those whom he represents make a case for their theory and plan? Quite a bit, unfortunately. After all, the activities of the Islamic Community in B-H, the SDA (Party of Democratic Action), the national organizations and the media, together with assistance from the Islamic world, have created the preconditions for a revitalization of "Islamic-Ottoman civilization" in the part of B-H that was under the control of Izetbegovic's Islamicized military during the war. In many places in Bosnia, the situation is such that a separate "civilization" has been created, but one that is much closer to the Islamic-Iranian one than to the Ottoman one, that newspaper writes.

Of course, Latic's words can also be interpreted in part as his poetic, more uninhibited manner of expression, especially since in the past too he has tended to speak "without mincing words". But the suspiciousness of Croat and Serb in B-H towards such statements is understandable, given the fact that official circles in the Islamic Community in B-H, especially Reisu-ul-Ulema Mustafa Efendi Ceric, are also calling for the establishment of Bosniak political domination in B-H since the Bosniak Muslims are the most numerous nation in that state.

(Box) Fine for Islamic messages

The B-H Regulatory Agency for Communications (RAK) has penalized Alfa Radio-Television with the largest fine since that body was formed, because on 3 November 2004 that broadcaster aired a Ramadan khutba (sermon), part of the Muslim common prayer in which an authorized person discusses current societal issues before the Islamic community, which allegedly contained a clear incendiary message and openly disparaged the beliefs of other nations living in this region, and beyond.

Alfa was fined 50,000 convertible marks (around 25,000 euros), and reportedly the only reason why that station did not lose its broadcast license is the fact that it has changed owners in the meantime. It has been acquired by Bosniak media tycoon Fahrudin Radoncic. The managing director of Alfa, Mahir Zisko, says that the station was also fined because it "quoted passages from the Koran", which he considers scandalous, especially since a Serb television station was not fined when it aired a documentary titled "Refute, Christianize and Banish".

But officials with the Regulatory Agency contend that the incendiary messages also included a call to boycott major multinational companies such as Coca-Cola, some of whose revenues are allegedly used to finance the killing of Palestinians.

Source: Vjesnik, Zagreb in Croatian 13 Jan 05 p 10

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