BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: The more secular brand of Islam prevalent in Bosnia and Herzegovina is being challenged by the growing number of fundamentalist Wahhabi Muslims

The more secular brand of Islam prevalent in Bosnia and Herzegovina is being challenged by the growing number of fundamentalist Wahhabi Muslims. Imam Jusuf Barcic learned the holy Quran by heart when he was still a young student at school. The Bosnian Muslim cleric continued his religious education in Mecca, home to Islam's holiest site, where he spent six years. In 1994, he returned home as a missionary, intent on passing on his newly gained understanding of religion, based on a fundamentalist view of Islam, onto other Bosnians. Speaking after a sermon he delivered in a mosque on the outskirts of his home town of Kalesija, Barcic said the moderate form of Islam prevalent in Bosnia and Herzegovina is little more than a mixture of various cultural beliefs and practices that have deviated from the original teachings of Islam. "God has given people the ability to understand, to learn and to be closer to the original practices of the first generations (of Muslims). Our people have accepted something which is sort of popular culture, and they wrongly believe that that is the Sunnah and practice of (the Prophet) Mohammad, peace be upon him," Barcic said. Barcic and his supporters are Wahhabis, who adhere to a puritanical, revivalist Islamic movement which originated in the Arabian Peninsula in the 18th Century. It calls for returning to a pure understanding of Islam stripped of all cultural and historical influences. It is a form of Islam which is attracting a growing number of supporters in the East European country. Most of Barcic's supporters had their first contact with Wahhabism during the 1992-1995 war when Bosnia's Muslims, Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs fought each other for control of the country. Fikret Duric was a soldier with the Bosnian army fighting in Eastern Bosnia when he converted to Wahhabism. After the war, he spent 13 months in a commune in central Bosnia in order to learn Arabic and enhance his understanding of Wahhabi Islam. "Man's soul, if it is pure, seeks and needs the truth, and it is natural that I found it here with this group of people who follow the Quran and the Sunnah, unlike the others who only follow their traditions which have no grounds in our religion," Duric said after noon prayers at the Kalesija mosque. Ahmet Alibasic is a lecturer at the faculty of Islamic studies at one of Sarajevo's universities. He believes Wahhabism is intolerant of other forms of religion and schools of thought. "Inside the group of people which we usually define as Wahhabis, there are people who are simply stricter in their practice of Islam, and there are others who interpret Islam in intolerant and aggressive ways," Alibasic said. This will pose a problem in the Bosnian capital, which is home to a wide mix of cultures and religions, Alibasic continued. And indeed emotions ran high during a recent attempted visit by Imam Jusuf Barcic to a mosque in central Sarajevo. When Barcic, joined by his followers, arrived late last month at the mosque to deliver a lecture, he found that the doors of the mosque had been locked. It was the first time the old mosque's doors were closed at a prayer time. Neither Barcic and his supporters nor his critics, who had gathered in front of the mosque to protest against his visit, were happy about the closure. Harsh words were exchanged between Barcic's supporters and the angry Sarajevo Muslims who wanted to attend noon prayers. "They want to import into this town some kind of Islam which we, Bosnian Muslims, don't know," said Razija, a Muslim resident of Sarajevo. Fundamentalist Muslims have had a bad run in the Bosnian media in recent years, which has contributed to antagonism directed against Wahhabis in the country. In 2002, a 26-year-old man described by local media as a Wahhabi supporter killed three members of a Croat family on Christmas Eve, saying he was following instructions from God. Last year, a young Wahhabi killed his mother because she refused to join him for morning prayers. Fears of puritanical Muslim Wahhabi sects among Bosnian Muslims became even stronger after three Muslim men were arrested last year in Sarajevo and found guilty of planning to carry out a suicide attack in Bosnia or another European country. Bosnian-Born Swede Mirsad Bektasevic was given 15 years and Bosnian Bajro Ikanovic was sentenced to eight years by Bosnia's state court in January of this year. Ahmet Alibasic said the September 11 attacks in the U.S. have taught the world to appreciate the moderate form of Islam traditionally practised in Bosnia and Herzegovina. "After September 11, after we began facing the threat called terrorism, there is an increasing appreciation among Muslims around the world for the Bosnian Muslim understanding and practice of Islam," explained Alibasic.

ITN Source | March 2, 2007

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