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| Europe |
| Bosian Moslem Leader Grateful to Europe and to the USA |
| 2004-04-24 |
| Mustafa Ceric, ... the leader of Bosnia’s Islamic Community, was born in 1950 and studied theology and philosophy in Cairo, taking his doctorate in Chicago. He has sought to portray Bosnian Islam as a tolerant, European Islam, open to both East and West, while remaining very clear about its beliefs. Nonetheless, many secular Bosnian citizens of all backgrounds, as well as religious Serbs and Croats, remain deeply suspicious of him, saying that he has quietly worked to put an Islamic religious stamp on Bosnia. In any event, Ceric’s public statements generally lack the anti-Western bias that some other prominent Islamic leaders from former Yugoslavia still retain from the communist period. At the same time, he has often noted that Bosnian Muslims acquired their Islam from the Ottoman Empire and not from Arabia, which places them in a different tradition from Islamic groups with their roots directly in Arabia. ... On 16 April, Ceric gave an interview to veteran German-language Balkan correspondent Erich Rathfelder for Berlin’s die tageszeitung, in which Ceric addressed some highly topical issues. He began by rejecting the idea of a "clash of civilizations," saying that the world is moving toward freedom and democratic states based on the rule of law. "The world can thank Western civilization and especially Europe for this trend," he argued. .... He denies that there is a specific "Bosnian Islam," but argues that Islam in Bosnia has experienced unique developments in the course of the past 500 years. Ceric calls the result "an Islam that threatens nobody and is directed neither against other peoples nor against its own society. We are for tolerance and civilized behavior and reject the mentality of tribal society. .... we live in Europe, and I as a European Muslim would like to make my contribution to European civilization and be recognized accordingly." When Rathfelder asked him about the alleged wartime influx of Islamic fundamentalists from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East, Ceric responded that there are many more dangerous people from the Middle East in Germany, France, or Britain than in Bosnia. He noted that postwar Bosnia needs help and is in no position to turn down money from Saudi Arabia, which, in any event, remains an ally of the West. .... What he does worry about is Muslims in Western Europe, who are primarily a diverse mixture of immigrant communities. "The Muslims in Europe must develop their own unified [institution]. This is in Europe’s interest. Our religious teachers should be educated in Europe and regard themselves as European Muslims," Ceric says. .... a front-page editorial entitled "American Friends" quotes Ceric as saying that the Americans are indeed the friends of the Bosnian Muslims, who should make this point clear to their Muslim friends around the world. The Americans remain Bosnia’s friends, he adds, even if one would wish that the United States had a different policy in the Middle East. The editorial points out that the United States came forward with a donation of $1 million to make the proposed Srebrenica memorial center a reality in 2003. ..... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #1 Ceric responded that there are many more dangerous people from the Middle East in Germany, France, or Britain than in Bosnia |
| Posted by: B 2004-04-24 5:37:51 PM |