Dodik objects to Friday prayers, contract between state and Islamic Community still pending

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - In the building of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the invitation of Željko Komšić, Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a meeting was held today with representatives of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina to discuss the issue of the contract between the Islamic Community and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The meeting was held to harmonize positions on this issue and find the best solution for the Islamic Community, like the Catholic and Orthodox churches, to sign a contract with the state.

As confirmed after the meeting for Preporod.info, the final signing of the contract has been postponed to a future session because Milorad Dodik, a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, objects to Friday prayers.

Dodik refuses to accept that believers can go to Friday prayers for one hour on Fridays, with the employer counting that as working time, i.e., that these, according to Dodik, "lost hours" be compensated at another time.

Because of Dodik's stance towards Muslims, the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina remains the only religious community with which the state has not signed a basic contract.

On the other hand, for presidents Komšić and Džaferović, the issue of the contract between the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is unquestionable.

Komšić, let us recall, at the session of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina on October 18, when the contract of the Islamic Community with the state, after many years and attempts, appeared as one of the agenda items, said "that the Islamic Community, like other religious communities, should be in an equal position."

The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina has not commented on this issue in the two months since that session, because during that period Dodik blocked the work of state institutions.

It is known that the Islamic Community has been waiting to sign a contract with the state since 2009, when it sent an initiative to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina to sign such an agreement. It should also be recalled that in 2011, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a conclusion and tasked the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees with drafting a Proposal for the basis for conducting negotiations with the Islamic Community. After harmonization at the level of expert teams in 2015, that contract was unanimously adopted by the Council of Ministers and forwarded to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina for approval. The problem began then.

At that time, Mladen Ivanić and Dragan Čović also had certain objections to considering the agreement, voting against Bakir Izetbegović's proposal to include this issue on the session agenda. In the meantime, from 2015 until today, there have been some discussions about modifying certain details, but nothing official has been adopted. Izetbegović proposed to his two colleagues that they sign the text of the agreement sent to them from the Council of Ministers. That did not happen.