Dr. Cerić: I will bring morality back to politics, we don't have a functional state!

Dr. Mustafa Cerić announced today at a press conference that he will apply as an independent candidate for the Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the upcoming General elections in October, writes the Patria News Agency (NAP).

As he said, he decided to take this step because he feels that in the upcoming October elections, we have the last chance to change our difficult situation in the country and society for the better.

- Friends from the east and west have encouraged me to do this. I will create a Marshall Plan for BiH to get out of the crisis. I will build a middle path and invite both the right and the left to join me. I will bring morality back to politics. As Konrad Adenauer wanted and as Alija Izetbegović did – Cerić said.

When asked if he had already received support from any parties, Cerić said that he was open to discussions, but that they had not yet taken place.

- I have entered politics and the election campaign has not officially even begun. What I want to say, and many told me not to enter politics because it is a dirty job, I tell them that it is not, that politics is important for our lives. Our nation and faith are unquestionable, but we do not have a functional state that can provide security to citizens and conditions to live from our work - Cerić added.

He further noted that he would extend his hand of cooperation especially to young people, because the combination of the experience of the elderly and the life elan of the young is the strongest force that drives new processes.

- The recent events that destroyed the homes of Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats have shown that human solidarity lives within us, among us, and that it knows no borders. It is time to build our state in the newly created atmosphere of trust, friendship, and universal human values - Cerić conveyed.

When asked by a journalist to comment on the statement of the current reis-ul-ulema of the Islamic Community in BiH, Husein ef. Kavazović, that he would not like Cerić to run and that the IC BiH will be protected from political influence, he said that he supports such a stance of the current head of the IC BiH.

- I support his statement and position, and he is very correct. I have taken off my turban and robes and I am going to the elections as a citizen. This is my new mission, and I adhere to political discourse and action. I respect the stance of Reis Kavazović and I believe that he respects my current position as well - Cerić stated.

As stated, all the necessary documentation and signatures for the candidacy application are ready. Dr. Cerić is, by the way, one of the founders of the Bosniak Academy of Sciences and Arts and is a former reisu-l-ulema of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He graduated from Al-Azhar University in Cairo in 1978.

In Chicago, he completed postgraduate studies in Islamic theology at the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Civilizations, where he obtained his doctorate under the renowned Muslim scholar Fazlur Rahman with the thesis: A study of the Theology of Abu Mansur al-Maturidi in 1986. Alongside his imam duties, he taught at the American College in Chicago. He speaks Arabic and English. He added today that he has frozen his position in the World Bosniak Congress.