Ef. Hodžić: If I speak up, all verticals, whether religious or political, could become horizontals

The chief imam of Trebinje, Husein ef. Hodžić, as is widely known, has always been known as a man who speaks his mind. All these years, for more than a decade, he has been fighting for Bosniaks in Trebinje, for their rights, and he does not give up on that. Numerous attacks on him have not managed to stop him. Efendija Hodžić has „survived“ spitting, threats from local Serbs.

However, judging by what he wrote on his Facebook profile, this time the chief imam of Trebinje has come under fire from individuals within the SDA. His stance is transmitted in full by the news agency Patria.

- I have often fought wholeheartedly and advocated, as an employee of the Islamic Community and above all a servant of Allah, glory be to Him, and of Islam, to set a clear line and boundary, or at least clear and transparent rules when it comes to the relationship and cooperation /and not collaboration and mutual subservience/ of the religious and political communities, which must never, ever be seasoned with any national admixture.

Year after year, the onslaught of a primitive mixture and collaboration, especially of the Islamic Community and especially of the strongest pro-Bosniak party, takes on such forms of cooperation that become a danger to the survival and prosperity of the most numerous Bosnian people, the Bosniaks.

When I point this out, I immediately expect local party sycophants, certain presidents of Executive Boards of Majlises, and unfortunately certain fellow imams, who have all together /for party interests/ crept closer and bowed down more than, God forbid, to the Great Allah, glory be to Him, to get their hackles up.

Everything else, i.e., what is called honesty, sincerity, justice and purity of face, parted ways with them /one, another or a third/ long ago. And what is even most tragic, they terrorise, harass, belittle, frame, spit on and what all they do not do to honest people and persistent imams who do not want to be part of political propaganda, which has no place either in Islam or in the curriculum of mektebs, madrasas, faculties...

The most obvious example is the Majlis of the Islamic Community of Trebinje, which for almost a decade and a half, i.e., whose Executive Board and I as imam try to be and remain non-governmental or better said non-partisan, and despite all such positions we suffer blackmail, pressure, belittlement, obstruction, contestation, to the point that further opposition has become questionable for success.

In eastern Herzegovina, the institution of the Majlis of the Islamic Community of Trebinje operates in Trebinje and, according to others and not according to us, quite successfully.

For the past year, we have been suffering and experiencing both religious and political pressure to "come to our senses" and to give space in our activities to the will of certain individuals from both the Islamic and political communities. When that did not succeed, they are now openly attacking and harassing the premises, and thus also the institution of the Majlis of the Islamic Community of Trebinje.

The latest in a series of such attacks /and they have been continuous for years/ is a lamb roast in the Trebinje congregation in Gornje Grančarevo /on July 22/ /where, according to the first statement, a meeting was paid for, and according to a later statement, supposedly a private visit, attended by RS Vice President Ramiz Salkić, chief imam of the Majlis of the Islamic Community of Gacko Sadet Bilalić, president of the Majlis of the Islamic Community of Gacko Eno Tanović.

Ervin Pobrić, Trebinje's long-time "representative", the new "hope" of local party leader Hadžimahović Miralem, the strong "smart" oppositionist of the board and imam and the Majlis in Trebinje, known initiator of petitions /for whom even the new mufti of Mostar did not push enough to pack him into the new board of the Majlis of the Islamic Community of Trebinje/ Baraković Nedžad and other less "important" ones.

This is a well-known team for disrupting the work and activities of the Majlis, aimed primarily at slandering the imam in Trebinje and bringing Trebinje into the status of the Gacko congregation, because who is it now, all power is in the hands of the people from Gacko /and this imam from Teočak does not listen/ so why not lounge around by the Trebišnjica river and sit under the famous plane trees, and the sea is also close /which they did not deign to invite me to also, i.e., to try that lamb - I guess I deserved it/ instead they slandered me, defamed me and badmouthed me, about which there are memories and witness confirmations.

Without the knowledge of the competent imam, they opened the local mosque for prayer and then, over lamb, badmouthed and slandered the imam and the Majlis, and they called that a meeting.

I tell them that I am not afraid of them, that for me personally they were and remain people who only want a career and domination.
I tell them to take their hands and themselves far away from Trebinje, because I have taken a notion to sit before real cameras and speak into microphones. If I speak up, all verticals, whether religious or political, could become horizontals!, the chief imam of Trebinje warns.