Hajji Šefkija Duranović has been a member of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina for half a century

(Patria) - Eighty-two-year-old Hajji Šefkija Duranović, who has been an active member of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina for more than half of his life, lives in the Sarajevo settlement of Sokolović Kolonija.

He was born in Sopotnica near Kakanj in 1941. During his life as a civil engineer, he worked in various countries and held different positions, and is now retired.

He paid his first membership fee in 1973, a period when being a Muslim was not popular.

"My father was a member of the Islamic Community, I lived with him. And one day my father said to me, 'Listen, Old Man, that's what he called me, you have a good salary, go and join the Islamic Community.' And so I joined," recalls Hajji Duranović.

He considers membership in the Islamic Community very important because, as he says, thanks to the Islamic Community, Bosniaks have preserved their religious and cultural identity in the past.



"The Community is a big, incredibly big thing to me. No one can say anything against it to me. We have preserved our faith thanks to the Islamic Community and its people. We never had to hide that we are Muslims," says Hajji Duranović. He was a member of the then Sarajevo Islamic Community Board twice, and for more than 20 years he was the treasurer of the Igman Mosque.

"I say that I served the mosque and the Community during those 23 years. It means a lot to me, I cannot forget that time even if I lived a thousand years," says Hajji Duranović.

He recalls that he and a group of people constantly visited the Igman mosque, and that they would come more than 50 times a year to do minor repairs so that the mosque, which represents a symbol of the defense of Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, would not decay further.

He also actively participated in long-term activities that resulted in the mosque receiving institutional protection, being declared an object of special importance, and being registered as the property of the Islamic Community.

"When I pass away to the other world, I would like to be buried next to my Igman mosque," Hajji Duranović said at the end.