MIZ Mostar: Sultan Selim's mosque is a place of prayer and we protect our property

(Patria) - The Islamic Community (MIZ) Council of Mostar, given the confusing information published in the media regarding yesterday's events at Sultan Selim's mosque on the Old Bridge, announced today that it has an obligation to remind the domestic public, and primarily the members of the Islamic Community, that there are no ambiguities or sensationalism in this regard.

– Namely, after a break of almost 90 years, yesterday, for the first time, the Friday prayer was performed in this mosque, led by the chief imam of Mostar. In this way, the facility, after fifteen years of usurpation, has been put to its primary use – the MIZ Mostar statement reads.

Architectural elements and historical contexts classify the mosque as one of the most interesting sacral objects in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It was built shortly before the Old Bridge, in 1520, and throughout history, the facility has undergone several construction interventions. The oldest preserved appearance of the facility dates back to 1882, when the facility was thoroughly reconstructed.

Austro-Hungarian architects had prepared a special design with a small minaret, the sketches of which are kept in the Archives of Herzegovina, and which was never implemented.

– Throughout its existence, the mosque has served exclusively religious needs. Biographical data of numerous scholars from Mostar are associated with it, who performed duties, led religious ceremonies, and gave lectures there. In this context, it is also mentioned in the waqf-name of Dervish-paša Bajezidagić – the statement reminds.

With the weakening of the position of the Waqf-Mearif Commission for unknown reasons, which can only be speculated, the mosque ceased to serve its purpose during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During the socialist development of Mostar, contrary to the will of the Islamic Community, the authorities assigned it an inappropriate role.

The mosque was completely destroyed during the war by burning and mining. Photographs of the facility with a desecrated mihrab above the Neretva River also represented one of the most illustrative and eloquent images of the urbicide committed in Mostar.

– It was renovated together with the Old Bridge in 2004. Unfortunately, for the past twenty years, the space has been subjected to inadequate use by individuals with whom the Islamic Community Council of Mostar has been trying to find effective solutions, after which a complete, legally unfounded usurpation followed. All attempts to resolve the dispute in a procedurally standardized manner have not yielded the desired results, nor have administrative and legal disputes before the competent judicial authorities – the statement says.

In this regard, the MIZ Mostar reminds that the fetva-emin, the highest religious authority for interpreting religious regulations, whose decisions are binding on all believers, issued a fetva, a binding Sharia legal act, that the Sultan Selim's mosque be returned to its primary purpose.

In these efforts, the Mostar Council expected full support from the city administration, competent police, and judicial authorities. However, for unknown reasons, such support was lacking.

– Therefore, we have an obligation to remind the public of several important legal and historical facts. Sultan Selim's mosque is a sacral religious space owned by the Islamic Community (for which we have all the necessary documentation) and in this regard, the Mostar Council has an obligation, as a responsible institution, to protect its property and use it adequately, in accordance with the needs and decisions of the Islamic Community's bodies, to use it in its missionary work and within the mandate of the Islamic Community. Therefore, we ask all members of the Islamic Community, the domestic public, and the citizens of Mostar to refrain from superficial, tendentious observations that are not based on respect for the law and the affirmation of order and the rule of law in a democratic society. Sultan Selim's mosque was built to be a place of prayer, and so it shall be – concludes the statement of the Mostar Council.