Commemoration of 100 Years of Islam in Croatia: Sarajevo is the center of tolerant European Islam!

One hundred years have passed since the official recognition of Islam in Hungary, although this has not been discussed lately.

Islam was recognized as an official religion in 1916 by the Hungarian Parliament. Since 1878, a larger number of Bosnian Muslims moved to Hungary for studies and trade. The last Grand Mufti of Budapest was Hilmi Huisein ef. Durić, who was born in Bosanska Krupa. He founded the Islamic Community in 1931. The new Islamic Community of Hungary was de facto recognized in 1988 as the successor to the community from 1931, writes the Patria news agency.      

Two different approaches to the same anniversary

In Hungary, according to some estimates, there are between five thousand and 49,900 Muslims, according to CIA estimates. For years, they have demanded to be part of the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At one point, Istvan Toth, vice-president of the Islamic Community of Hungary, said:

“Throughout history, we Hungarians have lived in one state with Bosniaks, the last time from 1878 to the end of World War I. The president of the Islamic Community of Hungary, Zoltan Bolek, writes in his recent book ‘The Last Jihad’ about Hungarian-Turkish-Bosnian cooperation in World War I, with a special emphasis on the bravery and heroism of our Bosnian brothers.”

Hungary has about twenty mosques, and 13 of them have been preserved from the Turkish era. There are two translations of the Quran into Hungarian.

The glamorous commemoration of the centenary of the official recognition of Islam as a religion in Croatia has also raised the question of the approach to the identical Hungarian anniversary. Orban's sharp statements about Islam during the arrival of the wave of Syrian refugees towards Europe have contributed somewhat to these different treatments of the jubilees.   

The visit of the Reis-ul-ulema Husein ef. Kavazović to Hungary and the reception by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was a partial response to the glamorous visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the Republic of Croatia, and the visit of the member of the Presidency of BiH Bakir Izetbegović during the commemoration of the centenary of the recognition of Islam as an official religion in Croatia.

The Islamic Community of Croatia is part of the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The visit of Reis Kavazović to Hungary can be interpreted as a kind of balance to the large gathering in Zagreb. Through this forgetting of the Hungarian jubilee, the Zagreb event could also be problematized in a way.

Namely, everything in the capital of Croatia suggested that the conflicts from 1992 to 1994 and the attitude of the official Croatian policy towards those events should be forgotten. During his leadership, Croatian President Franjo Tuđman denied both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bosniaks as a nation, and treated Islam almost racistically. 

However, the biggest gaffe of the Zagreb gathering concerns the constant emphasis by the official authorities of the Republic of Croatia that they are the bearers and promoters of tolerant European Islam.

The Islamic Community of Croatia is part of the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, only Sarajevo can be the promoter of tolerant European Islam. This has been shown and proven even in the most difficult times.