Bosnia and Herzegovina will soon have a new Grand Mufti

The reis-ul-ulema or Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the head of the country's Islamic community, represents the interests of Muslims before the state, expresses himself on political, moral and social issues and defends the independence of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina against attempts at foreign influence.

Having served two seven-year terms, the current Grand Mufti, Husein Kavazovic, is no longer permitted to run.

Three candidates are competing to become his successor: Salem Dedovic, the Mufti of Mostar, Nedzad Grabus, the Mufti of Sarajevo, and Mensur Malkic, the head of the Directorate for Religious Affairs of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Grand Mufti's envoy.

While Malkic's focus lies in strengthening the Islamic Community in religious and institutional terms, Dedovic has stated that he sees the office in a more political light and would like it to become more engaged in social debates. Grabus, who has the most international experience as the former Grand Mufti of Slovenia, says he would like to strengthen the community in times of globalization and secularization. 

"No other Islamic personality in Europe holds a position like the Reis-ul-ulema in Sarajevo," said Imam Benjamin Idriz, the head of the Islamic Community in the Bavarian city of Penzberg and the chair of the Munich Forum for Islam. "That's why the importance of this election extends far beyond the country, to Muslims and non-Muslims alike, across Europe."

The President of the Islamic Community of Bosniaks in Germany (IGBD), Zenahir Mrakovic, said that the "election is important to us, because historically, theologically and institutionally, we share close ties with the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina."

"Bosniak" is the name Bosnian Muslims use for themselves. With around 100 communities across the country, the IGBD is one of Germany's smaller Muslim associations. 

Muslims have lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina for centuries. Islam was introduced to the population when to Ottoman Empire spread through southeastern Europe. The organizational structure of the Islamic Communities was established after the Berlin Congress in 1878, which, among other things, placed Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austro-Hungarian rule.

Following the example of Christian churches, the Austro-Hungarian rulers soon officially recognized Islam as a religious community and in 1882, they founded the Council of Ulema and appointed the first Reis-ul-ulema as president.

Unique self-organization of the Muslim faith 

This kind of Islamic self-organization could become a model for Muslims across Europe. The Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina is independent from the state and is financed with donations, membership fees and zakat, a form of charity given by Muslims. 

The Islamic Community has its own sort of parliament, the Sabor, and a Constitutional Court that ensures the community's actions are in line with the constitution of the country in which it operates. The Riyaset is the community's highest executive body, responsible for implementing decisions. Its headquarters are in Sarajevo.

In the 150 years since its founding, the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina has survived numerous political upheavals and repeatedly adapted to new circumstances. After the Ottoman Empire came the Habsburg monarchy and Austro-Hungarian rule, then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito. Following Tito's death, the Bosnian War for independence ended in 1995 with the Dayton Accords. 

Today, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a secular state with a democratic constitutional order. Time and again, the Islamic Community has clearly distanced itself from radical tendencies. It has a history of cooperation and coexistence with Jewish and Christian communities.

This has also left an impression on the roughly 400,000 Bosnian Muslims living in Germany. 

"In the process of institutionalizing Islam in Germany, the experience of the Bosniaks' Islamic Community should be taken more strongly into account," said Esnaf Begic, a former imam and a lecturer at the Institute for Islamic Theology at Osnabrück University. "We are autochthonous European Muslims and to a certain extent, we share more similarities with Germans than with Muslims from Afghanistan, Iran or Saudi Arabia."

Mrakovic, head of the IGBD, agrees that Bosnia's experience with organizing religious life in a democratic and pluralistic society could also be useful to other Muslim communities. "It's not about telling other people how to live their Islamic faith but about learning from our own experiences: how we preserve our religious identity while remaining a natural part of European, democratic society.

An office in challenging times

The new head of Bosnian Muslims will be assuming his role in challenging times. Statehood in Bosnia and Herzegovina remains fragile, and foreign actors are vying for more influence. "Attempts to exert more influence aren't only coming from Ankara or Riyah, but also from Washington, Berlin or Brussels. They, too are, trying to act upon the Reis-ul-ulema in their own interest," Begic said. 

In Europe, anti-Muslim racism and Islamophobia have reached levels that are becoming increasingly frightening for Muslims. Right-wing populists are on the rise, and extremist parties are attracting more and more supporters bent on denying Muslims the right to participate in society.

Given the circumstances, the new Reis-ul-ulema will be expected to employ the full democratic and historical legitimacy of his office to actively engage in debates about Islam in Europe. 

This is what Idriz, the imam from Penzberg, hopes for, too. He believes the new Reis-ul-ulema could inspire more confidence not only in Bosniaks, but in all European Muslims, while signaling to majority societies that Islam is a part of Europe, and that it affirms and embraces values such as the rule of law, gender equality and freedom of expression. "In the future, the Reis-ul-ulema should lay an even stronger emphasis on this," Idriz said.