ISLAMIC COMMUNITY, CONSTITUTION, IMAMS

Abstract

The author of the article here relates about socio-political circumstances in which autonomous Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina was formed after the civilisational shock caused by the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The organisational structure of the Islamic Community was based upon political development and the development of institutions of social and religious life in the West that was brought to Bosnia and Herzegovina along with Austro-Hungarian rule. This form of structure, along with ulama, the religious authorities of the community, included members of the Islamic community from the civil sector. All the preceding constitutions of the Islamic Community by a constitutional norm provided that one third of the Assembly as the supreme body of the Islamic Community is to be constituted of members with a degree in religious studies. Novelty of the Constitution of the Islamic Community from 1990, reflects in a fact that the bearers of the religious authority were released of inadequate designation “religious official". The new Constitution refers to the service and the mission of the imam with one term “immam vocation", thus avoiding reducing the significance of the immam mission to a level of religious administration.