AUTONOMY AND THE OVERALL ORGANIZATION OF THE ISLAMIC COMMUNITY

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF THE ENACTMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION FOR THE AUTONOMOUS ADMINISTRATIONS OF ISLAMIC - RELIGIOUS AND WAQF-MEARIF AFFAIRS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Abstract

The institutionalization of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina began after the Austro- Hungarian occupation of 1878. Even with the establishment of the office of the Grand Mufti and the formation of the Riyaset of the Islamic Community in 1882, as well as the measures taken by the Austro-Hungaria authority to preserve and improve waqf, Muslim schools, and the Sharia judicial 

system, Bosniaks were quick to express oppositionist sentiments against the occupying authorities. As early as this period, Bosniaks presented their demands regarding the organization of the religious and waqf-mearif administration, which, when the Bosniak movement for the religious and waqf-mearif autonomy was formally recognized in 1899, become fundamental to the demands of the autonomous movement. Eventually, all contentious issues relating to the Riyaset – the highest authorities of the religious waqf administration (election of the Grand Mufti, members of the Ulama-Majlis, and members of the Territorial Waqf- Mearif Council) – were governed by the Statute for the Autonomous Administration of Islamic-Religious and Waqf-Mearif Affairs, passed on 15 April 1909. With the adoption of this Statute in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniaks secured more rights in the administration of the Islamic community and in waqfmearif affairs. However, this had limited significance, since the occupational authorities retained their authority in more crucial matters. Later, the autonomy of the Islamic Community was abolished in 1930 in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, when the Grand Mufti Čaušević refused to submit to the dictatorship of King Aleksander or to accept his decision to take charge of the Islamic Community.