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Islamic Culture and Western Civilization: The Prospects of
Coexistence in the Thought of Alija Izetbegović
Dr. Muhammad Akram
Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Religion,
International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan
Email: m.akram@iiu.edu.pk
Usman Ali Sheikh
Teaching/Research Associate, Islamic Research Institute,
International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan
Email: usman.sheikh@iiu.edu.pk
Abstract:
Alija Ali Izetbegović (1925-2003) is one of the outstanding Muslim
thinkers in recent history who have re-conceptualized the Islamic
worldview and ethos in the context of the contemporary world on
the one hand and critically reflected upon the modern Western
civilization, on the other. Izetbegović conceives Islam as a system
representing a middle path between Christian spiritualism and
materialism of modern civilization. However, like any profound
philosophical system, his thought requires exposition and
interpretation, which the present paper ventures to undertake.
Specifically, the paper inquires whether and how far his vision of
Islam facilitates coexistence between Muslims and the others,
especially regarding the Muslims living in Western societies. The
query is crucial because some writers have accused Izetbegović of
being a fundamentalist who pursued an agenda of monolithic
Islamic culture with little room for meaningful participation of nonMuslims. The paper concludes that contrary to such negative
renderings of his thought, Izetbegović was a thinker with a vast
intellectual spectrum and an open outlook. Some of his peculiar
notions can be conducive to the coexistence between Muslims and
other European communities as well as Islamic culture and Western
civilization.
Keywords: Islam, materialism, spiritualism, Islamic culture,
Western civilization, Muslims in the West, Alija Izetbegović, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, fundamentalism, coexistence.
1. Introduction
Alija Ali Izetbegović (1925-2003) was the first president of the
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1996) and one of the most
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eminent leaders in the history of Bosnian Muslims. However, his political
eminence often overshadows his career as a Muslim thinker and
sociopolitical philosopher. Undoubtedly, he was one of the outstanding
Muslim thinkers of the twentieth century. According to one account, his
contribution to Muslim thought in the modern world resonates with
Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) in the East.1 A similarity between
Izetbegović and Iqbal is that both of them critically reflected upon modern
Western civilization, on the one hand, and both re-conceptualized the
Islamic worldview and ethos in the context of the modern world, on the
other. It is also interesting to note that Iqbal was primarily a poet and
philosopher. He did not directly assume the role of a political leader but
had envisioned an independent Islamic state in India, which eventually
came into being in the form of Pakistan. Izetbegović, on the other hand,
was an intellectual and a politician who himself led his community to its
destiny of the independent state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Like any profound philosophical system, his categorization and
analysis of the competing worldviews and his particular conceptualization
of the Islamic order of existence allow multiple interpretations. One of his
works, The Islamic Declaration: A Programme for the Islamization of
Muslims and the Muslim Peoples, advocates for the establishment of an
authentic ‘Islamic order’ in the Muslim countries and unity among
different Muslim communities throughout the world. Some scholars have
opined that such calling for the establishment of an Islamic order means
that he was pursuing a kind of Islamism and establishing a monolithic
Islamic society in which there would be little room for meaningful
political participation of non-Muslims.2 The way he is perceived and
received by some Islamist circles can also add some weight to this
argument. For instance, the Urdu translation of his book Islam between
East and West has appeared in Pakistan with a slightly changed title Islām
aur Mashriq-o-Maghrib kī Tehzībī Kashmakash (Islam and the Tussle of
Civilization between East and West),3 which has been published by a
publishing house associated with Jamā‘at-e-Islāmī.
Against this backdrop, we aim to exposit Izetbegović’s
interpretation of Islam by looking into his significant works and with the
help of some secondary materials on his intellectual legacy and political
career. More precisely, the exposition attends to the following questions:
a) Was he a fundamentalist as some of his critics have accused
him?
b) Does his vision of Islam support peaceful coexistence between
Muslims and others?
c) Finally, can the Islamic culture and Western civilization come
to common terms in the light of his thought?
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2. Izetbegović’s Intellectual Career and Its Reception
Alija ‘Ali Izetbegović was born on 8th August 1925 in Bosanski
Šamac, a town in northern Bosnia, in a middle-class Bosnian family.4 He
had a religious upbringing; in particular, he remembers his mother as a
pious woman who would wake him up for fajr, the pre-dawn prayer.5
Izetbegović grew up in a world reverberating with such ideologies as
nationalism, capitalism, fascism, communism, socialism, pan-Islamism,
etc. He recalls that, in his youth, when he was around 15 years old, he
began to doubt his faith for a brief period (“a year or two”) under the
influence of communist and atheistic writings. During the later years of his
youth, he read major works of European philosophy and was significantly
influenced by Bergson’s Creative Evolution, Kant’s Critique of Pure
Reason, and Spengler’s Decline of the West.6
In the early 1940s, Izetbegović became involved with the “Young
Muslims,” an organization that consisted principally of Bosnian Muslim
students who were critical of fascism and communism on the one hand
and ritualistic Islam, represented by the traditional ‘ulamā, on the other.
Contrary to the views of the traditional ‘ulamā, who largely confined
Islam to rituals, the “Young Muslims” saw an active role of Islam in
politics and society. The Yugoslavian authorities arrested Izetbegović in
1946 for his association with the “Young Muslims.” After his release in
1949, he began studying agronomy but transferred to the law faculty later
on in 1954, graduating finally in 1956.7
In 1970, Izetbegović published The Islamic Declaration, for which
the communist regime of Yugoslavia trialed him in 1983. He was
sentenced to fourteen years in prison but was released at the end of 1988.
After his prison release, he founded a political party, “Party of Democratic
Action” (SDA), in 1990.8 He initially received world-wide attention when
ethnic and religious fault lines in the heterogeneous Yugoslavian state
resulted in its disintegration into smaller independent countries during the
early 1990s, after the collapse of the communist regime. Bosnia and
Herzegovina was one such state which declared independence in 1992,
and of which Izetbegović became the first president.9 The transition,
however, was far from being smooth and peaceful. Wars broke out
between Croats, Serbs, and Bosnian Muslims. It was Izetbegović who was
mainly leading the Bosnian Muslim community during these times of
political upheaval and turmoil.
In terms of intellectual contribution and activism, Izetbegović’s
life passed through three main phases.10 First, the phase of discovery and
analysis, during which he had, in part, written Islam between East and
West in his early twenties. According to Izetbegović’s autobiographical
notes, he had penned down the preliminary manuscript of the book just
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before his imprisonment in 1946. However, it remained concealed for over
two decades as her sister hid it under the beams in their house’s attic when
he was arrested. When Izetbegović found it later, he added new data and
rewrote the text. The book was eventually published in 1984 by an
American publisher when Izetbegović was in prison.11
The second juncture of his life, which started in the late 1960s, was
of intense activism. During this phase, two of his most important works
were published: Islam between East and West and The Islamic
Declaration. The latter was initially published in 1970, but it primarily
caught the world’s attention when Izetbegović was put on trial in 1983.12
This phase culminated in the infamous Sarajevo Trial and his subsequent
imprisonment.
Finally, the phase of reflection, which began around 1990, during
which he was relating his previous and present assertions in his speeches
and interviews as a national leader of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His
statesmanship came to the fore during this phase in which he founded a
political party and served as the President and war-time leader of Bosnia
and Herzegovina. At the end of this phase, he published his
Autobiographical Notes, which offers valuable insights into this last
period of his life.
Izetbegović’s oeuvre consists of more than half a dozen books,
speeches, lectures, and interviews.13 However, his thought about Islam is
primarily, though not exclusively, encapsulated in such works as Islam
between East and West and The Islamic Declaration. In Islam between
East and West, his magnum opus, he presents Islam as the most plausible
alternative among the competing ideologies of contemporary times. In this
book, Izetbegović contends that “there are only three integral views of the
world: the religious, the materialist and the Islamic.” Here Islam is
represented as a synthesis or a third way between the opposing religious
and materialistic tendencies in the world.14
His second most important work is titled The Islamic Declaration:
A Programme for the Islamization of Muslims and the Muslim Peoples. As
the title itself indicates, this work is programmatic. It advocates
establishing an authentic ‘Islamic order’ in the Muslim countries and unity
among different Muslim communities throughout the world. Other books
that provide clues to his thought include Inescapable Questions:
Autobiographical Notes and Izetbegović of Bosnia and Herzegovina:
Notes from Prison, 1983-1988. Both of these books pertain to collections
of his diary notes and short pieces of reflections.
Izetbegović’s body of work has received attention from scholarly
and non-scholarly quarters alike. Not surprisingly, his works have been
received eagerly in the Muslim world. For instance, a Pakistani scholar
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Muhammad al-Ghazali views him as an “outstanding Islamic thinker” and
“a master theoretician of its ideology in the contemporary world.” He
includes him in the list of luminaries of Muslim scholarly tradition, which
comprises of such scholars as Imām al-Ghazali, Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Razi,
Ibn al-Arabi, etc. Commenting on Islam between East and West, he
contends that in this work, Izetbegović has primarily come up with a
critique of the whole modern Western civilization. He writes: “[T]here has
not so far come to the fore any seminal critique of the Western thought as
a whole which could also set a new doctrinal trend for an authentic
contemporary Islamic discourse. Such seminal scrutiny of the Western
ideas in their historical perspective has, to our knowledge, been
singlehandedly and quite successfully attempted by ‘Alija Izetbegović.”15
Offering a different reading of the same work, Amina Selimovic, a
Bosnian scholar, in her Master’s thesis presented at the University of Oslo,
opines that Izetbegović’s Islam between East and West is not a critique of
the Western way of thinking. Instead, it mainly criticizes the narrow
understanding of Islam, which reduces it to a religion preoccupied with the
next world.16
Alija Izetbegović’s works have also been subjected to criticism,
often in media campaigns and sometimes as critical scholarly inquiry. As
hinted above, Izetbegović was arrested by the Yugoslav government for
allegedly creating a counter-revolutionary group against the communist
regime of the time, whose program was purportedly based on The Islamic
Declaration.17 In the wake of Yugoslavia’s disintegration and during the
war following it, The Islamic Declaration was again used by some Serbian
scholars and press, and parts of Western media to portray Izetbegović as
an Islamic fundamentalist who was attempting to establish an Islamic state
in Europe where the religious freedom of others would be compromised.18
In a monograph written from a strategic and policy perspective19,
Leslie S. Lebl views the growth of Islamism in Bosnia and Herzegovina as
particularly problematic in the wake of the economic and ethnic problems
that it faces. Distinguishing between several types of Islamists in Bosnia
and Herzegovina, she links Izetbegović and his political successors with
the Muslim Brotherhood. She argues that Islamism first appeared in
Bosnia in 1941 when Izetbegović, along with others, formed the “Young
Muslims,” which was patterned after the Muslim Brotherhood. According
to her, Izetbegović has elaborated his Islamist ideology in his political
manifesto, The Islamic Declaration. Referring to Izetbegović’s views in
The Islamic Declaration regarding non-Muslims living in an Islamic state,
she writes: “The Declaration’s message is simple: Muslims should play by
the democratic rules until they are strong enough to impose an Islamic
state. Once there is an Islamic state, non-Muslims may remain, but only in
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a subordinate status. If Christians abandoned their religious organization,
Izetbegović was prepared to offer the ‘understanding and cooperation.’”20
In a similar vein, albeit in a scholarly tone, Dražen Pehar has
criticized not only Izetbegović’s conception of Islam but also his
leadership after the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Pehar accuses him of
being equally responsible, or co-responsible, for the beginning of the war
in Bosnia. He, being the representative of the weakest party in the conflict,
embraced the option of armed conflict. He contends that Izetbegović’s
decision-making in those turbulent times rested partly on his political
philosophy, of which his idea of Islam forms a crucial part. Pehar hesitates
to use the word “fundamentalism” while referring to Izetbegović because
of its ideological undertones but still finds fundamentalist elements in his
conception of Islam. He further asserts that Izetbegović’s Islam between
East and West asserts the superiority of Islam over all the intellectual and
spiritual alternates, which makes him an “Islamic supremacist.” For him,
this kind of faith in one’s superiority motivates a demeaning attitude
towards the others, creating conflict between the representatives of “the
superior religion” and the other religions. Besides, this kind of faith could
lead the representative of superior religion to think “that he has already
won, or that the existence of the representative of the ‘inferior’ religions is
not as meaningful as his own.”21
3. Izetbegović’s Vision of Islam
Izetbegović’s vision of Islam has two levels. Firstly, he advocates
for a particular integrated view of Islam in the context of two rival
approaches to Islam in the contemporary world, which is primarily meant
for Muslim societies. Secondly, his conception of Islam as an alternative
worldview for the whole of humanity. At the first level, Izetbegović looks
at Islam from within the confines of Islamic thought and practice in
modern times. In contrast, at the second level, he looks at Islam from
without, against the backdrop of the competing worldviews in modern
civilization. Allowing some generalization, in The Islamic Declaration,
one finds Izetbegović’s understanding of Islam from within, while his
vision of Islam from without culminates in Islam between East and West.22
Let us begin with how Izetbegović envisions Islam from within,
especially as epitomized in The Islamic Declaration. At the very outset of
this document, he writes that it is not a prescribed reading for those who
are not already Muslims. The sole purpose of this document is to help
Muslims understand the consequences of their belief and allegiance. He
further clarifies the purpose of this document, which is to show the path
which leads to the organization of various spheres of life, individual,
familial, and societal, through the renewal of Islamic religious thought.23
He embarks on the task of sketching out this renewal of the Islamic
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thought by leveling stark criticism of the conservative and modernist
approaches to Islam, which he thinks have negatively affected the Muslim
societies. According to him, conservatives stick to outdated forms, while
modernists want to adopt someone else’s forms. Izetbegović vehemently
rejects both of these approaches, saying that while the former attitude
drags Islam back into the past, the latter pushes toward the future, albeit to
an unknown future. Both of them perceive Islam as a “religion” in the
European sense of the word, which denotes a sort of spiritualism at the
cost of rationality and which mainly relates to the private sphere.24
Izetbegović maintains that there has emerged a class of self-styled
clergy in the Islamic world against the clear teachings of Islam, which do
not recognize any mediators between man and God. It is this class that
represents the conservative interpretation of Islam today. They have
reserved the right of interpretation of the Qur’an exclusively for
themselves.
As clergy they are theologians, as theologians they are
invariably dogmatic and, as the faith has been given once and
for all, in their opinion it has also been interpreted once for all.
... Any further remodeling of the Sharia as law, in the sense of
applying Qur’anic principles to new situations which continue
to emerge from world developments, is equated with an attack
on the integrity of the faith.25
He thinks that such theologians are the wrong people in the wrong place.
They can neither withstand the new challenges nor materialize the Muslim
communities’ emerging opportunities. In short, they cannot guide Muslims
for the challenges of the contemporary world.
On the other hand, there are progressive, modernist, or westernized
Muslims who are holding political power in most of the Muslim societies.
They are the blind imitators of everything that is modern and which is
coming from the West. They are usually schooled in European educational
institutions and develop a sense of inferiority about their own culture,
which results in devastating impacts on the local ideas, customs, and
convictions.26 The main problem with this group is that even their
understanding of modernism remains superfluous. Modernity for them
revolves around night-clubs, godlessness, and fashion. They fail to see that
the Western world’s real power lies in qualities like great diligence and
ethics of work, the pursuit of rational knowledge, persistence, and its
people’s sense of responsibility.27
Izetbegović presents a general theory about the history of religions.
According to him, every religion has two sides. “As a science, it is a
revelation; as practice, it is the work of men. God reveals faith, and people
apply it. All that is in it that is great and sublime is of God; all that is
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wrong and unworthy is of men.”28 Applying this understanding of the
phenomenon of religion to Islam, he concludes that the Muslim world is
passing through a dark night of its history, which he sees as a result of the
darkening of the hearts.29
For Izetbegović, the true spirit of Islam needs to be rediscovered
against these odds by drawing on the original teachings of the Qur’an and
making them relevant to the contemporary situation. According to him,
one main reason behind the backwardness, corruption, poverty, and
ignorance in Muslim societies is their distance from the Qur’an’s
teachings. He laments that the Qur’an is ritually recited so many times
without understanding it. In his own words: “An extensive and pedantic
science has been established on how the Qur’an should be pronounced so
as to avoid the issue of how to practice it in daily life.”30
After taking stock of the existing situation and identifying
problems of the Muslim world in the first part of The Islamic Declaration,
Izetbegović presents his unique vision of the ‘Islamic Order’ in the second
part of this document. Here he begins with this task by outlining some
principles. He maintains that while there are a few fundamental principles
in Islam that never change, there are essentially no fixed Islamic
economic, social, and political structures handed down to Muslims once
and for all, which do not change according to the time’s needs. Every
generation would have to take onto itself the responsibility to develop
such structures which meet the requirement of the historical situation.31
Then, he details the essential aspects of his vision of an Islamic
32
order. He maintains that “Islam is religion, but is at the same time a
philosophy, a moral system, an order, a style, an atmosphere - in a word,
an integrated way of life.”33 He finds Islam to be different from the other
philosophies and religions in that it requires that “man must live an
interior and exterior, moral and social, spiritual and physical life.”34 Thus,
for all these diverse dimensions to be taken care of, both an Islamic
society and Islamic governance are needed to establish the Islamic order.
This order is based on brotherhood and unity of Muslims, and equality of
people. In the Islamic order, there is no possibility of differentiation
between people based on class, color, or race, save the difference of
spiritual and ethical values that one practically demonstrates.35
Economically, private property is allowed in this order, albeit not
as understood in Roman law. Personal property in Islamic order has one
privilege less, the right to abuse, and one obligation more, to use one’s
wealth for the common good. To avoid exploitation and parasitic lifestyle,
Islam forbids interest, and to ensure the distribution of wealth among
different social classes, it enjoins the system of obligatory charity (Zakāt).
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Politically, the Islamic order stands for republican principles and
democracy. It does not recognize the rule of inheritance for political
power. The phase of the ideal caliphate during the reign of the first four
caliphs of Islam demonstrated the republican principles like the elective
head of state and responsibility of the head of state towards people.36
Then, the document elaborates on several issues like the status of women,
freedom of conscience, dignity of work, justice, the rights of minorities,
and relations with other communities. Some topics that relate to the
question of peaceful coexistence are discussed below in the next section.
Now, let us move towards the magnum opus of Izetbegović,
namely Islam between East and West, which is a more profound and less
programmatic text compared to The Islamic Declaration. The scope of this
work is also broader, as its intended readership does not seem to be limited
to Muslims. According to him, this book pertains to a look at Islam from
without, against the backdrop of the broad spectrum of ideas. 37 The book
comprises two main parts. The first part is titled ‘Premises,’ and it consists
of six chapters, while the second part is titled ‘Islam: Bipolar Unity.’ A
short supplement of three pages named ‘Submission to God’ follows the
two main parts. In the first part of the book, Izetbegović propounds his
central thesis of the essential dualism of matter and spirit, which he finds
in all philosophical and religious systems of the world. In contrast, in the
cluster of five chapters which make up the second part, he presents Islam
as the principle which overcomes this dualism in what he calls the bipolar
unity.
A note regarding the peculiar usage of the term Islam seems in
order here. Firstly, Izetbegović distinguishes between religion and Islam.
For him, religion has acquired a narrow connotation in European history,
and it essentially relates to the spiritual aspect of the man at the cost of
material one. Islam, in turn, simultaneously refers to man’s spiritual and
material existence. He makes another clarification that in this book, Islam
does not mean a set of regulations rather a principle that synthesizes
contrasting elements. So Islam in this book is presented as a method rather
than a readymade solution.38
Interestingly, Izetbegović contends that there are only three
integral worldviews, the religious, materialistic, and the Islamic.39 He
elaborates on three worldviews in the following words: “They reflect three
elemental possibilities ― conscience, nature and man, each of them
manifesting itself as Christianity, Materialism and Islam.” 40 He illustrates
various manifestations of these three worldviews by using a table with
three columns, ‘R’ for religion, ‘I’ for Islam and ‘M’ for materialism. In
the ‘R’ column, one finds spirit, conscience, soul, organic, quality,
religion, art, ethics, consciousness, meditation, ideal, sin, drama, creation,
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culture, Jesus, and Christianity. The ‘M’ column includes matter, being,
body, mechanic, quantity, science, logic judgments, need, interest,
observation, intelligence, experience, power, evolution, progress,
civilization, utopia, Moses, and materialism. In the ‘I’ column, the reader
finds man, salah, zakah, mosque, law, shari‘a, justice, jihad, jamā‘ah,
ummah, caliphate, marriage, Muhammad, and Islam.
It is through this schematization that he contrasts an array of
conceptual opposites like creation and evolution, spirit and matter, tool
and cult, education and meditation, utopia and drama, society and
community, and culture and civilization. In this scheme, Christianity is the
culmination of religion, which takes as its starting point the existence of
spirit; materialism accepts matter only, while Islam simultaneously
recognizes spirit and matter. Since man is both spirit and matter, all the
problems man is facing are either because of religious denial of man’s
material needs or materialist negation of the spiritual dimension of man.41
Corresponding to evolution and creation, man has two histories.42
One relates to his evolution as an animal through which he has acquired
intelligence and skills to use tools, established societies, developed
sciences, and built grand civilizations. Man’s other history goes back to a
stage when God “created” man by giving him moral conscience and
freedom of choice between good and bad deeds. This history of man
relates to cults, religion, art, and drama.43
In the second part, Islam is also seen as having two histories, the
history of Islam before the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and
the history of Islam after him. It means that Izetbegović considers the
history of Judaism and Christianity as a part of the history of Islam in the
broader sense. He views Judaism as essentially materialistic and thisworldly,44 and Christianity as fundamentally spiritualistic and the otherworldly. Judaism seeks to establish the Kingdom of God on the Earth,
while Christianity idealizes the Kingdom of God in Heaven. These two
contrasting outlooks represent the history of Islam before the advent of
Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Then, he divides the history of
Islam in the narrow sense, that is, after the coming of the Prophet
Muhammad, into the Makkan and Madinan phases. In Makkah, Islam
remained only a spiritual system, without social order. It is in Madinah
that Islam became complete by combining the individual spiritual
dimension with social and material principles.45 To quote him: “Islam
reached its culmination in Madinah. In the cave of Hira, Muhammad was
faster, an ascetic, a mystic, a hanīf. In Makkah, he was a herald of
religious thought ― in Madinah, he became a herald of Islamic thought.
The message that Muhammad bore was completed and crystallized in
Madinah. Here ― and not in Makkah ― was the ‘start and source of the
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entire Islamic social order.’”46 By pointing out the historical and
systematic connections between the three Semitic religions, Izetbegović
concludes that the kinship of Islam and Christianity is often ignored.47
4. Prospects of Intercommunal Coexistence in Izetbegović’s
Thought
Now, let us consider does Izetbegović’s vision of Islam support the
peaceful coexistence of Muslim communities in European societies. In this
connection, a statement of Izetbegović in The Islamic Declaration is often
mentioned. He writes: “There can be neither peace nor coexistence
between the Islamic religion and non-Islamic social and political
intuitions…By claiming the right to order its own world itself, Islam
obviously excludes the right or possibility of action on the part of any
foreign ideology on that terrain.”48 This quotation may seem quite
conclusive, leaving no space for further discussion on the issue of peaceful
coexistence in Izetbegović’s vision of Islam. However, reading the
passage in its broader context changes the whole picture.
First of all, at another place in the same document, one finds an
accommodative statement: “Nothing which can make the world a better
place may be rejected out of hand as non-Islamic.”49 Then, one may note
here that, as the author himself states at the very outset, The Islamic
Declaration was intended only for Muslim leadership, and the whole
program of ‘Islamic order’ presented in the document is meant for the
societies with Muslim majorities.50 Izetbegović would not support
establishing the ‘Islamic order’ in the societies where the Muslim
community is not a majority. He also clearly states that non-Muslim
minorities living in the Islamic state enjoy full religious freedom and
protection.51 What is even more important is the fact that according to
Izetbegović, “Muslim minorities within a non-Islamic community,
provided they are guaranteed freedom to practice their religion, to live and
develop normally, are loyal and must fulfil [sic.] all their commitments to
that community, except those which harm Islam and Muslims.”52 Thus,
according to Noel Malcolm, “some of the arguments in this treatise which
have been described as ‘fundamentalism’ are simple statements of
orthodox belief with which many sincere Muslims would agree.”53
Izetbegović sketches out a set of principles for the relationship
between Islam and other communities. He thinks that these relations are
based on the principles of freedom of religion, strong and active defense, a
ban on wars of aggression and crime, cooperation and acquaintanceship
among nations, respect for obligations and agreements undertaken, and
mutuality and reciprocity.54 In turn, he relates all these principles with the
relevant verses of the Qur’an.
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Apart from these theoretical principles, he welcomes the
declaration passed during the Second Vatican Council about the
constructive relationship of Christianity with other religions. In this
context, he writes: “We applaud the new tendencies in the church declared
by the latest Vatican Council because we consider that to a certain extent
they come closer to the original tenets of Christianity. If Christians wish
so, the future may offer an example of understanding and cooperation
between the two great religions for the well-being of people and mankind,
just as the past has been the battlefield of their senseless intolerance and
strife.”55 Along the same line, though he denounces Zionism, he states that
Muslims do not have problems with other Jews. He also speaks of the
possibility of shared everyday life between Jews and Muslims on the
Palestinian soil.56
Indeed, Izetbegović was concerned, as a committed Muslim, with
the Islamic revival and establishment of an ‘Islamic Order’ across the
Muslim world, as The Islamic Declaration indicates. However, as hinted
above, he deemed the establishment of such an order appropriate for the
states with absolute Muslim majorities. Against this background, it seems
natural to inquire into Izetbegović’s vision for Bosnia as a state where
Muslims constituted the largest religious community, albeit not an
absolute majority. First, he did not consider Bosnia and Herzegovina an
Islamic state, where the program presented in The Islamic Declaration
was to be implemented. He envisioned Bosnia and Herzegovina as a
multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious democratic state where
people from different religions, ethnicities, and political inclinations could
live together peacefully.
In this regard, he is remarkably consistent in his views, as is
evident from his statements ranging from the periods of pre-independence
Yugoslavia as well as war-time and post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. It
is, perhaps, worthwhile to look at some of his statements in this
connection. For instance, on the occasion of announcing the foundation of
his political party in March 1990, Izetbegović read out a 16 point
programmatic statement signed by the founders of the party, which
included, among other things, a statement about freedom of religion as a
fundamental human right. The statement advocated for “full freedom of
action of all religions in Yugoslavia, the full autonomy of their religious
communities.” Among other rights, the statement also advocated for
freedom for building places of worship as per the demands and needs of
the religious communities, access to the information media for them,
recognition of the major religious festivals as holidays for the relevant
religious community, and, if there was a single religion in the majority,
then that festival would be recognized as a state holiday. It was suggested
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in the statement that in the case of Bosnia as a multi-religious republic,
these festivals would be two Eids and the Catholic and Orthodox
Christmas.57
In a similar vein, in a public speech in September 1990,
Izetbegović affirmed “Bosnia and Herzegovina as a civil republic ... not
Islamic, and not socialist either.”58 He reiterated this stance in December
1991, while giving a speech at the first congress of his party, SDA:
“Serbia and Croatia are nation-states. Bosnia and Herzegovina is not, and
can therefore only be a civil republic. For it is not Serbs, Croats, and
Muslims who live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but a national blend of
these peoples, and others too.”59
Izetbegović’s standpoint remained the same after Bosnia and
Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia and was forced into
war with its neighboring states. It was the time when he was continuously
accused of creating an Islamic state in the independent Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Replying to one such accusation by Franjo Tudjman,60 he
contended in a TV interview in November 1993 that he had no intention of
creating the Islamic Republic in Bosnia.61 Perhaps more illuminating in
this regard is the speech that he delivered on the independence day of
Bosnia and Herzegovina on 1st March 1995: “Our aim is a Bosnia of free
people, a Bosnia in which the human being and human rights will be
respected. We oppose the concept of mono-national, mono-religious, oneparty parastates … with our concept of a free democratic Bosnia.”62
He invokes both the Qur’an and Western democracy when he
speaks about religious freedom and tolerance for others. In the backdrop
of the killing of two priests in the Bosnian town of Fojnica in December
1993, Izetbegović delivered the following speech on the conduct of
soldiers:
Assuming that the murderer was one of us ... his attitude would
have been — they destroyed our Old Bridge, let’s get back at
them ... This way of thinking gets us nowhere ... We have been
slaughtered ... our mosques destroyed, but we shall not kill
women and children, we shall not destroy churches. We shall
not do so, because this is not our way ... we respect others’
religions, others’ nations, and other political convictions ...
when we say that we wish to respect churches and the faith of
others, we are not only upholding the finest traditions of
European democracy, which the world has slowly groped its
way to through the ages, but also directly and literally
respecting the precepts of our Holy Book.63
Izetbegović kept on stressing the multi-ethnic and multi-religious
nature of Bosnia and Herzegovina even after the war ended. In a session of
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the main board of SDA, he emphasized the task to rebuild Bosnia as a
multi-religious and multi-national state post-Dayton agreement and how
such a state would have a great significance for the whole world:
[T]he circumstances have placed a different task ahead of us: to
create a multi-national state … It is an experiment to create a
possibility of a common state for three nations, three religions
and three cultures. The success of this experiment will have
historical significance not only for us but for the whole
world.64
It is worthy to note here that his stance about Bosnia as a multireligious and multi-national state stems from his vision of democracy. He
believes that God has created people free and equal and with a “certain
number of inalienable rights,” which no authority has the right to deprive
them of. He does not believe in the unlimited power of the majority, as
“the tyranny of the majority is tyranny like any other” and “that the
measure for freedom is treatment of the minorities.”65 Apart from the
rights of religious and national minorities, other core values of democracy,
which he stressed time and again, are total equality before the law,
freedom of thought, freedom to political activity, and freedom of
press/media.66 He did not allow censorship even during the war-time.67
A criticism alluded to in a previous section is regarding
Izetbegović’s concept of Islam as envisioned in Islam between East and
West, where Islam is presented as superior to all other intellectual and
spiritual alternatives. As Izetbegović himself hints, this criticism stems
from a literal (or as he calls it, “line by line”) reading of his book and not
the vision outlined in it. He clarifies in his autobiographical notes that he
gave several concepts, like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, a
metaphorical rather than a conventional meaning. Islam, in this context, is
a “major metaphor for the ‘third way’ for every form of life, with a
formula that fulfills the human person.”68
What is explicit in his autobiographical notes is embedded in his
Islam between East and West. The chapter on “The Third Way Outside
Islam” perhaps illustrates this fact, where Izetbegović finds tendencies of
“Islam” in other parts of the world, especially in England and, to some
extent, the Anglo-Saxon world in general. He argues that England’s
experience should be considered differently from Continental Europe,
where Religion and Science and Church and State have historically stood
at different poles with no middle ground between them. For him, the
emergence of England and Anglo-Saxon spirit in the West is comparable
to the emergence of Islam in the East.69
Izetbegović considers Roger Bacon as the best example of the
dualism of the English way of life, who never attempted to “reduce the
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scientific or religious outlooks at the other’s expense” and “established a
balance between them.” He also cites examples of John Locke, an
empiricist, and Thomas Hobbes, a positivist and a materialist, who, despite
their scientific outlook, retained their religious beliefs. In a similar vein,
Izetbegović refers to American pragmatism as a typical example of AngloSaxon philosophy, which accepts both science and religion, provided they
prove their practical worth.70
Izetbegović also identifies tendencies of this “third way” in other
parts of the western world; but cautions that unlike the Anglo-Saxon
world, where they also exist at the level of theory, in those parts of the
world, they arose only from practical necessities. In this regard, he
mentions the dialogue between the Catholics and the Marxists—initiated
in the 1960s in historically Catholic countries—where both acknowledged
the need to change their attitudes toward each other. Similarly, in
countries with a Protestant majority, Izetbegović sees the rise of social
democracy, a compromise between liberalism and social intervention, and
between the European Christian tradition and Marxism, as a manifestation
of the third or middle way.71
It is also noteworthy how vehemently Izetbegović rejects
dogmatism and the narrow-mindedness of the conservative class of
Muslim clergy, which often hinders the necessary adjustments in any new
situation. He maintains that only some principles of Islam are permanent
and that there are no essentially permanent Islamic social, political, and
economic orders readily available. It is the historical and cultural situation
that would determine which type of institutions Muslims would establish
or with which existing structures they would make adjustments to. This
framework certainly opens up possibilities of flexibility, change, and
needed adjustments in the challenging new cultural spaces. Thus, there is
no wonder that in the introduction to Islam between East and West, Dr. S.
Balic writes:
Islam offers its adherents many ways of coping with life in
secularized society. Mention may be made, for example, of the
absence of sacraments, of priesthood and of baptism, the civil
nature of marriage, the natural approach to sexuality, the
rejection of the idea of excommunication, the positive attitude
to knowledge and scientific research, the relative toleration of
mixed marriages, and the long-standing readiness for dialogue
with the monotheistic religions.72
Finally, it is maintained that there are some other concepts of
Izetbegović that can facilitate coexistence between Muslims and the other
European communities. The way he conceives Islam as the middle path
between the bipolarities like culture and civilization, community and
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society, education and meditation, drama and utopia makes his thought
integrative and accommodative.
For instance, his peculiar way of distinguishing between culture
and civilization can open up a possibility for multiculturalism from the
very definition of culture. Culture tends towards individualization,
participation, freedom of the will, and impromptu performance, while
civilization provides the needed material space for culture. Thus, Western
civilization can serve as a cradle for multiculturalism owing to what
Izetbegović would call its material and scientific advancement and JudaicChristian religious foundations. As hinted above, Izetbegović endorsed the
case of Anglo Saxon world, where a synthesis of material and spiritual
aspects has taken place outside Islam.73
The same applies to his distinction between community and
society. For him, society is mere collectiveness, while community refers to
sharing and belonging. The most important in this connection is his
assertion that practically every community assumes the character of
society and vice versa.74 This interchangeability of community and society
can provide the framework for the peaceful coexistence of various
communities within a society.
5. Conclusion
Izetbegović’s vision of Islam is open to multiple interpretations.
There is no denying that he was a committed Muslim who viewed Islam as
a complete code of individual and collective life, which makes some
people interpret his thought along the narrow religio-ideological lines.
Some even accused him of being a fundamentalist. However, the fact is
that he was a thinker with a broad intellectual horizon and profound
philosophical outlook. He envisioned Islam not as a “religion” with the
narrow connotation that this category has acquired in the modern West;
instead, he views it as a middle path between the materialistic and spiritual
worldviews. For him, Islam is an integrative worldview that can cope with
the inner contradictions of modern civilization. He even sees glimpses of
“Islam,” as he understands it, in some non-Muslim societies, especially in
the Anglo-Saxon world. These features of his thought make its openended and inclusive rendering more plausible. Indeed, his unique vision of
Islam as a flexible, integrative, and extendable system can open up fresh
prospects of coexistence between Muslims and others in general and
between the Islamic culture and modern Western civilization in particular.
The political career of Izetbegović also supports the above
interpretation of his thought. His role had been vital in bringing the
Bosnian war to a peaceful solution, which resulted in the ethnically and
religiously diverse state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus, he practically
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demonstrated how Muslims could coexist with ethnic and religious others
and form common political institutions and social structures.
References & Notes
Dzemaludin Latic, “Iqbal from the West: Alija,” trans. Sadina Gagula -Paladic in
Balkanlarda Gelecek Tasavvuru: Kültür, Siyaset, Örgütlenmeve İşbirliği Alanları , eds.
Ümmühan Özkan and Selda Şen (Turkey: İnsani Yardım Vakfı, 2008), 93.
2
John R. Schindler, Unholy Terror: Bosnia, Al-Qa’ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad
(Minneapolis: Zenith Press, 2007), 48-49.
3
Alija Ali Izetbegović, Islām aur Mashriq-o-Maghrib kī Tehzībī Kashmakash [Islam and
the Tussle of Civilization between East and West], trans. Muhammad Ayyūb Munīr
(Lahore: Idārah-e Ma‘ārif-e Islāmī, 1997).
4
Enes Karić, “Alija Izetbegović (1925-2003),” Islamic Studies 43, no. 1 (2004): 181.
5
Alija Izetbegović, Inescapable Questions: Autobiographical Notes, trans. Saba
Rissaluddin & Jasmina Izetbegović (Leicester: The Islamic Foundation, 2003), 12.
6
Karić, “Alija Izetbegović,” , 182-183; Izetbegović, Inescapable Questions, 13-14.
7
Karić, “Alija Izetbegović,” , 183-185; Izetbegović, Inescapable Questions, 58.
8
Karić, “Alija Izetbegović,” ,185-186.
9
Sumantra Bose, Contested Lands: Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Cyprus, and Sri
Lanka (Cambridge, Massachusetts & London: Harvard University Press, 2007), 124.
10
M. A. Sherif, Why an Islamic State — The Life Projects of Two Great European
Muslims (Selangor: Islamic Book Trust, 2009), 3-4.
11
Izetbegović, Inescapable Questions, 26.
12
Ibid, 25-26.
13
Karić, “Alija Izetbegović ,”,186.
14
Alija Ali Izetbegović, Islam between East and West (Indianapolis: American Trust
Publications, 1984), iii; Izetbegović, Inescapable Questions, 26-27; Alija Izetbegović,
Izetbegović of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Notes from Prison, 1983-1988 (Westport, CT:
Praeger, 2002), 105-106.
15
Muhammad al-Ghazali, “Islam between East and West: The Magnum Opus of Alija
Izetbegović,” Islamic Studies 36, no. 2, 3 (1997): 524, 526, 531.
16
Amina Selimovic, “Dualism of the World: An Analysis of Islam between East and
West, the Magnum Opus of Alija Izetbegović, with the Speech-Act Approach” (MA
diss., University of Oslo, 2009), 9.
17
For the details of the charges and Izetbegović’s responses, see: Anto Knežević, “Alija
Izetbegović’s “Islamic Declaration”: Its Substance and Its Western Reception,” Islamic
Studies 36, no. 2, 3 (1997): 497-501.
18
For the details of Serbian and Western criticism of Izetbegović, see: Ibid, 502-509.
19
The monograph is published by the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), which is a part of
U.S. Army War College.
20
Leslie S. Lebl, Islamism and Security in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Carlisle, PA: Strategic
Studies Institute and U.S. Army War College Press, 2004), 2-6, 21, 31.
21
Dražen Pehar, Alija Izetbegović and the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Mostar: HKD
Napredak, 2011), 116-119, 136-138, 152-153.
1
133
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Izetbegović, Islam between East and West, iii.
Izetbegović, The Islamic Declaration, 3-5.
24
Ibid, 8.
25
Ibid, 9.
26
Knežević, “Alija Izetbegović’s “Islamic Declaration,” 484.
27
Izetbegović, The Islamic Declaration, 11.
28
Izetbegović, Izetbegović of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 29
29
Izetbegović, The Islamic Declaration, 18.
30
Ibid, 20.
31
Ibid, 32.
32
Knežević, “Alija Izetbegović’s “Islamic Declaration,” 485-488.
33
Izetbegović, The Islamic Declaration, 26.
34
Ibid, 29.
35
Ibid, 26, 34-36.
36
Ibid, 37-39.
37
Izetbegović, Islam between East and West, iii.
38
Ibid, 1-5.
39
Izetbegović, Izetbegović of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 105-106.
40
Izetbegović, Islam between East and West, 1.
41
Ibid.
42
Izetbegović considers the viewpoints of both science and religion about the origin of
man as right. See for his detailed explanation: Izetbegović, Izetbegović of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, 153.
43
Izetbegović, Islam between East and West, 9-37.
44
Izetbegovic gives an interesting explanation about the materialistic tendencies in
Jewish history in his Notes from Prison; for details see: Izetbegović, Izetbegović of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, 119.
45
Izetbegović, Islam between East and West, 146-151.
46
Ibid, 151-152.
47
Ibid, 157.
48
Izetbegović, The Islamic Declaration, 30.
49
Ibid, 31.
50
Ibid, 3.
51
Knežević, “Alija Izetbegović’s “Islamic Declaration,” 506.
52
Izetbegović, The Islamic Declaration, 50.
53
Noel Malcolm, Bonia: A Short History (London: Pan Macmillan, 1994), 220.
54
Izetbegović, The Islamic Declaration, 50.
55
Ibid, 68.
56
Ibid, 68-69.
57
Izetbegović, Inescapable Questions, 70.
58
Ibid, 81.
59
Ibid,105.
60
Franjo Tudjman was a historian and became the first president of Croatia when it
declared independence from Yugoslavia. Like Izetbegović, he was also imprisoned by
Yugoslav communist government for his political views. See for details: Robert
22
23
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Stallaerts, Historical Dictionary of Croatia (Plymouth: The Scarecrow Press, 2010), 32124.
61
Izetbegović, Inescapable Questions, 172-73.
62
Ibid, 210.
63
Ibid,173-174.
64
Ibid, 406.
65
Vincent J. Cornell, “Reasons Public and Divine: Liberal Democracy, Shari‘a
Fundamentalism, and the Epistemological Crisis of Islam,” in Rethinking Islamic Studies:
From Orientalism to Cosmopolitanism, eds, Carl W. Ernst and Richard C. Martin
(Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2010), 23, 46.
66
Izetbegović, Inescapable Questions, 68, 478, 509, 525-26.
67
Ibid, 54.
68
Ibid, 27-28.
69
Izetbegović, Islam between East and West, 211-212.
70
Izetbegović provides quite a few examples of Anglo-Saxon intellectuals who exhibited
this “middle way” in their thought. For details see Ibid, 212-219.
71
Ibid, 219-222.
72
S. Balic, “Introduction” to Islam between East and West, Alija Ali Izetbegović
(Indianapolis: American Trust Publications, 1984), vii.
73
Izetbegović, Islam between East and West, 211-223.
74
Ibid, 133-135.
Acknowledgment:
An erlier draft of this paper was presented at the internaitonal workshop
titled Localized Islam(s): Practice and Culture in European Context, held
on March 20-21, 2014, at the European University Institute, Florence,
Italy.
@ 2020 by the author, Licensee University of Chitral, Journal of
Religious Studies. This article is an open access article distributed
under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).