Reasons for the Conflict between Sulejman Ugljanin and Islamic Community of Sandzak

ENDLESS LOVE FOR POWER

Excessive ambition of national leaders sent many nations into abyss. New local (Muslim) authorities in several Sandzak towns wish to rule even in mosques. This is the essence of the current conflict

AIM Belgrade, 14 February, 1997

"I will banish him from Sandzak and from Europe", President of the Muslim National Council, Dr Sulejman Ugljanin, sent word to the President of the Islamic Community of Sandzak, Muarem effendi Zukorlic, from a gathering in Ribarici. At first, believers were shocked, and then started to disapprove loudly. This message was in fact the climax of an open conflict between the politician and the priest. Few could have expected it - people in Sandzak often say, insisting that their names are not mentioned, because "at times like these, it may cost one a great deal". Majority remind that there were times when Ugljanin helped the first man of the Islamic Community of Sandzak to be elected, who is still not recognized by the official authorities in Serbia although he came to the post on regularly organized elections inside this religious community. Ministry of religions of Serbia officially contacts only with the boards of the lower instance, although nobody can explain why this is the case either from the legal or the theological aspect.

The well-informed claim that this is primarily a personal conflict of two men who are, each in his own way, the most influential persons among the local Bosniacs - Muslims. During years of crisis and war Zukorlic has managed to organize construction of a few mosques and for it, won points of exceptional value. The Islamic Community has also become financially independent, thanks primarily to donations of believers, but also to the aid from abroad. At the time of greatest isolation of the newest Yugoslavia, the Novi Pazar Board managed to import 20 thousand copies of Koran translated by the well known Orientalist, Besim Korkut. The translation was printed in Paris, and the donor was a religious institution from Saudi Arabia.

In other words, the Islamic Community of Sandzak was very busy regardless of the political climate and repression exerted by the police and for some time the former Yugoslav People's Army, and later the Army of Yugoslavia. During all that time Ugljanin was abroad because he was wanted by the police for subversion of the constitutional system and for terrorism. However, just before the elections, he returned to the country without any problem whatsoever, which caused different comments and guesses that this was the result of a silent agreement between the ruling party and the Muslim-Bosniac coalition controlled by Ugljanin, because no legal state could have disregarded such serious accusations.

At the moment Ugljanin is officially the President of the Muslim National Council whose journal, Sandzacke novine, initiated a real hue and cry against the Islamic community and its president. The former recipe used by Belgrade Politika in a slightly supplemented column called "Letters, Reactions, Polemics" is used now by Sandzacke novine. In texts written by signed and unsigned readers, the following messages can be read: "Coalition of Tutic, Zukorlic and YUL". Hairo effendi Tutic happens to be the President of the Novi Pazar Islamic Community Board, a clever "diplomat" who managed to maintain relations with the authorities in order to reduce tensions even in the most critical periods of time. Noone, from believers to moderate politicians, is able to understand how the editorial staff of this journal managed to link the two spiritul leaders with an atheist party which was badly beaten in the elections.

This hue and cry in fact conceals ambitions of Ugljanin and his closest associates to rule not "only in municiplities but also in mosques" forgetting along the way the constitutional principle of separation of religious communities from the state. President of the Islamic Community of Sandzak, Muamer effendi Zukorlic, is quite definite about it:

"We only ask that they do their job and we ours. There are too many unresolved problems in the city. Let them, as the local authorities, improve the situation in hospitals, schools, which is their main task". He also gives the example that out of about 120 mosques in Sandzak, more than a half have been built without all the necessary permits, because it took five-six years to get them, and the believers had to be given places of worship.

One of the direct causes of the conflict between Ugljanin and the Islamic Community was the strike of students of Novi Pazar Muslem religious secondary school, Medressa, inspired according to certain sources, by people from local political circles in order to undermine Tukorlic. The students moved into the new building in the beginning of this school year. Three strike leaders were expelled from school, and Ugljanin took their side which corroborated the mentioned allegation. Obviously some politicians from among the Muslims were annoyed with modernization of the religious school, probably because they were imbued by certain ideas abroad which cannot be grafted on to the members of the Islam in Europe. After all, it was the Medressa itself which referred to the Constitution pursuant which religious institutions are separated from the state, so therefore problems within them cannot be resolved by any political party, no matter whether it is Muslim or not.

In the duel between Ugljanin and Zukorlic, the impression one has is that the first actor has hardly any chance. In the first place, Zukorlic has the spiritual, but also legal backing. Majority of the believers also back him, although many bear him a grudge because of his curtness. Ugljanin is seeking his allies among them, and even the possibility of establishment of an alternative religious leadership is discussed in public. It is very important that Ugljanin had won the elections thanks mostly to the massive support of the believers and khojas who had suggested to the believers, without much hesitation, who to vote for. This mutual love lasted only until the Bosniac-Sandzak coalition won power which it understood much more broadly than it was permitted by the rules of the political game.

Ugljanin seems to be very nervous because he is not as popular in Sarajevo any more even among those who used to look upon him as a martyr and fighter for the "Muslim cause". He is reproached that he has forgotten the ideas about the cultural autonomy of Sandzak and many other things he had been promising before.

To be completely truthful, Reis-ul-ulema of the Islamic Community of B&H, Dr Mustafa Ceric, does not have a very high opinion about Zukorlic either, so that the two Sandzak "rivals" have similar positions in this respect. It seems, therefore, that the people of Sandzak themselves must weigh out who has done more for survival in the past dramatic and tragic years. Perhaps this is so far the most serious and most difficult test of their spiritual and political maturity.

Ejub Stitkovac