Islamic Community of Yugoslavia

The Islamic Community of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian : Islamska zajednica Jugoslavije) was an organisation of Muslims in socialist Yugoslavia established in 1947. The organisation was seated in Sarajevo, where the Reis-ul-ulema resided together with the Rijaset , the most senior body of the organisation.

The Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Community of Yugoslavia was made up of members of the republican assemblies from all Yugoslavian republics, with those from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia seated in Sarajevo, the Serbian delegates in Pristina, the Montenegrin delegates in Titograd, and the Macedonian delegates in Skopje. Each of these republican assemblies also had their rijaset. ^[1]

In 1990, the Islamic Community adopted its new constitution, making Zagreb the center for the republican assemblies of Croatia and Slovenia, while the republican assembly in Sarajevo represented Bosnia and Herzegovina only. The status of other republican assemblies remained the same. ^[1] With the new constitution, the republican assemblies were renamed to mešihat. ^[2] On 9 March 1991, the Islamic Community gained the first democratically elected Reis-ul-ulema, a Macedonian Jakub Selimoski. ^{[1] [3]}

With the breakup of Yugoslavia and the international recognition of its newly independent countries, several independent Islamic communities were established. The Islamic Community of Yugoslavia adopted another Constitution in Skopje on 5 February 1993, recognising the independence of separated communities. At the same time Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro established their Islamic communities. The mešihat of Serbia with a seat in Pristina, was renamed to the Islamic Community of Kosovo. The meeting of the representatives of the newly formed mešihats in Istanbul at the end of October 1997, was a formal end of the Islamic Community of Yugoslavia. ^[4]

List of Grand Muftis (1930–1993)

Name	Tenure
	Began	End
Grand Muftis of Yugoslavia
Ibrahim Maglajlić	1930	1936
Fehim Spaho	1936	1938
Ibrahim Fejić	1947	1957
Sulejman Kemura	1957	1975
Naim Hadžiabdić	1975	1987
Husein Mujić	1987	1989
Jakub Selimoski	1991	1993

See also

• Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Footnotes

1. Barišić 2008, p. 118.
2. Barišić 2008, p. 119.
3. Perica 2002, p. 85.
4. Barišić 2008, pp. 118–119.

References

Books

• Perica, Vjekoslav (2002). Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Journals

• Barišić, Srđan (2008). "Institucionalizacija islamskih zajednica nakon raspada SFR Jugoslavije" [The Institutionalisation of the Islamic Communities after the Dissolution of the SFR Yugoslavia]. Filozofija i Društvo (in Serbian). 2. Beograd: University of Belgrade, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory: 117–127.