On the occasion of the open letters sent by the leaders of certain political parties to the reis-ul-ulema of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Husein ef. Kavazovic, the Public Relations Office of the Islamic Community has issued a new press release.
”We are used to politicians using constructions, half-truth, subterfuges, etc. in pre-election campaigns. What is new, however, is that this time they went further, so they started addressing Reis-ul-ulema with the same vocabulary and manner as if they were dealing with a political rival in the pre-election campaign,” they added.
Reis-ul-ulema, therefore, they say, will not respond to these writings.
”We will wait until we complete the gallery of such letters, which we will publish integrally on our web portals at the end of this campaign. We will keep these letters in our archives, for the sake of future generations, so that they can read how the leaders of the political parties addressed the first religious authority of the Islamic community in BiH.
On this occasion, we will point out only one fact that is distorted in the letters. Reisul-ulema does not divide anyone among politicians and does not invite anyone to political consultations. State officials of BiH as well as presidents, prime ministers, ministers, ambassadors, and other high officials from all over the world come to Reisul-ulema. Presidents of political parties also come to him. At these meetings, the Reisul-ulema discusses only basic social issues,” says the press release of the Public Relations Office of the Rijaset of the Islamic Community,” it is concluded.
Along with the announcement, the Office for Public Relations attached the integral speech of Reis Kavazovic, which he gave in Karici:
Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, who made the Hijra in these days, who, after leaving Mecca on its approaches, turned towards it and said: By Allah, there is no place I love more than you, and if your inhabitants had not driven me away from you, I would never have left you.
What is Mecca to us, what is Mecca to us Bosnian Muslims, what is our place, what is our favorite place, when the Prophet, the beloved of Allah, says about his birthplace that it is his favorite? Brothers, what is our Mecca, what is our Mecca? Which Mecca are we looking at? There is only one Mecca of ours.
This earth under our feet, this dust from which we were created, this dust that we carry on us and in us, this lump of earth from which an angel took and created us from it, it is our Mecca, our Bosnia, our Karici, our Sarajevo, our Vares, our Breza, our Visoko, our Tuzla, our Kladanj, our Cazin, our Bihac, our Mostar, our Zvornik. This is our Mecca.
We have to remember that. We have to carry it inside us, we have to smell it, feel it, touch it, at every moment it must be present in our hearts and we must be aware that we are always in hijra and that our sorrow for our birthplace, our place, must always be as strong as it was for Muhammad, peace be upon him.
