Building a Mosque, Creating a Centar of Community

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Building a Mosque, Creating a Centar of
Community

• Religion and Nationalism the Case of Muslims
  inBosnia-Herzegovina 1965-1971
• Daisuke Nagashima (nagashima_daisuke_at_yahoo.co.jp)

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Introduction

• Image of Bosnia
• a crossroad of religions and civilizations
• a land of age-old conflict (hatred has been
  restrained, and people didn't forget bloodshed
  conflicts in the past)
• well ''secularized'' society (religion has
  already lost importance in society as it did in
  the past)

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1.2 Studies of Religion (in previous studies)

• Church-state relationship, religious organization
  Radic, 20022005, Mojzez, 1992, Alexander,
  1979
• Religion as sources of miths and symbols Perica,
  2002
• Religious movement Bougarel, 1997, Prlenda,
  2004
• Religion and nationalism Perica, 2002, Bakic,
  1994, Dugandija, 1986, Sakai, 2001,
  Sahara, 1997
• Religious identity Bringa, 1995, Dujzing,
  2000
• Religion and society Cimic 1971
• Sociology of religion Cimic 1970, Pantic,
  1988

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in this study

• Religion as basis of sense of values, social
  norm, and ethics which determine behaviors of
  individuals and group identity of a community and
  influence social relationship of individuals and
  communities. Sahara, 1995
• Mosques and churches as centar of maintaining
  traditional (not necessarily traditional,
  sometimes even ''radical'') values

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2. Policy toward religion

• Rural traditional values including religion
  was main target for ''overcoming backwardness
  (superstition, village customs, fetishism, etc.)''

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2.1 Secularization policy(until 1960)

• Shariah courts were abolished (March. 1946)
• Prohibition of womens veil in 1950
• All mektebs were closed, and left only one
  secondary Gazi Husrefbeg Madrasah in Sarajevo
  (1952)
• Vakuf (waqf) property were largely expropriated
  and nationalized (1945-1958)
• left religious administrative hierarchy,
  reduced elementary and secondary education, and
  slight vakuf property (mosques, masjid, and land
  and buildings adjacent to them).

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2.2 Results of secularization

• Religious activities (prayer, education,etc.) are
  permitted
• in mosques and mesdids
• mosque yards and cemetaries
• ''public spaces'' where don't exist mosques and
  mesdids
• in private houses
• need to get permission at local administration
  for interal affairs, except conducting
  circumcision (sunnetluk) and family celabration

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2.3 Gradual relaxation of policy

• the Basic Law on religious communities
• Dismissal of Alexandar Rankovic (1966)
• Protocol between Yugoslavia and Vatican
• activities of religious communities were often
  out of governments control

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3. Religious activities in/at mosques and mesdids

• mass gathering at opening of newly-built mosques
• mevlud (mawlid) (birthday of Muhammad, for
  newborn child, for the draft into JNA, seeing off
  hajji travellers hadijaetc.)
• holidays, Ramazan bajram and Kurban bajram, new
  year celebration
• Friday prayer (duma- namaz), and hutba (sermon)
• hatma (when finishing meqteb education, or at
  funeral tevhid)
• festival (aikovanje) where boys and girls meet
  each other
• wedding (only after civil wedding)
• sports activities

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4. Mosque building 1

• Except mosques/ mesdids which were destroyed
  during W.W.II, for building mosques
• Need signature of more than 50 householders who
  are adults
• Need to be for 100 or more muslim houses
• Community need to have enough financial resource
  (6000 dinar or much) for imams and other
  employees
• The distance from neighboring mosques/mesdids
  must be longer than 6 km or more
• Need to fit Shariah and public regulations for
  hygiene

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4. Mosque building 2

• Demat (Cemaat) councils take the initiatives to
  build mosques
• faithful in local communities and/or muslim
  gastarbeiters who work outside of Bosnia give
  donation, i.e. money (zekat), furnitures,
  building work, etc., but not from foreigh aid in
  most cases.
• Equipment of speakers for azan, calling for
  player.
• Increase of religious objects was perceived as
  ethnic expression by neighboring nations

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Numbers of mosques(except mesdids)
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5. mekteb education

• Background (census in 1981)
• 25.2 of 7-11 year-old children don't go to
  primaly schools
• 24.3 of primaly school children leave school

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5.1 growing average of attendance

• in 1957 (11,500) (234 places)
• in 1959 (18,800) (601 places)
• in 1962 (20,040)
• in 1969 (90,867) (1166 places) 80 of all the
  school-aged children

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5.2 For better quality of education

• test for imams (in 1954), purge of
  ''self-appointed imams''
• ''Curriculum and program of basic islamic
  religious education'' (1967)
• akaid(islamic faith), ibadet(islamic rituals),
  ahlak(islamic moral), kiraeti(reading Kuran in
  arabic)

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6. Inter-ethnic relationship at community level

• building of mosques and church, financial and
  phyisical support
• mass gathering at opening of newly-built mosques
  and churches
• holiday celebration
• at work

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7. Nationalization of inter-ethnic relationship

• Media propaganda (Preporod). ''Send your children
  to religious education!''
• From Islamic Religious Community to Islamic
  Community
• Rise of nationalism. Muslim nationalist
  propaganda at population censusu in 1971 which
  tried to encourage muslim to identify themselves
  as Muslim nation, not as Serbs, Croats, or by
  other regional identification.
• Economic and political crises (Crisis of
  Religion, Religion in Crisis). Decline of
  communist ideology leads to resurgence of
  religious values

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8. conclusion

• Religious activities such as mosque building and
  mekteb education preceded
• It is quite probable that expansion of religious
  activitie nutured consciousness of ethnic
  distinctiveness at local level and this
  consciousness was enforced by media campaign of
  muslim religious leaders and political campaign
  for Muslim national identification.

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Reference

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