c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Mustafa Ceric may come from a small, dysfunctional country, but he plays a critical role in averting the clash between Islamic and Western worlds that so many people fear.

As Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ceric is spiritual leader to one of Europe’s last surviving communities of indigenous European Muslims.

Educated in Sarajevo’s Gazi Husrev-beg Madrassa and later Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, Ceric is seen as blending moderate European Islam with the authority of Islam’s leading center of learning in Egypt. With a doctorate in theology from the University of Chicago and several years spent as imam of Chicago’s Islamic Cultural Center in the 1980s, he is also well-versed in American ways.

When ethnic cleansing nearly wiped out Bosnia’s Muslims during the Bosnian War, Ceric emerged as an eloquent voice for action to save his people, and later as a champion of reconciliation. Some see him as a conduit between Islam and the West, but his critics allege he is a moderate in name only.

How Ceric handles the newest threat to Bosnian Islam _ Saudi-backed supporters of Wahabbism, a stringent strain of Islam _ could determine who is right.

Q: How serious a threat is Islamic terrorism?

A: I don’t think that there is an Islamic extremism or an Islamic terrorism. This is what the terrorists like to hear. Because if you say Islamic terrorists, then you imply more than 1 billion people. It does not serve our purpose to call these people by the attributes of Islam. I think they should be isolated.

We hope the media in the West will understand that they are manipulated and used by these people just to identify themselves with the majority of Muslims who do not believe what they believe.

Q: Do you believe Muslims in the United States are better integrated than those in Europe?

A: The future of Muslims in the United States is brighter than the future of Muslims in Europe. The simple fact (is) that the United States is a country of immigrants. So as a Muslim there, you have a better opportunity to identify with your religion.

But Europe has this huge memory of history which does not enable it to be progressive, but regressive. The difference between the United States and Europe is that the United States always has a kind of progressive memory, you remember the future rather than the past.

Q: Do you see any signs of improvement in relations between the Western world and the Islamic world?

A: The West must understand that Muslims have two main complaints. One is that their truth is not as valued as the truths of other people. The second is that Muslims believe they are being treated unjustly in global affairs.

All the wars that are being conducted today are being conducted in Muslim lands, and Muslim blood is being shed. Whether you are moderate or radical, in any discussion among Muslims, the first and last question is what is going on in Palestine and Iraq. Western politicians must understand this is not a question of Islam and the West, it is a question of truth and justice.

The West is misusing Islam for their crusade purposes, and some Muslims are misusing Islam to say they are defending Islam, but this is not the case.

You can’t behave now as a tiny, national, tribal mentality. You have to behave in this day as a global citizen, as a global leader, as a global state. Because no one, even the United States as we can see in Iraq, can do things alone.

Q: People talk about a battle within Islam. Do you see that?

A: I don’t accept this division of moderate and extreme Islams. Who is the judge that will tell us this is moderate and this is extreme? This is a political division, not a religious or faith-value division. We are Muslims or we are not Muslims.

We Muslims know our shortcoming more than anybody else, and we should be courageous and say what is wrong with our mentality and what is wrong with our behavior.

Q: Can Bosnia still be a bridge between East and West?

A: I hope that we can be a bridge. But unfortunately we are weakened by the fact that genocide happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is a problem of European peace and security, whether Europe will be a Europe for all citizens including Muslims, or an exclusive Christian club.

Some messages that we have been receiving from Europe _ the Danish cartoons and the pope’s speech _ are wrong messages, as if we are not wanted.

KRE/LF END SACIRBEY

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