Sandzak Muslims remain at odds
The rival Islamic communities in Serbia’s south-western Sandzak region rejected on Monday a call from the Ministry of Religion to defuse tensions that resulted in a shoot-out last week.
The rival Islamic communities in Serbia’s south-western Sandzak region rejected on Monday a call from the Ministry of Religion to defuse tensions that resulted in a shoot-out last week.
Four persons were injured in a brawl and a subsequent shoot-out that prompted local police to intervene on Friday, when a group of Muslims loyal to Serbia’s top Islamic cleric, Adem Zilkic, attempted to enter the Atun Alem mosque in Novi Pazar, the main city of the Sandzak.
Followers of the local mufti, Muamer Zukorlic, gathered inside the mosque, resisted the attempt.
On Saturday, Serbia’s Ministry of Religion urged Islamic clergy and all Muslims in Serbia “to defuse tensions” and appealed for the “replacing of accusations with patience, wisdom and mutual respect.”
On Monday, Zukorlic said that the ministry’s message was an “attempt [by the authorities to meddle in the internal affairs of the Islamic community” and described the call as the “attempted legalization of a split.” In its statement the ministry sought to make it clear that it was not taking sides between the rival groups – the Belgrade-based supreme body of the Islamic community, the “Riyaset”, and the Sandzak’s “Meshihat”, which is supposedly a subordinate institution, but which does not recognize the authority of the “Riyaset”, and instead looks for guidance to the “Riyaset” in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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The white Slavic Muslims of the Sandzak are closely related to the Bosniaks, and have developed a more humane form of Islam. However, Islamists have made serious inroads in the area.