A Bosnian newspaper noted for coverage of corruption has reported the details of how a Saudi donation for Muslim war victims was used instead to create an investment bank controlled largely by the Bosnian Islamic Community headed by the Grand Mufti and Muslim Brotherhood network figure Mustafa Ceric The article explains:
When on 28 August 1995 a shell killed 37 and wounded over 90 people at the Markale marketplace in Sarajevo, Saudis sent another check to Alija Izetbegovic. With Reis [Grand Mufti] Mustafa Ceric and Nezim Halilovic Muderis as witnesses, Izetbegovic in 2001 turned these movable assets over as waqf [estate donated to Islamic Community]shares of the BOR [Renewal and Development Bank] Bank, transferring ownership of them from the SDA [Party of Democratic Action] to the B-H Islamic Community. In the meantime the sale of bonds and the emission of new bonds made the Islamic Community and around 40 chosen Bosniaks the majority shareholders in the BOR Bank.
The article goes on to discuss a possible merger of the BOR bank with a another bank affiliated with the Bosnian state:
Previously, an announcement was made that a merger of the Federation Investment Bank and the BOR Bank, as banks with state-owned capital and in which the B-H Federation Government had voting rights, was under consideration. Thus, Federation Prime Minister Nedzad Brankovic, Reis Mustafa Ceric, and Islamic Community Assembly Speaker Edhem Bicakcic are no longer close only in the areas of politics and ideology. Now they have a common interest in the banking system as well. Thus, humanitarian and state capital – generated by the management of foreign donations, grants, and loans – will pass into the hands of a small number of private owners handpicked among Bosniaks and members of the B-H Islamic Community.
These developments suggest an unhealthy fusion of government and religion and serve as another cautionary note regarding Dr. Ceric’s proposal to have his organization become the model for a European institution to control Islam.
(source: BBC Monitoring Europe “Bosnian weekly says Muslims used Saudi war donation to create investment bank” July 19, 2007)