The BBC is reporting that the office of the Grand Mufti Of Bosnia, a figure tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood, has issued a statement accusing the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) of participating in “anti-Islamic hysteria” by raising concerns about religious instruction in Bosnian nurseries. According to the report:
“The OSCE does not have a true insight into the situation of relations in B-H society, but it does have a prejudice against Islam,” it says in the statement of Ceric’s office prompted by OSCE’s announcement in connection with the introduction of religious teaching in nurseries. The statement says this was about OSCE’s negative perception of Islam. “It would be more appropriate for OSCE to stay out of the debate, which is completely normal in a democratic society, rather than getting involved in a prejudiced manner which hints at Islamophobia. We are sorry OSCE in B-H has lost credibility by this act and that it has joined in the general anti-Islamic hysteria,” the statement underlines. The OSCE mission in B-H said on 12 February that the proposal on introducing religious knowledge in the teaching programme of nurseries in Sarajevo Canton constitutes a threat to basic freedoms guaranteed by the B-H Constitution. OSCE mission spokeswoman Mersiha Causevic said that this matter was not in theory wrong, but raises the question of exclusivity and discrimination, as experience clearly shows that such classes would be completely directed towards Islamic religious knowledge.
Mustafa Ceric is tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood through his membership in the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), headed by Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi. It has been noted in an earlier post that Ceric sees himself as a possible leader of European Islam and the possibility also exists that he could be being groomed as a successor to Youssef Qaradawi, in ill health of late.
(Source: BBC Monitoring Europe – Political February 14, 2008 Thursday “Bosnian Muslim head accuses OSCE of “anti-Islamic hysteria”
Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 0920 gmt 14 Feb 08)