Mustafa Cerić

Mustafa Cerić
Cerić in 2011
Title	Former Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Personal
Born	(1952-02-05) 5 February 1952 (age 72) Veliko Čajno, Visoko, PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia
Religion	Sunni Islam
Children	3
Alma mater	Al-Azhar University University of Chicago
Occupation	World Bosniak Congress (2012–present)
Senior posting
Period in office	1993 – September 2012
Predecessor	Jakub Selimoski (as Grand Mufti of Yugoslavia)
Successor	Husein Kavazović

Mustafa Cerić (Bosnian pronunciation: [mustafaː tserit͡ɕ], born 5 February 1952) is a Bosnian imam who served as the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1993 to 2012, and is currently president of the World Bosniak Congress. In the 2014 general election, he ran for a seat in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a Bosniak member, but was not elected.

Cerić ensured that Islam is a strong element of Bosniak nationalism and has argued that Bosnia and Herzegovina should become a Bosniak nation state as Croats and Serbs already have their own nation states, Croatia and Serbia.^[1]

Life

Cerić graduated from the Gazi Husrev-beg Madrasa in Sarajevo and received a scholarship to Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. He then returned to Yugoslavia, where he became an Imam. In 1981, he accepted the position of Imam at the Islamic Cultural Center of Greater Chicago (ICC) in Northbrook, Illinois and lived in the United States for several years.

During his time in the United States, he learned English and earned a Ph.D. degree in Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago. After his studies, he left the ICC and returned to Yugoslavia and became an Imam again in a learning center in Zagreb in 1987.

Cerić led the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1993. He officially became the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999. He was replaced as reis-ul-ulema in 2012 by Husein Kavazović. In 2011, Cerić was one of the founders of the Bosniak Academy of Sciences and Arts. In December 2012, he was one of the founders of the World Bosniak Congress, and serves as its president.

Membership

Cerić is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding.^{[citation needed]} Cerić is also a member of the Committee of Conscience fighting against the Holocaust denial.^[2]

Awards

Cerić was the co-recipient of the 2003 UNESCO Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize^[3] and recipient of the International Council of Christians and Jews Annual Sternberg Award “for exceptional contribution to interfaith understanding."^[4] He also received the 2007 Theodor-Heuss-Stiftung award for his contribution to spreading and strengthening democracy."^[5]

In 2007, he was named the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association of Muslim Social Scientists UK “in recognition of his distinguished contributions to better understanding between Faiths, outstanding scholarship, for promoting a climate of respect and peaceful co-existence, and a wider recognition of the place of faith in Europe and the West.”^[6]

He was a 2008 recipient of Eugen Biser Foundation award for his efforts in promoting understanding and peace between Islamic and Christian thought.^[7] In 2008, Cerić accepted the invitation of Tony Blair to be on the advisory council of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.^[8]

Publications

• "The challenge of a single Muslim authority in Europe" (December 2007), springerlink.com
• Roots of Synthetic Theology in Islam
• A Choice Between War and Peace
• "A Declaration of European Muslims", rferl.org, 16 March 2006.

Personal life

Cerić is fluent in his native Bosnian, English and Arabic, and cites a "passive knowledge" of Turkish, German and French.^[9][10][11]

References

Other sources

External links

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Barelvi

Asrarullah Hussaini (1856–1920) Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi (1856–1921) Muhammad Amjad (d. 1927) Ghulam Muhammad Dinpuri (1835–1936) Qasim Sadiq (1845–1942) Hamid Raza Khan (1875–1943) Amjad Ali Aazmi (1882–1948) Naeem-ud-Deen Muradabadi (1887–1948) Abdullah Barelvi (1841–1949) Jamaat Ali Shah (1834–1951) Murtaza Hasan Chandpuri (1868–1951) Kifayatullah Dehlawi (1875–1952) Shihabuddeen Ahmed Koya Shaliyathi (1885–1954) Abdul Aleem Siddiqi (1892–1954) Amin ul-Hasanat (1922–1960) Sardar Ahmad Chishti (1903–1962) Ibrahim Raza Khan (1907–1965) Abdul Hamid Qadri Badayuni (1898–1970) Mohammad Abdul Ghafoor Hazarvi (1909–1970) ​Fazlur Rahman Ansari (1914–1974) Ghulam Mohiuddin Ghaznavi (1902–1975) Mustafa Raza Khan (1892–1981) Ziauddin Madni (1877–1981) Khwaja Qamar ul Din Sialvi (1906–1981) Muslehuddin Siddiqui (1918–1983) Faiz-ul Hassan Shah (1911–1984) Shafee Okarvi (1930–1984) Ahmad Saeed Kazmi (1913–1986) Shujaat Ali Qadri (1941–1993) Waqaruddin Qadri (1915–1993) Abdul Wahab Siddiqi (1942–1994) Karam Shah Azhari (1918–1998) Sadruddin Islahi (1917–1998) Ghulam Ali Okarvi (1919–2000) Rashid Ahmed Jaunpuri (1889–2001) Arshadul Qadri (1925–2002) Ibrahim Siddiqui (1930–2002) Shah Ahmad Noorani (1926–2003) Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi (1948–2009)

Deobandi

Imamuddin Punjabi (died 1916) Abdul Hamid Madarshahi (1869–1920) Mahmud Hasan Deobandi (1851–1920) Sufi Azizur Rahman (1862–1922) Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri (1852–1927) Muhammad Ali Mungeri (1846–1927) Azizur Rahman Usmani (1859–1928) Muhammad Ahmad Nanautawi (1862–1930) Ibrahim Ali Tashna (1872–1931) Anwar Shah Kashmiri (1875–1933) Sayyid Mumtaz Ali (1860–1935) Majid Ali Jaunpuri (d. 1935) Abul Muhasin Sajjad (1880–1940) Shukrullah Mubarakpuri (1895–1942) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (1863–1943) Ibrahim Ujani (1863–1943) Habibullah Qurayshi (1865–1943) Ubaidullah Sindhi (1872–1944) Ilyas Kandhlawi (1885–1944) Asghar Hussain Deobandi (1877–1945) Sahool Bhagalpuri (d. 1948) Sulaiman Nadvi (1884–1953) Shabbir Ahmad Usmani (1887–1949) Izaz Ali Amrohi (1882–1955) Manazir Ahsan Gilani (1892–1956) Hussain Ahmed Madani (1879–1957) Ahmad Saeed Dehlavi (1888–1959) Badre Alam Merathi (1898–1965) Azizul Haq (1903–1961) Maqsudullah (1883–1961) Abdul Qadir Raipuri (1878–1962) Ahmed Ali Lahori (1887–1962) Hifzur Rahman Seoharwi (1900–1962) Yusuf Kandhlawi (1917–1965) Shah Ahmad Hasan (1882–1967) Shamsul Haque Faridpuri (1896–1969) Khair Muhammad Jalandhari (1895–1970) Muhammad Ali Jalandhari (1895–1971) Mushahid Ahmad Bayampuri (1907–1971) Abdur Rahman Kashgari (1912–1971) Syed Fakhruddin Ahmad (1889–1972) Deen Muhammad Khan (1900–1974) Zafar Ahmad Usmani (1892–1974) Muhammad Miyan Deobandi (1903–1975) Ibrahim Balyawi (1887–1976) Muhammad Faizullah (1892–1976) Abdul Wahhab Pirji (1895–1976) Athar Ali Bengali (1891–1976) Shafi Usmani (1897–1976) Yusuf Banuri (1908–1977) Syed Muhammad Ishaq (1915–1977) Ahmed Ali Badarpuri (1915–2000) Mehboob Rizwi (1911–1979) Sahvi Shah (1923–1979) Mufti Mehmood (1919–1980) Shah Abd al-Wahhab (1894–1982) Zakariyya Kandhlawi (1898–1982) Tayyib Qasmi (1897–1983) Shamsul Haq Afghani (1901–1983) Ibrahim Chatuli (1894–1984) Atiqur Rahman Usmani (1901–1984) Saeed Ahmad Akbarabadi (1908–1985) Azhar Shah Qaiser (1920–1985) Harun Babunagari (1902–1986) Abdur Rashid Tarkabagish (1900–1986) Hafizur Rahman Wasif Dehlavi (1910–1987) Muhammadullah Hafezzi (1895–1987) Abdul Aziz Malazada (1917–1987) Shamsul Huda Panchbagi (1897–1988) Abdul Haq Akorwi (1912–1988) Abdul Jalil Badarpuri (1925–1989) Abdul Matin Fulbari (1915–1990) Minnatullah Rahmani (1913–1991) Taqi Amini (1926–1991) Habib al-Rahman al-A'zami (1900–1992) Muhammad Yunus (1906–1992) Masihullah Khan (1912–1992) Abul Hasan Jashori (1918–1993) Shams Naved Usmani (1931–1993) Inamul Hasan Kandhlawi (1918–1995) Mahmood Hasan Gangohi (1907–1996) Athar Mubarakpuri (1916–1996) Shamsuddin Qasemi (1935–1996) Manzoor Nomani (1905–1997) Sultan Ahmad Nanupuri (1914–1997) Muhammad Abdullah Ghazi (1935–1998) Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi (1913–1999) Ismail Katki (1914–2005) Nur Uddin Gohorpuri (1924–2005) Ashraf Ali Bishwanathi (1928–2005) Kafilur Rahman Nishat Usmani (1942–2006) Syed Fazlul Karim (1935–2006) Abdullah Abbas Nadwi (1925–2006) Sirajussajidin Katki (1939–2006) Abrarul Haq Haqqi (1920–2006) Ubaidul Haq (1928–2007) Anzar Shah Kashmiri (1927–2008) Obaidul Haque Wazirpuri (1934–2008)

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