Islamic Declaration

The Islamic Declaration (Bosnian: Islamska deklaracija) was written by Alija Izetbegović (1925–2003). Originally published in 1969–70, and republished in 1990 in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia, it presents his views on Islam and modernization. He was an ideological pan-Islamist, who participated in the Mladi Muslimani (Young Muslims) organization between 1941 and 1947, before the Tito government declared the organization illegal. The book was later used against him and other pan-Islamists in a trial in Sarajevo in 1983, which resulted in his condemnation to 13 years of penal servitude for an "attack against socialism [and] willingness to build an Islamic State in Bosnia".

In the opinions of historians Noel Malcolm and Ivo Banac from the Bosnian Institute, no plan for the transformation of Bosnia into an Islamic state was included in the book, nor in the political program of Izetbegović's SDA (which he founded in 1990). The declaration remains a source of controversy. Serbs, who were opposed to Izetbegović, often quoted the declaration as indicative of an intent to create an Iranian style Muslim republic in Bosnia. Passages from the declaration were frequently quoted by Izetbegović's opponents during the 1990s, who considered it to be an open statement of Islamic fundamentalism. The opinion is shared by some Western authors such as John Schindler. Indeed, in his book, Izetbegović praised Pakistan as a model for Bosnian society and declared that "there can be no peace or co-existence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic societies and political institutions".

The Islamic Declaration is a general treatise upon the relationship between Islam and politics, trying to conciliate Western-style progress with Islamic tradition, and in which an Islamic Bosnia is not mentioned. The main idea is that the Qur'an allows modernization, but that it sets limits. To this end Izetbegović cited Ataturk's Turkey as a negative example of loss of Islamic roots, ending in economic stagnation, and Japan as a positive example, in which retaining most of its own culture proved compatible with modernization and economic growth.

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