Mustafa Ceric

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Mustafa ef. Ceric at the 2008 World Economic Forum.

Dr. Mustafa efendi Cerić (born 1952 in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then Yugoslavia) is the Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He is serving his second 7-year term until 2013. He is considered as one of the most liberal Grand Muftis in the world. He is fluent in Bosnian, English and Arabic, and cites a "passive knowledge" of Turkish, German and French ^[1]. Cerić is married and has two daughters and a son.

He is the co-recipient of the 2003 UNESCO Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize^[2] and recipient of the International Council of Christians and Jews Annual Sternberg Award "for exceptional contribution to interfaith understanding" ^[3]. One of the latest international recognitions he received is "2007 Theodor-Heuss-Stiftung award for his contribution to spreading and strengthening democracy" ^[4]. In 2007 he was named the recipient of Lifetime Achievment 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" ^[5]. He is also a 2008 recipient of Eugen Biser Foundation award for his efforts in promoting understanding and peace between islamic and christian thought ^[6]. In 2008 Cerić accepted the invitation of Tony Blair to be on the advisory council of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation^[7].

Cerić graduated from the Madresa in Sarajevo and received a scholarship to Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. After his schooling there, he returned to his native Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he became an Imam. In 1981, he accepted the position of Imam at the Islamic Cultural Center of Greater Chicago in Northbrook, Illinois and settled in the United States for several years. He learned English and earned a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in Islamic Studies. When he finished his studies, he returned to his homeland, leaving the ICC and becoming a practicing Imam in a learning center in Zagreb in 1987. He officially became the Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999, although he has led the Islamic community in Bosnia since 1993, a fact that has sparked controversy in his re-election.

Dr. Ceric is a member of several local and international scientific organizations and societies, including the Interreligious Council of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Foundation of Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial and Cemetery, the Council of 100 Leadres of the World Economic Forum, the European Council for Fatwas and Research, World Conference of Religion & Peace, the Executive Committee of the European Council of Religious Leaders, the Board of Trustees of International Islamic University Islamabad, the Sharia'h Board of Bosnia Bank International, the Fiqh Academy in Mecca, Aal Albayt Foundation for Islamic Thought in Jordan, the World Council of Religions for Peace, International Commission for Peace Research chaired by Dr. Henry Kissinger, UNESCO and Executive Council of World Forum of Ulama. He has delivered numerous lectures and led several workshops on interreligious and interfaith issues at local and international conferences.

His publications include: Roots of Synthetic Theology in Islam, A Choice Between War and Peace, and European Muslim Declaration. ^[8].

He 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.

In an article for the magazine "European View" he called for the introduction of sharia law and the creation of an imamate in Europe. "The Islamic convenant, the shari’ah, is perpetual, it is not negotiable and it is not terminable," he writes. According to him, "a European Muslim imamate" should be established "as a way of institutionalising Islam in Europe".