لنستخرج كنوزا من المعرفة و الإبداع و العلم و الأفكار
A) The Islamic Religious Community: Office and Scope
As a continuation of the tradition of the Ottoman and Yugoslav periods in the
Balkans, the Islamic Religious Community (literally translated as the Islamic
Religious Union but commonly known as the former) became an independent
and the only institution recognised by the Macedonian government that serves
and represents Muslims of the country by Law. After the dissolution of SFRY,
the constitution of the Islamic Religious Community in the new independent
and sovereign country of Macedonia was drafted for the first time in 1994
and recognised by the state. With this, the Community entered a new phase of
history as a religious institution. Its constitution states that the Islamic Religious
Community of Macedonia, due to its historical background, is the sole legal
inheritor of all religious institutions and is the representative organisation of
all Muslims in the territories of Macedonia. It is a competent institution that is
responsible for the religious development and welfare of Muslims and regulates
the latter by taking care of them and by designating the affairs and obligations
related to the followers of Islam. It also protects and cultivates all aspects of
moral and social values, economic, cultural, educational, and other significant
matters concerning Muslims. In addition, it represents Macedonian Muslims in
the country and abroad. It is obligated to follow the Holy Qur'an, the tradition of
the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be on him), the constitution of the
Islamic Religious Community of Macedonia, and to practice the Ḥanafī school
of Islamic jurisprudence.39
The organisational structure of the Islamic Religious Community of Macedonia
consists of four units: a) the Council of the Islamic Religious Community; b)
Reisul-Ulema, the Head; c) Rijaset of the Islamic Religious Community; and d)
Muftis of 13 districts. The institutional areas which operate directly under and/or
are regulated by the Islamic Religious Community are mainly: a) Waqf Directorate;
b) Religious schools (Medrese); c) Facult(ies) of Islamic Studies; d) Islamic
research centers, institutes, libraries, information and publishing centres, museums,
archives relating to Muslim history, hans (Ottoman accommodation complexes)
and hammams (Ottoman public bathes); and e) Muslim humanitarian organisations.
In achieving its aims and objectives, the Islamic Religious Community
focuses mainly (but by no means exclusively) on the following areas:40
• Educating and cultivating Islamic values;
• Establishment and maintenance of mosques, Islamic centres, tekkes and
maktabs;
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MESUT IDRIZ & MUHAMED ALI
• Establishment and running of educational institutions;
• Establishment and running of socio-cultural institutions;
• Establishment and maintenance of libraries, archives, museums, and other
specified institutions;
• Establishment and maintenance of graves and graveyards;
• Establishment and running of welfare and charitable institutions;
• Establishment of waqfs (endowment) and protection of their rights;
• Promoting peace and the declaration of war against evil and terrorism;
• Publishing beneficial works;
• Cooperation with all institutions, associations, and various organisations
that promote Islamic values;
• Cooperation with all religious centres, non-governmental and
governmental organisations in Macedonia, as well as supporting all
the activities concerning the advancement of Muslims in the country in
religious, cultural, scientific, health, and socio-economic fields.
Nevertheless, it is important to highlight the problem of restitution of
religious properties expropriated by the former Yugoslav government, which was
not fully resolved until the present. Many religious communities had extensive
grounds or other properties expropriated by the communist regime, and they have
not regained full ownership of many of these properties. Ownership of many
mosques has been restored to the appropriate religious community, but that was
not the case for most of the other properties. Restitution or compensation claims
are complicated by the fact that the seized properties have changed hands many
times or have undergone development. The Islamic Religious Community of
Macedonia has been tirelessly advocating the matter and has claimed it was not
able to regain rightful use of several mosques that the government had agreed to
return. The Islamic Religious Community has also claimed that in some cases
the government of Macedonia delayed the process of restitution by selling or
starting new construction on disputed property and by questioning the historical
legal claim of the Islamic Religious Community to religious properties (like
the mosque of Burmali and Davut Pasha Hammam in Skopje). It faced greater
difficulty in obtaining ownership of previously owned property if the property
was located in a desirable location for investors or business owners, often in
urban areas. In addition, some Sufi Islamic groups of Macedonia experienced
extensive difficulties, such as the Bektashi centre of Tetovo, which sued the
Government for failing to reverse the former Yugoslavia's nationalisation of
the Sufi lodge known as the Arabati Baba Tekke. The same Bektashi group also
filed a suit against the Islamic Religious Community, which seized part of the
mentioned complex in 2002. The Islamic Religious Community’s argument was
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ISLAM IN MACEDONIA
that the property belonged to them, since the Bektashi order is a “mystical sect”
of Islam. The dispute and legal issues still continue.41
As was common in many other cities and towns of both the East and West,
Macedonian cities had clock-towers named saat-kule, which were attractive
monumental structures. Most of the clock-towers in Macedonia were built during
the Ottoman era. The clock-tower of Bitola was mentioned even during the 17th
century in some written documents. The clock-tower of Skopje, attached to the
mosque of Sultan Murad, was mentioned by Evliya Çelebi and many others
during the 17th century.42 The clock-towers of the cities of Gostivar and Tetovo
are also either attached or next to mosques. However, in the case of Bitola, the
Christian symbol of the cross was crowned to the clock-tower in the late 1990s,
thereby provoking a clash between the Islamic Religious Community and the
government of Macedonia which has yet to be resolved. Similar examples and
many other crucial issues are still ongoing, causing an uneasy and unhealthy
environment between the Muslims and the government of Macedonia, where the
Islamic Religious Community has a paramount role to play.
