Muslim leader rejects rival's stance

The Islamic Community of Serbia (IZS) rejected on Monday all standpoints held by the General Council of the Islamic Community in Serbia (IZuS). The rival community is headed by Mufti Muamer Zukorlic. Muslim leader rejects rival's stance Islamic Community of Serbia Adem Zilkic said at a news conference in Belgrade on Monday that his organization also rejected "the attitudes that the mufti pronounced in the recent days". He said that Zukorlic was not the legitimate representative of Muslims in Serbia and that the recent assembly of IZuS was a "gathering of businessmen, friends, associates, owners and co-owners of real-estate property". The IZS chief mufti told reporters that Zukorlic's supporters make up only a quarter of the total of half a million Muslims living in Serbia. Zilkic condemned, as he put it, the extremely inappropriate behavior, actions and rhetoric that Mufti Zukorlic uses in addressing the public, and added a number of other accusations against him, saying that he had turned the Islamic community into a company in which he acts as general manager, and controls almost all media in the region. Islamic believers in Serbia are organized into the two communities that do not recognize each other, the Islamic Community of Serbia and the Islamic Community in Serbia, headed by Zilkic and Zukorlic respectively, and their conflicts over dominance over believers and "Waqf property" are common, said Tanjug. Zukorlic's fraction spiritually and organizationally belongs to the Islamic community in Bosnia-Herzegovina, whose center is situated in Sarajevo, while the IZS with Zilkic as head established its assembly in Belgrade in 2007. Zukorlic's organization was in the news recently when they reacted to a photo-edit published in the Blic newspaper, showing him in an Orthodox Christian priest's robe, by demanding EUR 100mn in damages, calling for a boycott of the daily, and mentioning the photograph in the context of "genocide". The ISZ news conference in Belgrade (Tanjug)

Muslim leader rejects rival's stance

Islamic Community of Serbia Adem Zilkić said at a news conference in Belgrade on Monday that his organization also rejected "the attitudes that the mufti pronounced in the recent days".

He said that Zukorlić was not the legitimate representative of Muslims in Serbia and that the recent assembly of IZuS was a "gathering of businessmen, friends, associates, owners and co-owners of real-estate property".

The IZS chief mufti told reporters that Zukorlić's supporters make up only a quarter of the total of half a million Muslims living in Serbia.

Zilkić condemned, as he put it, the extremely inappropriate behavior, actions and rhetoric that Mufti Zukorlić uses in addressing the public, and added a number of other accusations against him, saying that he had turned the Islamic community into a company in which he acts as general manager, and controls almost all media in the region.

Islamic believers in Serbia are organized into the two communities that do not recognize each other, the Islamic Community of Serbia and the Islamic Community in Serbia, headed by Zilkić and Zukorlić respectively, and their conflicts over dominance over believers and "Waqf property" are common, said Tanjug.

Zukorlić's fraction spiritually and organizationally belongs to the Islamic community in Bosnia-Herzegovina, whose center is situated in Sarajevo, while the IZS with Zilkić as head established its assembly in Belgrade in 2007.

Zukorlić's organization was in the news recently when they reacted to a photo-edit published in the Blic newspaper, showing him in an Orthodox Christian priest's robe, by demanding EUR 100mn in damages, calling for a boycott of the daily, and mentioning the photograph in the context of "genocide".