Alija Izetbegović

Alija Izetbegović (8 August 1925 – 19 October 2003) was a Bosnian politician, Islamic philosopher and author who founded the Party of Democratic Action in 1990 and led the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as president through the Bosnian War, signing the Dayton Agreement that ended it in 1995. ^{1 2}

His books, above all Islam Between East and West and the Islamic Declaration of 1970, made him one of the most widely read Muslim thinkers of twentieth-century Europe, and cost him years in prison under communist Yugoslavia. ¹

Izetbegović was born on 8 August 1925 (18 Muharram 1344 in the Hijri dating the Arabic article gives); the English article and Wikidata place his birth at Bosanski Šamac, while the Arabic article's lead gives Bosanska Krupa — the conflict is recorded in the data record and the English and Wikidata value is followed. ^{1 3 2}

His grandfather had served as a soldier in Üsküdar and married a Turkish woman, and later became mayor of his town; his father, an accountant, was wounded on the Italian front in the First World War, left semi-paralysed for at least a decade, and declared bankruptcy in 1927. ³

In 1928 the family moved to Sarajevo, where he received a secular education and earned a law degree from the University of Sarajevo in 1956; he then worked some twenty-five years as a legal adviser before devoting himself to research and writing. ^{1 3}

As a young man Izetbegović helped found the Young Muslims (Mladi Muslimani), which began as a school club for religious discussion and grew into social and charitable work during the Second World War. ³

The communist authorities arrested him in 1946 for his association with the organisation and his opposition to the regime, and he served three years in prison. ¹

In 1983 he and twelve other Bosniak activists were tried in Sarajevo for "hostile and counter-revolutionary activity from the positions of Muslim nationalism", and he was sentenced to fourteen years, later reduced to twelve. ¹

Western human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Helsinki Watch, condemned the trial as based on communist propaganda; he was pardoned and released in 1988 after almost five years, his health seriously damaged. ¹

In 1970 Izetbegović published the Islamic Declaration, a manifesto that tried to reconcile Western-style progress with Islamic tradition and called for an "Islamic renewal" without naming Yugoslavia; the government banned it. ¹

The declaration designated Pakistan as a model country, and contained passages such as "There can be no peace or coexistence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic social and political institutions", which his opponents quoted ever after as proof of an intent to build an Iranian-style Islamic republic. ¹

He himself insisted many times that his statements about an Islamic state were hypothetical and were not to be applied to Bosnia, and he vigorously denied the accusations of fundamentalism. ¹

His best-known book, Islam Between East and West, is a philosophical work setting the great civilisations and systems of thought against one another; his prison notes and his autobiographical Inescapable Questions were also published in English. ¹

In 1990 Izetbegović and other Bosniak activists founded the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), which won the largest share of the vote in the first multi-party elections, and he became chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. ¹

In February 1992 he called the independence referendum that the Serbs boycotted; parliament declared independence, the United States and the European Community recognised the country in April, and war broke out almost at once. ¹

For three and a half years he led his government in besieged Sarajevo, while Bosnian Serb forces carried out widespread ethnic cleansing against Bosniaks and Croats, culminating in the Srebrenica massacre of Bosniak men, later determined to be genocide. ¹

A war between Bosniaks and Croats was ended by the Washington Agreement of March 1994, which created the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. ¹

In November 1995 he signed the Dayton Agreement, which ended the war and recognised Republika Srpska as an entity within the state; he remained a member of the collective presidency until his resignation in October 2000 on grounds of health. ¹

Izetbegović died at Sarajevo on 19 October 2003 (23 Sha'ban 1424) of heart disease complicated by injuries from a fall at home; between 100,000 and 150,000 people attended his funeral, and he was buried at the Kovači Martyrs' Memorial Cemetery in Sarajevo. ^{1 3 2}

In 2006 his grave at Kovači was badly damaged by a bomb whose perpetrators were never identified. ¹

His son Bakir also entered politics, serving as a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2010 to 2018. ¹

This section sets out positions as reported in the sources. It is not a verdict by the museum.

Supporters. His supporters see a Muslim thinker who defended the survival of a whole people and led a multi-ethnic state through its hardest years; Bosniaks nicknamed him "Dedo", grandfather. ¹

Critics. His critics, especially among Serbs and Croats, read the Islamic Declaration as a fundamentalist document, and some observers describe his rule as authoritarian with nationalist positions. ¹

An ICTY investigation into his command responsibility, as commander of the Bosnian forces, for atrocities committed by Bosnian soldiers was in progress when he died, and the tribunal never revealed the nature of the accusations, since he could not defend himself. ¹

Izetbegović remains the defining political figure of Bosnian Muslim memory after his death, and his books — Islam Between East and West above all — are among the most translated and read works of modern Islamic thought. ¹

Attempts after his death to rename a main street of Sarajevo and its international airport after him failed, following objections from Republika Srpska politicians, the international community and the UN envoy. ¹

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.
• Revisions of this article must be dated, and must name the source that changed each fact.