Husein Đozo

Husein Đozo (1912–1982) was a Bosnian Islamic theologian and one of the leading Muslim reformers of socialist Yugoslavia. Trained in Sarajevo and at al-Azhar, he was imprisoned after the Second World War for his wartime service, then became a central figure of the Islamic Community in Yugoslavia: president of the Ulema Association, founder of the newspaper Preporod, professor of Qur'anic interpretation at Sarajevo's Islamic Theological Faculty, and author of the widely read "Đozo's fatwas" column. ¹

Đozo was born in the village of Bare near Goražde in 1912; the English biography gives his birth date as 3 July 1912, while Wikidata carries two values, 3 July under a Julian model and 1 July Gregorian. He was educated in madrasas at Foča and Sarajevo, completed the Sharia Judicial School in Sarajevo in 1933, and studied Sharia law at al-Azhar in Cairo, graduating in 1939. ^{2 1}

In 1941 he signed the El-Hidaje resolution condemning the Ustasha regime's policies. In 1943 he joined the 13th Waffen-SS Handžar Division as imam of its 28th regiment, and wrote a letter to Himmler protesting that the promised training had not been delivered. After the war he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment and the loss of civil rights. The Islamic Community's Supreme Assembly fully rehabilitated him on 6 October 1990. ¹

From 1950 he worked in manual and clerical jobs; in 1960 he joined the Supreme Islamic Eldership and remained there until his death. He taught akhlaq, aqidah, fiqh, hadith and tafsir part-time at the Gazi Husrev-beg Madrasa, became president of the Ilmija, the Ulema Association, in 1964, and founded the newspaper Preporod in 1970, serving as its editor-in-chief in 1970–1972 and 1976–1979. When the Islamic Theological Faculty opened in Sarajevo in 1977, he became its full professor of Qur'anic interpretation. His question-and-answer column in the Glasnik journal, known as "Đozo's fatwas", made him famous across Yugoslavia as a voice for a rationalist, reform-minded reading of Islam. ^{2 1}

Đozo died in Sarajevo on 30 May 1982 and was buried in the Bare cemetery there. A street in Sarajevo and a primary school in Goražde bear his name; the school naming has drawn criticism from veterans' associations. ¹