"Mufti is victim of his own brains"

28 February 2011 | 15:34 | Source: B92

BELGRADE -- Muamer Zukorlić is a "victim of his own brains", says an officials of a rival Muslim organization. Eldin Ašerlić spoke for Radio B92 in Belgrade on Monday on behalf of the Islamic Community of Serbia, and commented on the controversial leader of the rival Islamic Community in Serbia. Zukorlić was previously involved in organizing violent demonstrations in Novi Pazar over property disputes and setting up the Bosniak National Council in a manner that was disputedby other participants in the council elections, and the authorities. He also called for "internationalization of the Sandžak problem",launched media attacks against his critics, and said he believed he was being targeted and victimized by "the regime" in Serbia. Ašerlić stated today that "people who resort to hate speech have not left behind the 1990's pattern", and spoke about cases of vandalism in some towns. He believes that the state and the society must find a way to put an end to the rhetoric of the kind, saying that many Muslims in Serbia who belong to the other community "have been targeted by Zukorlić's media in Novi Pazar, which insults them". Ašerlić spoke in favor of resolving "disagreements and needs" without heated rhetorics, insults and "encouraging of phobias", and said that "there is Islamophobia now, but a huge majority of people in Šabac (a town in western Serbia) are not Islamophobic". "Public hate speech" feeds vandalism, he said, adding that statements coming from Mufti Muamer Zukorlić "justify the wrong interpretation of Islam in the heads of Islamophobic people, (who believe) that it is a violent, militant and terrorist religion". Ašerlić stated that while he was "unable to distance himself from Zukorlić as a Muslim", he could do so when it came to the concept of national religious communities, "because there is a duality problem in the Islamic religious community in Serbia, which ought to be anational". He added that the "national and religious stories must be set apart", that the National Bosniak Council should be formed, and that the solution to the Islamic communities' troubles was to take the path of a religious mission, and called for dialogue. Ašerlić also revealed that he spoke with Zukorlić last in 2006, when he expressed his readiness to have a conversation, but that Zukorlić refused. "The state must find a way to coax both communities to talks, because divisions must be overcome," Ašerlić concluded.