Tuesday 14 July, 2026
Hundreds mark 31 years since Srebrenica at London launch of Alija Izetbegović’s Islam: Between East and West
The newly revised English translation of Islam: Between East and West — the philosophical work of Alija Izetbegović, the philosopher, statesman, and Founding President of Bosnia-Herzegovina — was launched on Friday, 10 July 2026, at the London Muslim Centre, during an evening that also commemorated the 31st anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide.
Hosted by The Cordoba Foundation and the Alija Izetbegović Foundation, alongside several supporting organisations (including the book’s publisher, Ketebe), the launch drew over 400 guests from across the country. Attendees included many youth as well as a Turkish delegation. Streamed live on The Cordoba Foundation’s YouTube and Facebook channels, the event proved highly successful, with nearly 300 copies of the book sold at the beginning of the evening.
Moderated by Dr Abdullah Faliq, Managing Director at The Cordoba Foundation —who brings 25 years of advocacy for the victims of Srebrenica — the event commenced as he welcomed the panel of speakers and guests. He described Izetbegović’s magnum opus as “a major contribution to understanding the human condition, consciousness, and the metaphysical foundations of ethics.”
Elaborating further, he said: “Many of us grew up reading this text, which positions Islam not just as a religion, but as an integrative worldview capable of harmonising humanity’s spiritual and material needs. The book has striking relevance for us today as we try to navigate conflicts, tensions, and the rise of right-wing populism across the globe.”
Imam Sedin Sahman, Chief Imam of the Islamic Bosnian community in Britain and a survivor of the Bosnian War, recited verses from the Qur’an. This was followed by opening remarks from H.E. Osman Topčagić, Bosnian Ambassador to the UK, who recalled working alongside President Izetbegović throughout the war years and the Dayton peace negotiations. “In all those situations, I had in front of me a statesman, but also a man who cared deeply for human beings: care for the people, care for others, and not just for one ethnic or religious group, trying to find a formula to enable life together,” he said. “Bosnia and Herzegovina remembers the work and life of Mr Izetbegović. What we have today is very much because of his actions and his deeds.”
The highlight of the evening was a keynote address by Sabina Berberović, daughter of President Izetbegović and a founding member of the Alija Izetbegović Foundation. Speaking on the eve of the Srebrenica Genocide anniversary, she stated: “Thirty-one years on, we remember the victims of the genocide, and we stand with their families: thousands of women and children who lost their fathers, their brothers, their husbands. It takes immense courage to continue living after such a terrible experience,” she said. “They are enduring the unendurable and accepting the unacceptable. The women of Srebrenica rose from being victims to become our heroes, and they raised their children with pride and dignity.”
She shared the story behind her father’s book, which Izetbegović began writing as a high school student during the Second World War. The manuscript was hidden by his sister under a flower chest in the family kitchen when police searched their home in 1946, and it was completed three decades later. By the time State Security agents targeted him again in the 1980s, the finished manuscript was safely in the possession of a friend in Canada. “As they were leaving, I asked my father what we were to do, and he just replied: ‘Have the book published,’” she recalled.
The book was published in 1984 while Izetbegović served a prison sentence. Sabina’s brother and husband later drove the first copies from Belgrade to Sarajevo in the boot of a car, taking rural backroads to avoid being stopped and searched. “I hope that the book Islam: Between East and West will only bring good wherever and whenever it is read,” she said.
Ömer Faruk Yeni, an arts and cultural heritage consultant and the London and Istanbul-based director of Ketebe publishing, provided an overview of the book. “This is not a book about East or West, nor is it a defence of one civilisation against another. It is a profound reflection on what it means to be human. More than forty years have passed since the book first appeared, yet its questions have only become more relevant. Increasingly, Izetbegović is recognised not only as the founding President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but as one of the most original Muslim thinkers of the twentieth century.”
In a recorded address, Dr Admir Mulaosmanović, CEO of the Aurora Foundation in Sarajevo and a wounded veteran of the Bosnian War, framed the book within the context of the present day. “The question Izetbegović posed rings even more powerfully today than when it was first written down,” he said. “This is not a theological text. It is an attempt to translate Islam into a language spoken and understood by today’s generation, and a call for both individual intellectual sharpening and collective social action.”
(Note: Mulaosmanović’s full written speech is available here)
Shaykh Prof Abdal Hakim Murad, Dean of the Cambridge Muslim College, recounted travelling to Sarajevo in the 1980s to write a report for Amnesty International on the trial of Izetbegović and his co-defendants. Europe’s response to Bosnia, he argued, exposed a lasting blind spot. “The Bosnian struggle was not just a military struggle. It was against a European determination to defend a cultural truth rather than a factual truth,” he said. “We see this today in Gaza: so many hand-wringing politicians who have read the reports and know what is going on, but it is not their cultural truth, and so they are paralysed.”
Murad warned that “Muslim communities across Europe are witnessing the storm clouds gathering on the horizon”, adding that Bosnia holds a vital lesson: “Bosnians can teach us what that is like, and how to avert it. We need to challenge cultural truths with factual truths. We need to go to Bosnia, we need to read this great literature, and we need to make that history part of our history.”
Shaykh Dr Yasir Qadhi, a prominent American theologian who sent a video message while travelling, described first reading the book as a teenager in 1990. “This book is one of the few genuinely unique philosophical contributions of the Muslim Ummah in this century, in a similar vein to Iqbal’s Reconstruction of Religious Thought. What makes it especially important is not just the message, but that it comes from somebody who paid a personal price for what he wrote. Izetbegović was not a mere armchair critic. He lived the life of a bona fide leader who had to navigate his nation through a war,” he said.
“This book should be mandatory reading for all who want to traverse the path of intellectual scholarship, especially in the Western world, because it answers the question: what vision of the human person makes Islam intelligible?”
Sarah Joseph OBE, a writer, broadcaster, and founding editor of Emel magazine, focused on the book’s chapter on progress. “Izetbegović asks whether life will be five times fuller, happier, or more humane, and his answer is decidedly negative. Another forty years on, have we quintupled in our happiness? Again, the answer is decidedly no,” she said.
Addressing the rise of the far-right in Europe, she rejected fear: “This book is calling us towards civilisation. It is calling us to say: we are not victims. We are people inspired by ideas, and we have a vision for the future. The Prophet Muhammad did not come for the Muslims; he came as a mercy to mankind. That is a civilisational message, and that is what this book tells us.”
Dr Mohammed Wajid Akhter, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, remembered discovering the book as a child in Saudi Arabia during the genocide, noting it was one of only two English titles in his mosque. “The imam came to me one day and said: ‘This is why the Bosnians will win. You can kill a people, but you cannot kill an idea,’” he shared. Izetbegović, Akhter argued, possessed the rare vision, courage, and pragmatism that eventually guided his nation to survival and left a timeless intellectual blueprint for future generations.
Izetbegović, Akhter argued, possessed the vision, courage, and pragmatism every leader needs, alongside something far rarer. “He did something very few Muslim leaders do: he voluntarily stepped down,” Akhter noted. “Throughout 1,400 years of Muslim history, leaders have traditionally left office only for the graveyard. Izetbegović chose to leave before then, showing the true measure of the man.”
Former BBC war reporter Martin Bell, who was wounded during the siege of Sarajevo, sent his apologies as ill health prevented his attendance.
Dr Abdullah Faliq asked for prayers and reflection for ten genocide victims whose remains were identified this year, ahead of their burial at Srebrenica on 11 July. He also highlighted the Bosnian Grand Mufti’s Friday Sermon delivered earlier that day in Sarajevo, noting its timely messages of steadfastness and enduring faith.
Faliq urged the youth to study the history of Srebrenica, recommending a special publication, Srebrenica Genocide: 30 Years Later: Understanding, Remembering, Acting by Dr Emir Hadžikadunić. The publication features insights from Bosnia’s Grand Mufti, the Bosnian Ambassador, and ICMP Director Kathryne Bomberger.
Sarah Joseph urged the audience to visit the country: “Go, support the economy, support the people, and know that their stories will never die.”
Closing the evening, Faliq reflected on the ongoing pain of families still recovering the remains of loved ones 31 years later. “Let us not do this once a year only,” he pleaded. “We must keep the flame of Srebrenica alive and tell these stories all year round.”
[Ends]
Notes to editors:
- Event Recording: Streaming on The Cordoba Foundation’s YouTube and Facebook channels.
- The Book: Islam: Between East and West (Revised English translation, May 2026) is published by Ketebe and available online.
- The Cordoba Foundation: A UK-based research and policy institution established in 2005 to promote intercultural dialogue. Media contact: media@thecordobafoundation.com | www.thecordobafoundation.com
- The Alija Izetbegović Foundation: A Sarajevo-based non-profit established in 2020 to preserve the legacy of the first President of Bosnia and Herzegovina. www.alijaizetbegovic.org
